Rob Henryson, Fortunately, your previous messages about RM
were well on target and put RM in better perspective, sparing
me the hassle to document and to repeat again and again what
I stated many times on this list: Ross Macdonald is an
overrated writer. And this is certainly more true when some
continue to preach that Hammett, Chandler and Ross are the
strong base (even founders) of the HB/noir genre... RM comes
only on a second level and is founder of nothing. Influences,
maybe... But let us be cynical for a while: who is the very
successful writer that never had copycats or "strongly
influenced" writers just after his sales successes? Quality
of writing against Chandler: Ross has not a single change to
win ... I'm myself also one of those who just open any
Chandler's novels at any page and fall under the magic of his
style of writing. I do this since years. Then Ross and his
eternal cabinet full of family skeletons, or heavy
psychological exercises, found along a great number of his
novels, does not struck me to see him as an innovator in
story telling or intrigues neither. He's better than average,
a good writer, but not an exceptional one.
I think that the troika of American founders and source of
many influences, should be made with James M. Cain. He linked
to the naturalistic lit sources and accentuated the noir
aspect of the HB genre, and he's from the early days as well
(The Postman Always Rings Twice-1934). Practically anything
that will follow in the HB/noir lit genre will owe something
to Hammett, Chandler or Cain, or to a mix of these three. On
the other hand I agree to say that James Cain could write
real lemons, but when he was good... he was very good!
Anyway, a very interesting thread by Avians about RM!
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
Polar Noir http://wwww.geocities.com/polarnoir
rob henryson :
>Despite my stated aversion to RM, I'm looking forward
to reading him as part of a
>community of (ridiculously knowledgable and
opinionated) readers. I vote for whatever
>y'all think is his best, though I've *read* THE CHILL
and pray to god it's not *really* his
>best. Black Money sounds great. But I'd roll the dice
on Zebra or Galton or Far Side or Ivory
>too. My personal top choice would be THE WAY SOME
PEOPLE DIE, but only because my
>Pocket Books version has an incredibly hot cover that
makes me want to know what's
>inside.
>
>Nothing post 1970, please. I just have a bad
feeling.
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 05 Dec 2004 EST