[3] Trying Crying

[Craig Clark]

Paul Mackin <mackin at allware.com> writes:

 >It can't be parodying Hammett and Chandler, else Oedipa woulda got BEAT
 >UP a few times in the course of solving the case. Moreover the case never 
 >exactly gets solved.
Oedipa does get beat up, emotionally and philosophically at any rate. 
And sometimes the case doesn't get solved, even in the 
Hammett/Chandler world. Take that Black Bird, for example, in _The 
Maltese Falcon_. A classic McGuffin, BTW, since the authenticity or 
otherwise of the Falcon is finally of no importance to the plot.

Hammett, probably more so than Chandler, seems to be a big influence 
on Our Favourite Writer, and nowhere more so than is the case with 
_The Maltese Falcon_. Even leaving aside Malta, check out the opening 
paragraph of _TMF_ for its description of Sam Spade. Those without a 
copy to hand might ask themselves just what letter of the alphabet 
dominates Hammett's description of Sam's face...

 
Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
 the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
 on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"