From: Mario Taboada
Re: RARA-AVIS: The Case of the Overrated Mystery
Novel
Mark DJ:
<<As a matter of fact, was he considered such before
Macdonald was annointed? Wasn't it in
retrospect?>>
I don't think so. In fact, I remember reading that Faulkner
considered and treated Chandler as an equal. Macdonald was
anointed by Leonard, but before that, critics saw him as a
less exciting Chandler with more psychological depth, which
is about right, I think.
Some of the crap in the article reminds me of Edmund Wilson's
wrongheaded assessments of the crime genre. Wilson was a
great critic, but here he shows a dead ear rather than a keen
intellect.
--Haven't had time to look at the SALON piece yet, but wonder
about that Faulkner-Chandler affability (and Wilson
definitely had more than a few blind spots to go with his bad
ear). Perhaps it came after Faulkner's famous bad behavior at
losing an EQMM prize to Manly Wade Wellman (when the money
offered was very much needed by WF), or perhaps Faulkner the
deep-Southerner could tolerate an Anglo-American better than
a transplanted Appalachian. Or maybe he was simply less a
jerk when less desperate, as I suppose most of us are.
TM
TM
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