It was a remake.
Posted on 10/05/2015 5:07:41 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
I went to Manhattan to be a novelist and took the whole project very seriously. You know, in that pretentious way that young writers do. But somebody recommended The Big Sleep to me and I was totally charmed. This is the opposite of highbrow literature. It's a lively crime story told in street-level English, with slang and hyperbolic metaphors. The hero is a tough-guy private investigator, a knight on a white horse as Raymond Chandler himself explained. People come to him with their problems and the PI makes justice prevail.
Raymond Chandler wrote a half-dozen outstanding novels starring his famous PI, Philip Marlowe. If you haven't read these books, go to Amazon, and at least dip into a few pages. Farewell, My Lovely (the title itself is poetry) is probably the second most famous.
Genre fiction, for example crime novels and sci-fi, is usually denigrated by the elite. But The Big Sleep taught me that the best work in these categories will often be as good as it gets.
Chandler mainly wrote about Los Angeles, as a dreamy, dark, often threatening place. I started to wonder what he would do with the city where I grew up, Virginia Beach. City of sun and hurricanes, tourists and political corruption, an open, friendly, middlebrow place. Finally, I yielded to my fascination and wrote a novel called The Big Boss, later changed to Big Dog. It was frankly a tribute to Raymond Chandler and to Virginia Beach. The PI's name is Ben Morgan, younger than Philip Marlowe and probably more of a smart aleck, but the same sort of man. Independent, genuinely wanting to help good guys, resourceful.
Raymond Chandler tended to build a story around a crime that took place in the past, but finally runs head-on into the present. In Big Dog, a young man disappeared nine years earlier, possibly murdered. This device lets you create layers, archaeological layers you might say. In Chapter 1, a woman takes off her clothes and runs naked among the tourists on the beach. The young man who disappeared was her boyfriend. (This novel is on Kindle.)
Several years went by and I started wondering what Raymond Chandler would do with Manhattan. So very different from LA in and so very different from Virginia Beach. This time my hero was named Jon Dak. Like Manhattan, he is very sophisticated in his intelligence. You can't survive in the jungle unless you know what the other animals are likely to do. This novel is set in the 1980s, when model agencies and art galleries were the two most glamorous businesses on the planet. The title of the book is Art and Beauty. I've been to at least 5000 art openings; this novel starts at one. As a favor to a friend, Dak takes a security job for a few hours. In the process he meets the Suttons. The husband owns model agencies, the wife owns an art gallery, and the 16-year-old son is ready to take over. This family causes Dak a lot of trouble. (Art and Beauty is on Web-e-books.)
Perhaps surprisingly, my two detectives have almost no connection to each other. They are both inspired by Philip Marlowe, and thus by Raymond Chandler. There have been so many detective novels over the years. But Chandler has a sort of casual charm few writers can quite match. I can assure you it's fun to try.
------------------------------
Big Dog and Art and Beauty are e-books. See my literary site for covers and info: Lit4u.com
...down these mean streets a man must go
who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid...
He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common
man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase,
a man of honor — by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it,
and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world
and a good enough man for any world.
— RAYMOND CHANDLER
Well I am confused. I remember watching “The Big Sleep”, at least I thought I had. I just looked it up and it starred Bogart and Bacall.
In my minds eye, I see Robert Mitchum. Which Phillip Marlowe movie was he in?
It was a remake.
I like Edmund Wilson's essays panning detective stories and the Lord of the Rings.
I still like crime fiction though.
I’ll take James Elroy.
Thanks.
Chandler's fiction proves that he was one hell of a writer. His letters prove that he was also a fascinating guy.
Ah that lowly genre fiction where the plot and character must be true.
As opposed to that high brow literature where the plot and character are manipulated to make a point.
“The point” in great literature must be uncovered just as in life.
Chandler was simply a great wordsmith too of course.
Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe has the best characterizations, and are the most engaging, even if the whodunnit aspect is not always tight.
I remember when the Mitchum movie came out. In many ways he was a good actor for the role except he was by then fairly old. So I think the whole thing was a bit of a disappointment.
I think we tend to see Philip Marlowe as maybe 40 plus or minus 5.
Gerald Mohr was an outstanding Marlowe on the radio.
I recently read The Big Sleep.
I also read a Dashiell Hammett. I found him more readable and he used a LOT less simile,which after a while became annoying.
It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy Chandler, I just found Hammett better.
Try both!
In "The Big Sleep," General Sternwood interviews Philip Marlowe:
"Tell me about yourself, Mr. Marlowe. I suppose I have a right to ask?""Sure, but there's very little to tell. I'm thirty-three years old, went to college once and can still speak English if there's any demand for it. There isn't much in my trade. I worked for Mr. Wilde, the District Attorney, as an investigator once. His chief investigator, a man named Bernie Ohls, called me and told me you wanted to see me. I'm unmarried because I don't like policemen's wives."
"And a little bit of a cynic," the old man smiled. "You didn't like working for Wilde?"
"I was fired. For insubordination. I test very high on insubordination, General."
"I always did myself, sir. I'm glad to hear it."
I'm a big fan of the radio adaptions, with Sidney Greenstreet as Nero Wolfe. In case you're interested, the episodes can be downloaded for free. Beats most TV, IMHO.
The radio adaptations are interesting, but for those of us who read the books too many changes are made to tghe characters. The 2000-ish A&E TV adaptations are much more in the spirit of the Stout’s characters and original stories (though Chaykin screams in a manner that NW never did).
For golden age radio drama, I find it hard to beat “I Love a Mystery”, and Orson Welles’ “The Shadow” is also very good.
LOL, you're right about that. Once you've read the book, it's difficult to relate to the radio adaptation. After reading the excellent English vet books by James Herriot, I went out and bought the BBC TV series based on the books. I gave the DVDs away in less than a week.
Good point. I haven’t read those words in many years. But I’ll stand with my sense he is too wise to be much less than 40. That’s how it feels.
Now that I think about it, I made both of my detectives approximately 33, in my head. But neither one of my detectives is as wise as Philip Marlowe.
I guess 33 is just a good age for men who are smart enough to solve things, but young enough to fight.
You might try Yesterday USA . calm hosted by Bill Bragg.
Richardson Texas. They have been doing it for quite a
while . They run lots of different OTR. His set up is great in that he makes “tapes” for 2 weeks with guest hosts
programming their favorite type of OTR.
I ve been listening to YUSA on and off for many years now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.