...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?
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.
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 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!