Actually, I've been thinking about Hammett recently -- I
ditched my cheapo paperbacks and bought me a nice cheap
hardback collection of the novels. One of these days I plan
on rereading them all.
Anyhow, I personally don't see the division as one between
Hammett and Chandler, but rather between Hammett and Chandler
on one side and Cain on the other
(basically I'd argue that Hammett and Chandler's characters
act on the world, while with Cain the world acts upon them),
but it is true that the focus and appeal of Hammett is quite
different from Chandler. Hammett is more of a severe kind of
author: for me the appeal of his books isn't the characters
so much as the sort of stark clean ways the storylines play
out.
At his best -- RED HARVEST, say, or my favorite novel of his,
THE GLASS KEY -- it's almost as if Hammett is telling a
modern myth. The story seems to give off those kind of
resonances. Consider how many times RED HARVEST has been
retold, for instance.
Just my two cents,
doug
--- Mark Sullivan <
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net> wrote:
> Miker expressed some reservations after reading
his
> first Hammett, Red
> Harvest.
>
> Well, I think in the world of hardboiled
fandom,
> there are Hammett
> people and there are Chandler people. From what
you
> have written, I'll
> bet you're one of the latter. You don't get
nearly
> as deep into
> Hammett's characters as you do into
Chandler's
> Marlowe
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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