On Tue, 27 Feb 2001, Dick Lochte wrote:
> I find it odd that readers (on this list especially)
get bent out of shape
> by Peter Temple's comment about Gardner and Cain
being forgotten but have
> not taken issue with his statement that "Hammett's
equipment was
> second-rate. His prose was only slightly less wooden
than that of most
> pulp-magazine writers, and there is something naive
about his world view."
You're right. Hammett might have been a bit clumsy at times
and some of his plots are dated now, but his prose is as
clear as a fountain lake
(if this metaphor fits the subject). I just reread (in the
translation) Peter Haining's "Pulp Frictions", a merely
mediocre anthology, in which Hammett's (or Peter Collinson's
actually) "Arson Plus" shines as a gem.
> And Cain, though currently out of vogue, made a
large
> enough contribution to the genre (paving the way for
Thompson, Goodis,
> Willeford, Woodrell, etc.) for him to be remembered
by most mystery readers
> and, one hopes, every mystery writer.
You're right also on this. The writers Cain influenced might
in the end provide more interesting body of work than those
who followed Chandler's work.
Juri
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