Re. Raymond Chandler AND Ross MacDonald

[Robin Landseadel]

	chapter 1

	A rattle of leaves woke me some time before dawn. A hot wind
	was breathing in at the bedroom window. I got up and closed
	the window and lay in bed and listened to the wind.

	After a while it died down, and I got up and opened the window
	again. Cool air, smelling of fresh ocean and slightly used West
	Los Angeles, poured into the apartment. I went back to bed and
	slept until I was wakened in the morning by my scrub jays.

	I called them mine. There were five or six of them taking turns at
	dive-bombing the window sill, then retreating to the magnolia
	tree next door.

	I went into the kitchen and opened a can of peanuts and threw
	a handful out the window. The jays swooped down into the yard
	of the apartment building. I put on some clothes and went down
	the outside stairs with the rest of the can of peanuts.

	It was a bright September morning. The edges of the sky had a
	yellowish tinge like cheap paper darkening in the sunlight.		There  
was no wind at all now, but I could smell the inland
	desert and feel its heat.

	I threw my jays another handful of peanuts and watched the
	birds scatter on the grass.
	
	Ross MacDonald, "The Underground Man"

On Aug 2, 2009, at 10:25 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

>
> Besides Lew in AtD, given one of the novel's most thematically- 
> telling scenes, Heikki (and Robin, I believe) found those near-quote- 
> sampling homages to MacDonald in Vineland. Them jay birds.
>
> Bet IV has its homages.
>
> --- On Sun, 8/2/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: Re. Raymond Chandler
>> To: "Carvill John" <johncarvill at hotmail.com>
>> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Date: Sunday, August 2, 2009, 11:37 AM
>> there's a nice piece on Ross
>> MacDonald in the Guardian
>>
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/01/ross-macdonald-crime-novels
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 4:54 AM, Carvill John<johncarvill at hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I envy anyone the chance to read Chandler for the
>> first time. He's been one of my favourite writers since I
>> was a teenager. Definitely a good prep for IV, as Robin has
>> been reminding us lately.
>>> There are also some parallels between Pynchon and
>> Chandler, which is a topic we'll doubtless be hearing a lot
>> about in coming weeks.
>>> I mentioned it already but it bears repeating: the
>> edited letters collection, 'Raymond Chandler Speaking' is a
>> very worthwhile and entertaining read.
>>>
>>> <>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>
>
>