tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post8547493358701297726..comments2024-03-28T04:54:20.979-05:00Comments on Poetry & Popular Culture: Did Dashiell Hammett Hate Poetry?Mike Chasarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00272500491569722314noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post-63403973987176964772010-07-20T19:24:44.490-05:002010-07-20T19:24:44.490-05:00You seem to be having fun with this and may not be...You seem to be having fun with this and may not be serious. <br /><br /><br />Egyptian-Arab forum cherish News <a href="http://www.egypt-panorama.com/" rel="nofollow">egypt-panorama.com</a> Egypt, Arab news and films of the season and News Art and Artists News and Sport<br /><br />Thank youhemahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16615072010191963719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post-51098177654511484192010-02-16T13:46:54.273-06:002010-02-16T13:46:54.273-06:00I think your premise needs to take into considerat...I think your premise needs to take into consideration the magazine poetry of the 1920's and how important it was to Hammett that his narrative tone avoid the poetic conventions of the day. Poetry was a much more broadly accepted part of popular culture in the age of magazines (20's) and radio (30's & 40's) and Hammett knew it well enough to craft his style with a distinct absence of what readers would recognize as poetic content. Interesting that after his own fiction writing stalled he dove into the playwriting of Lillian Hellman and the language of American theatre. His ear for the spoken word is perhaps the gift Dashiell Hammett is most unappreciated for and with it an innate sense of poetry.artifactshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997685061590420168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post-15117968071422791142010-01-26T11:02:25.468-06:002010-01-26T11:02:25.468-06:00Noir may have certain poetic qualities, but as Ham...Noir may have certain poetic qualities, but as Hammett realized (most likely), stale poetic metaphors, whether of gangstas or the gentry, do not count for much in the real world of cops, robbers, ho's, high finance. And what's Keats compared to some drama hatched by some molls, miners and mobsters in the cribs of Butte, jake? <br /><br />Hammett also had a rather keen awareness of politics, even a marxist sensisibility which the usual narcissist-college-lit types...don't. <br /><br />A book like Red Harvest or M-Falcon reduces most cafe-poeticizing, even the hepcat beat sort, to mostly eloquent noise... ah believe (tho' DH did pen some crap, or near-crap like the Thin Man soft-porn melodramas....). Same for Ray Chandler's best, though Chandler was not so averse to anglo-literary prose when needed (or at least his street-speak, say of Marlow, while...quite powerful at times --say, Red Wind, or Farewell my Lovely...seems slightly contrived)Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post-655651144909523322010-01-15T11:17:29.081-06:002010-01-15T11:17:29.081-06:00I'm a poet and a lover of Hammett's work, ...I'm a poet and a lover of Hammett's work, so the title drew me right in. <br /><br />I've always found the language of hard boiled detective fiction (Hammett, Chandler, etc) to have a kind of poetry to it, but it's not the kind that's well thought of in the world of poetry. It's not considered literary, I guess.<br /><br />This brings up the possibility that the character was responding more to the (allegedly) unpoetical nature of his work than to all poetry all the time.<br /><br />Or, since an earlier commenter pointed out that Hammett wrote poetry himself, it could simply be that he was that great a writer, that his main character had views that contradicted Hammett's own.irvingprimehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16030998880661535481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post-79440131351111377502010-01-05T17:08:12.297-06:002010-01-05T17:08:12.297-06:00You seem to be having fun with this and may not be...You seem to be having fun with this and may not be serious. In any case, Hammett not only liked poetry, he wrote the stuff himself (at least early in his career). He also read it. When he was out on the Aleutians he asked Lillian Hellman to send him works by Milton and Donne. If you read his letters, you'll see he was a gifted writer with wide tastes and interests. ... A new play centered on Hammett--not as a poet but as a soldier editing an Army newspaper in the Aleutians in World War II--opens this week in Anchorage. It's called "Wind Blown and Dripping" (www.windblownanddripping.com).Pico Alaskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05270273287648772974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3933982574370506108.post-48772442298840704632010-01-05T13:52:59.005-06:002010-01-05T13:52:59.005-06:00I loved this piece. Being a poet and loving Hammet...I loved this piece. Being a poet and loving Hammett are not exclusive, at least in my case.Larry Jaffehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12412019984628025082noreply@blogger.com