Chris,
Re your question below:
> "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?"
Chandler's influence is talked about more because Chandler's
influence was greater than Hammett's.
Let's take the surface stuff first? How many PI series are
there about big agency operatives? There ARE big agencies out
there, and they DO have investigators working for them. To
what degree is this reflected in fiction? How many PI
characters have their story told in a rigorously objective
third-person style like Sam Spade.
On the other hand, how many PI series about one-man agencies
are there? How many of them are told in the first person by
the heroes? How many of those first-person PI's are
unmarried, male, American ex-cops working out of large US
cities? In other words, how many PI characters are deliberate
followers of what I've called here and elsewhere "The Marlowe
Paradigm."
Then there's the question of style. How many PI stories seem
chockful of colorful similes and metaphors? With well-turned
wisecracks? With writing that strives to be simultaneously
poetic and lyrical yet tough and colloquial? All of those
show the influence of Chandler.
Finally, even going beyond the PI sub-genre, how many mystery
writers approach the craft of their chosen genre with care
and style, believing that what they're writing is as
worthwhile as any other fiction? Again that's the reflection
of Chandler, who cared about the writing and said so many
times.
Hammett was as good as Chandler. Arguably he was better, but
for a number of reasons, the fact that Hammett wrote in a
style that came naturally to him and Chandler had to develop
his style (even going so far as to compile a glossary of
American slang terms so he could use them in his work); the
fact that so many different movies, each of them taking a
different approach to the Marlowe character, were all
released in such a short period of time, simultaneously
keeping the character's name in the public consciousness but
making him seem archetypal; and the fact that Chandler made
such a point of publicly chamioning the kind of work he was
doing; all combine to make him the most influential,
surpassing even Hammett.
JIM DOHERTY
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