I hear there's recently been some sort of Holy Decree on the
topic, but I don't think it's official until we see three
puffs of smoke...
Jim wrote:
> Let's take that statement piece by piece. First
of
> all, he asserts that Chandler saw Marlowe as a
loser.
> Clearly Chandler did NOT. He saw Marlowe as "the
best
> man in his world and a good enough man for any
world,"
> as "a man fit for adventure," and as "the hero . .
.
> everything."
Chandler also clearly referred to him as "Tarzan on a motor
scooter." Does that sound like the best man in the
world?
To me, that sounds like EVEN Chandler was sharp enough to
realize the conflicts and ambiguities and flaws in the
monster he'd unleashed. Certainly, the author's opinions
about almost everything bounced back and forth in his
writings -- both public and private. He'd argue up one day
and down the next. He was alternately a raging egomaniac and
a self-doubting, self-pitying petty-minded crank, with more
issues than a newsstand, who married his mother. Or at least
tried to.
(He was also a decorated war hero whose quiet bravery in
battle reveals some loud-mouthed "tough guy" writers as the
poseurs they always were.)
Which is why it's almost always safer to argue the art than
the artist. As Lawrence Block (Hey! Aren't we supposed to be
talking about him?) once said, "In the end it's what's on the
page that counts -- not how or why it got there." That
applies to movie screens too.
And judging from the result, I think Altman understood
Chandler pretty well, and respected him at least well enough
to disagree with him. All this wind and melodrama about
Altman being "immoral" and burning in hell -- yeah, yeah,
it's a joke -- seriously undermines some of the finer points
(and some of them are very fine indeed) of your
arguments.
I love Chandler's work as much as the next guy, and the
implication that those who enjoyed Altman's "immoral" THE
LONG GOODBYE are somehow lesser fans (or perhaps even
"immoral" themselves) is unfortunate.
And now, speaking of Chandler, has anyone else here read THE
LONG EMBRACE, the new book on that fun-lovin' Ray and his
beloved Cissy?
Kevin Burton Smith www.thrillingdetective.com
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