I wasn't particularly upset by Temple's 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."
Just happened to be reading Red Harvest and chuckled over the
following:
"The girls square chin was tilted up. Her
big red mouth was brutal around the words it shaped, and the
lines crossing its ends were deep, hard.
"The gambler looked as unpleasant as she.
His pretty face was yellow and tough as oak. When he talked
his lips were paper-thin."
So I'm seeing two sets of lines while balloons with words
(cartoonlike) come out between; and then I'm looking at a guy
who's an unhealthy yellow, but also like the rough trunk of
an oak that is regularly processed into paper.... The stuff
doesn't scan, except as one of those surreal cartoons from
the 30s.
Wooden--but Temple is only talking about his style, not whole
novels. The energy, the main characters, the plot drive all
keep one going. I wouldn't have even thought, much less done,
a number on those lines, if the subject hadn't been
raised.
Course style is nice tool to have, as Chandler observed of
Gardner. It helps one slide through some improbabilities in
plot management. I always notice Hammett's management more
than Chandler's, because there's less flash in the
words.
Bill Hagen
billha@ionet.net
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