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The Raymond Chandler Papers
Aug. 5th, 2007 09:43 pmCollection consisting mostly of letter fragments, along with some non-fiction and poetry. It's weird, I thought Chandler was a great writer before I picked this up, but now I absolutely adore him.
The collected writing paints a picture of a fickle man, a wise ass, an idealist, a romantic, a continually depressed man, a cat lover. He was really articulate about what makes fiction tick. I like to think he might have liked Shirley Jackson.
The book-chewing cat got at this book before I had the chance. I wish I knew how to make her stop this.
Excerpts:
It is an awful thing to admire a man's book and then meet him, and have your entire pleasure in his work destroyed by a few egotistical attitudes, so that not only do you dislike his personality, but you can never again read anything he writes with an open mind. His nasty little ego is always leering at you from behind the words.
*****
My enormous respect for our cat is largely based on a complete lack in her of this diabolical sadism. When she used to catch mice - we haven't had any for years - she brought them alive and undamaged and let me take them out of her mouth. Her attitude seemed to be, 'Well, here's this damn mouse. Had to catch it, but it's really your problem. Remove it at once.'
The collected writing paints a picture of a fickle man, a wise ass, an idealist, a romantic, a continually depressed man, a cat lover. He was really articulate about what makes fiction tick. I like to think he might have liked Shirley Jackson.
The book-chewing cat got at this book before I had the chance. I wish I knew how to make her stop this.
Excerpts:
It is an awful thing to admire a man's book and then meet him, and have your entire pleasure in his work destroyed by a few egotistical attitudes, so that not only do you dislike his personality, but you can never again read anything he writes with an open mind. His nasty little ego is always leering at you from behind the words.
*****
My enormous respect for our cat is largely based on a complete lack in her of this diabolical sadism. When she used to catch mice - we haven't had any for years - she brought them alive and undamaged and let me take them out of her mouth. Her attitude seemed to be, 'Well, here's this damn mouse. Had to catch it, but it's really your problem. Remove it at once.'
