I've often wondered if it isn't hard work to think up all of
those slick metaphors. Some of RM's are gems. Well, Chandler,
too. If placed subtly and wisely within the text, they add
some zip to the story for me.
So, RM broke out of the Chandler prototype novel after six.
I'll look for that in my copy of
_The Blue Hammer_. It's fascinating how major writers evolve
into maturer styles.
Ed Lynskey
--- Mario Taboada <
matrxtech@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Undoubtedly, Ross Macdonald did abuse metaphor and
simile
> in several of his Chandlerian novels (the first
six
> mysteries, if I'm counting right). It's as bad in
Macdonald
> as it is in Chandler -- were one to look at it
objectively.
> But I cannot look objectively at Chandler. His
writing has
> such hypnotic charm (alert) that he has me eating
out of
> his hand (alert) like a (alert)
just-adopted-puppy.
>
> So yeah, we all know that heavy doses of metaphor
can screw
> up and even spoil a writer's work; the miracle is
that
> sometimes it doesn't.
>
> Anecdotally, I have noticed that contemporary master
Donald
> Westlake almost completely avoids metaphor and
simile. In
> that, too, he is a Twain-Hemingway-Hammett disciple.
And
> Elmore Leonard, a very different kind of master, is
another
> who avoids those tricks. People don't talk like
that, so
> why write like that? The modern reader has little
patience.
>
> Finally, the Chandlerian-style figures of speech
should
> probably be retired from circulation in crime
fiction.
>
> Regards, and sorry for rambling.
>
> MrT
=====
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