Happy 121st birthday to Raymond Chandler!!! He was one of the great stylists of all time, even if his plotting could be a little shaky. Although his work was mostly considered to be low class genre writing in his lifetime, many writers have subsequently acknowledged his influence on modern novels - not to mention that there would basically be no Coen Bros. without him! I love his detective novels, and would highly recommend any of them, but I think that The Long Goodbye is the all time best.Someone (maybe Nick Hornby) once said something to the effect that a good pop song can make you feel like it's the greatest song ever written for 3 minutes. Chandler is the same way: you know in your head that he can't really be the greatest writer ever, but when he's on...
Here's from Farewell My Lovely:
I got up on my feet and went over to the bowl in the corner and threw cold water on my face. After a little while I felt a little better, but very little. I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.
What could be better?
4 comments:
This may well be my favorite post ever. Thank you love. I take back any grouchiness from this morning - you were clearly inspired.
Happy Birthday to Raymond Chandler and a big hug to the city of Angels in all it's sordid gloriousness.
Let me start by saying I love Raymond Chandler. Yes, his plots could get extremely convoluted, but his scenes, descriptions, and dialogue were first-rate. And I love reading about old L.A.
My only quarrel with your post is the line, "there would basically be no Coen Bros. without him." I know I'm being a total nerd here, but I just have to state that, while this may be true to some extent, the Coen Bros owe much more to Hammett than Chandler. "Blood Simple" is a phrase from Red Harvest, and "Miller's Crossing" was deliberately written as a hybrid of Red Harvest and The Glass Key. The Coens did write "The Big Lebowski" with Chandler's plot structuring style in mind.
I realize it is not Dashiell Hammett's birthday (although I didn't check), but I try to never miss an opportunity to promote him. After all, Chandler was one of his biggest fans and gave him credit for inventing the hard-boiled genre.
But yes, Chandler was great, and I agree with you about The Long Goodbye. Peas out.
LOVED this! Both the post and the comments. Great way to start the morning.
By the way, my secret word for posting this is "trignism" - doesn't that sound like some kind of rare disease?
Glad you like the post sweetheart!! I'm also glad that you guys added that Chandler was one of the best writers about Los Angeles - great point! I'm sorry to not give Dashiell Hammet his due Eric. I don't think that he was quite the stylist that Chandler was, but he was first, and we might still have the Coens - no Lebowski though!!
Funny comment Bell - I'm often amused by the "secret words" that they choose - computer humor?
Post a Comment