----- Original Message ----- From: "Al Guthrie" <
allanguthrie@ukonline.co.uk>
> Again, on influences. James M Cain didn't like the
accusation that his
> writing was hardboiled. In the preface to THE
BUTTERFLY (1946) he says:
"I
> belong to no school, hardboiled or otherwise, and I
believe these schools
> exist mainly in the imagination of critics." Having
dismissed Hammett, he
> then goes on at greater length to explain why his
style owes nothing to
> Hemingway: "Unfortunately, for this theory [a
stylistic debt to
> Hemingway]...my short story PASTORAL..was written in
1927, though I first
> read him when MEN WITHOUT WOMEN first appeared in
1928. Yet the style is
> pretty much my style today." Cain doesn't bother to
mention Chandler.
Cain's dismissal of Hammett was as follows: "I have read less
than twenty pages of Mr. Dashiell Hammett in my whole
life."
Al
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 31 Mar 2003 EST