Chris wrote:
> -- a fairly obvious article about novelist John
Morgan Wilson, containing
fairly obvious remarks about Raymond Chandler and his
influence, when the thought struck me: "Why is it that I
usually hear about Chandler and his influence, and almost
never about Hammett? Is the RC influence that much greater,
or have I been listening to the wrong conversations? And, if
there are writers one could point to as Hammett acolytes, who
exactly would those writers be?"
>
> Call it a result of the fact that, though I love
both "Farewell, My
Lovely" and "Red Harvest," it's the latter one that I'd
rather spend time with. At least this week.
******************* Chandler made the PI more human. He
borrowed the angst-ridden hero from Hemingway and applied it
to hardboiled. Readers absolutely love their protagonists
struggling against those inner demons. Hammett's Con Op was
just too tough to be convincing, and when Hammett tried to
make him more touchy-feely, like in THE DAIN CURSE, the
results were less than satisfying.
As Jim Doherty has mentioned, Chandler set a new standard for
the PI, and that standard still stands today.
miker
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