I knew that James M. Cain was an influence on Albert Camus,
but I just learned that Norbert Davis was one of Ludwig
Wittgenstein's favourite writers. Here's an extract from
WITTGENSTEIN'S POKER by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (Faber
and Faber, 2001):
| [Wittgenstein] lost himself in going to the movies to watch
musicals
| and westerns--sitting as close to the screen as he
could--and in
| American hard-boiled detective magazines. [There's a list
of
| respectable writers he liked as well.] Yet, as Engelmann
explained,
| "He did indeed enjoy reading good detective stories, while
he
| considered it a waste of time to read mediocre
philosophilcal
| reflections."
|
| The lack of intellectual pretension of the movies and
detective
| stories was presumably what Wittgenstein found so
palatable. There is
| something rather touching in the idea of this most rigorous
and
| demanding of intelleects absorbed in the adventures of the
Los Angeles
| private detective Max Latin, a tough-guy crusader against
the forces
| of evil. Latin was the creation of Norbert Davis, a
successful by
| second-division operator in the Hammett/Chandler school of
the
| hard-boiled and one of Wittgenstein's favourites. There is
nothing
| amiss with Latin's moral sensibility--though he strives to
conceal it
| under a heavy cloak of cynicism zas he deals with clients
and police
| in the booth of a steamy, packed restaurant that he uses as
an office.
| (He actually owns the restaurant.) But if necessary--and it
often is
| necessary--he is not afraid to use violence.
|
| [Excerpt from a Max Latin story snipped.]
|
| The writing is stripped down to the minimum, like the
supremely
| functional architecture of the house in Kundmanngasse
that
| Wittgenstein joined in building for his sister Margarete,
and perhaps
| this economy was a reason why Norbert Davis and the
tough-guy
| detective genre appealed to him.
And I found this, at
http://members.aol.com/MG4273/pulpadv.htm
| Davis' Number 1 fan during the 1940's: the
Austrian-British
| philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who loved Davis' books.
(Thanks to
| reader Martin Thau, who pointed this out to me!)
Wittgenstein was
| especially enthused about Davis' first novel, the zany THE
MOUSE IN
| THE MOUNTAIN (1943), which Wittgenstein knew under its
British title
| of RENDEZVOUS WITH FEAR. Apparently, Wittgenstein
recommended this
| book to many of his friends, and even tried unsuccessfully
to contact
| the author. Reader John Tingley gives more information:
"About the
| Wittgenstein reference - it can be found on pp. 528-29 of
Ray Monk's
| biography, LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: THE DUTY OF GENIUS (London:
Vintage,
| 1991). The 4.6.1948 letter to Norman Malcolm is printed in
full on p.
| 109 of Malcolm's LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: A MEMOIR (Oxford:
Oxford
| University Press, 1984). Wittgenstein was a special fan of
"Street &
| Smith" detective magazines, and had Malcolm send them to
him at
| Cambridge."
If anyone has Monk's biography of Wittgenstein perhaps they
could have a look and see what he says about Norbert Davis.
Quit the pair!
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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