--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Mark Coggins
<coggins@...> wrote:
>
<<I think many have been influenced to write
hard-boiled fiction by Hammett, but very few have written in
anything that approaches his style, particularly the way he
wrote FALCON and THE GLASS KEY.
The one person is Joe Gores:>>
I think if you look at crime writing at large, the Hammett
style is everywhere. So everywhere is it that it's
unremarkable: it's the basic American straightforward style.
Chandler's style is more old-fashioned, besides being very
personal, inimitable (bad imitations are possible, of course,
and there is plenty of that).
Years ago, the great Argentinean writer Julio Cortạr said
that
"Borges taught us all to write", and immediately followed it
by saying that the danger of trying to imitate Borges even
outweighed the good influence. You can't imitate Borges and
get away with it. The same with Chandler. And, to a degree,
the same with Faulkner, another one-of-a-kind guy who opened
a lot of doors but you can't get through them in the same
style he cultivated. These guys are inventors of genius
rather than "literary influences".
Notice, also, what happened to all the Beethoven imitators:
they went nowhere by trying to imitate him. They couldn't do
it successfully.
Best,
mrt
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