Jim Doherty wrote:
> Miker,
>
> Re your comments below:
> I think you're mistaking Chandler's ambition to
do
> BETTER than Hammett with disdain. He did lament
that
> there were things "Hammett couldn't say or did
not
> feel the need to say," and these "things" were
what
> Chandler thought he could bring to the
hard-boiled
> genre he'd grown to admire.
Great post, Jim. To tell the truth, when I first read the
speculation that Chandler didn't like Hammett based on
suposition that the writer who goes to pot in "The Long
Goodbye" is some sort of Hammett strawman, I thought perhaps
the poster (Miker? Can't recall which one it was) might be
mistaking Chandler's well-documented antipathy for James M.
Cain (although he wasn't above taking a lucrative contract to
adapt Cain's "Strangers on a Train" for Alfred Hitchcock) for
some sort of animus toward Hammett. All I've ever heard about
Chandler's attitude towards Hammett were words of undisguised
admiration.
> We all admire those who influence us, but we all
have
> ambitions to do and be better than those who
inspire
> us. Sinatra, for example, was a huge Bing Crosby
fan,
> and his ambition (largely fulfilled) was to be
bigger
> than Crosby. The Beatles were huge admirers of
Elvis
> Presley, and sought to be bigger and better than
the
> King. Their ambition did not diminish their
admiration
> and respect for the accomplishments of
their
> forebears, and neither, for all the arrogance he
often
> displayed in his letters, did it for
Chandler.
This is truly insightful and wonderfully put.
All the Best-
Brian Thornton
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Jan 2006 EST