Chandler

[poliphilo]

I read the first few chapters of Farewell, My Lovely last night. Three things.

1. Chandler reads like a parody of Chandler. The writing is so self-conscious.

2. The people, Marlowe and especially Moose Malloy, are comic book characters. I don't believe in 'em.

3. The racism took my breath away.

I'm going back to my man Hammett. Hammett had been a Pinkerton. He knew the mean streets and Chandler didn't. Chandler's relish for the posturing of coarse, ugly, violent men makes me feel a little queasy.

As for the racism, well, I know he's writing about a racist society, but does he really have to enjoy it so much?

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to think that it's the deeper, inner self that comes through in imaginative writing. You're composing an essay- and you have intellectual control of the material; you're telling a story- and you have a lot less.

It works both ways. Some writers are a lot more likeable in their writing than they are in real life. Philip Larkin was a shit, but you wouldn't know it from his poems.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Same with Ted Hughes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yup.

Rudyard Kipling the man had some hardline, rightwing views, but very largely kept them out of his work. As an imaginative artist he was a lot wiser than he was in everyday life.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Definitely. But then you get someone like Lewis Carroll, who was an opium addict and definitely let that affect his work - I will always contend the view that Alice In Wonderland is a children's book.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I first encountered Alice as a very small child. I loved the books then- and still do. There were things I didn't "get" to begin with, but I think that was all part of the magic.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Camille Paglia wrote a very interesting article on Alice some years ago. It was in her Vamps and Tramps collection. If you can find it, read it - she has some very good things to say about the book.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I may have that book- I'm not sure. I like Camille Paglia.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Its a shame she seems to have disappeared. I don't agree with everyone she says, but considering she came to prominence when PC was really starting to bite, she said the unsayable, and I admire her for that.

Sexual Personae was described as badly written hate literature. Having read it, I find it interesting and thought provoking. Her views are strong, but I think thats commendable.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I adored Sexual Personae. I think she's still out there, teaching and writing articles, but she hasn't attempted anything on the scale of that first great book.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

She was apparently planning a follow up to it that focused on popular culture, but abandoned it in the late 90s as pop culture is a) too vast and b) constantly changing. Shame.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is a shame.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

I am still holding out for another compendium of articles. I especially liked her one on Hilary Clinton (entitled "Kind of A Bitch: Why I like Her".) I'd like to know her views on Sarah Palin. I have a suspicion that she's the straight talking non-PC Politician that whilst Paglia would not necessarily agree with, woulds adore for some musings.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Whatever she thinks about Palin it's probably at an angle from the majority view.

Paglia likes to stir things up. We could with do with more like her.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

I agree. Its interesting how Paglia has been dismissed by some as a complete nutcase, whereas Catherine MacKinnon is seen as a respected thinker. The fact MacKinnon's views on sex are dangerously repressive and sexist does not seem to matter. Both view violence as a part of sex, but whilst Paglia states that for some thats good, MacKinnon says its all bad - which could be the reason.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

MacKinnon is a Puritan. Puritans want life to be simpler than it is. Paglia is an anti-Puritan- and never met an orthodoxy or received opinion she didn't want to kick downstairs. She's mistrusted because she refuses to belong to anybody's gang.