Catching up...

[Carvill John]

>I find Chandler enjoyable only at the level of self-parody, reading his 
>books as if written by someone ridiculing by bad imitation a better writer.

But then it wouldn't be a *self* parody.

>  He seems otherwise Walter Middy-ish and silly,

Do you mean Walter Mitty?

>and I think he was probably very frightened of women

Very possibly.

ANyway I think he was a great writer, I've loved him since I was a teenager, 
and I went running to Hammett once I heard what a big Hammett fan Chandler 
was - and of course I'd seen Bogart in The Maltese Falcon - but I was pretty 
perplexed. Yeah, he's good, and I really liked Red Harvest, but he's not as 
good on the surface as Chandler, and I don't think he has abother layer 
under that surface, whereas Chandler has that poetic thing going on under 
the hard-boiled carapace. Chandler transcended his genre, definitely; I 
don't think Hammett did. And on top of all that Chandler had great humour, a 
unique style, an aura of cool, etc.