{"id":6237,"date":"2018-06-06T23:31:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T23:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/repeatright.com\/engine\/?p=6237"},"modified":"2018-10-16T16:33:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T16:33:32","slug":"chandler-raymond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/engine\/chandler-raymond\/","title":{"rendered":"CHANDLER, Raymond"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453315804311{margin-top: -40px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531588223-e020d87d-f7dd094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201c[Chess is] as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

Describing a game of chess, The Long Goodbye<\/em> (1953) Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953 edition, p. 156<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531588755-96303790-852e094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Fiction, Narrator]:<\/p>\n

\u201cI filled a pipe, paraded the chessmen and inspected them for French shaves and loose buttons, and played a championship tournament game between Gortchakoff and Meninkin, seventy-two moves to a draw, a prize specimen of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, a battle without armor, a war without blood, and as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.<\/span>\u201d (p. 156)<\/p>\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 The Long Goodbye<\/em> (1953) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 518598818<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315829087-ce67c619-0fbc5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cCalifornia, the department-store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

The Little Sister<\/em> (1949) New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1949 edition, p. 88<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315829475-7c82a017-1e625381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Fiction \u2013 Narrator \u2018Philip Marlowe,’ describing a drive along the Pacific Ocean]:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo moon, no fuss, hardly a sound of the surf. No smell. None of the harsh wild smell of the sea. A California ocean. California, the department-store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing.<\/span>\u201d (p. 88)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ID” tab_id=”1453315829682-63e8fade-cf4c5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: Library \u2013 The Little Sister<\/em> (1949) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 7467694<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cI<\/strong>f my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

Letter to friend & Atlantic Monthly<\/em> editor Charles W. Morton (12 December 1945) in Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler<\/em>, ed. Frank MacShane, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 56<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Letter to friend & Atlantic Monthly<\/em> magazine editor Charles Morton]:<\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie Brackett, that fading wit, said: \u201cChandler\u2019s books are not good enough, nor his pictures bad enough, to justify that article.\u201d I wasted a little time trying to figure out what that meant. It seems to mean that the only guy who can speak his mind about Hollywood is either (a) a failure in Hollywood, or (b) a celebrity somewhere else. I would reply to Mr. Brackett that if my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and that if they had been any better, I should not have come.<\/span>\u201d (p. 56)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e05381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler<\/em> (1981) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-231-05080-1<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cI<\/strong>t is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

Letter to literary agent Carl Brandt (15 November 1951) in Raymond <\/em>Chandler Speaking<\/em>, eds. Dorothy Gardiner & Katharine S. Walker, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997 edition, p. 139<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Letter to literary agent Carl Brandt]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might start worrying about something they could really help if they tried, because it is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.<\/span>\u201d (p. 139)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library –\u00a0 Raymond Chandler Speaking<\/em> (1962|1997 University of CA Press edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-520-20835-8<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cShe gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

Farewell, My Lovely<\/em> (1940) New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1940 edition, p. 105<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Fiction \u2013 character \u2018Philip Marlowe,\u2019 speaking & referring to \u2018Mrs. Grayle\u2019]:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think you can do anything for us? the blonde asked slowly, looking down into her glass. \u201cIf you think you can, I\u2019d be delighted. But the loss is rather small compared with having any more fuss with gangsters and awful people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know very much about it really,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I hope you can.\u201d She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket<\/span>.\u201d (p. 105)<\/p>\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Farewell, My Lovely<\/em> (1940) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 15254702<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cT<\/strong>he moment a man begins to talk about technique, that\u2019s proof he is fresh out of ideas.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

Letter to fellow author Erle Stanley Gardner (5 May 1939) in Selected <\/em>Letters of Raymond Chandler<\/em>, ed. Frank MacShane, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 9<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Letter to fellow author Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of the Perry Mason fictional detective series]:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here I am at 2:30am writing about technique, in spite of a strong conviction that the moment a man begins to talk about technique, that\u2019s proof he is fresh out of ideas<\/span>.\u201d (p. 9)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler<\/em> (1981) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-231-05080-1<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cThere are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart….The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

Journal entry, \u201cGreat Thought\u201d (19 February 1938) in The Notebooks of <\/em>Raymond Chandler<\/em>, New York, NY: Ecco Press, 1976, p. 7<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf5381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Journal entry]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart<\/span>. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous<\/span>.\u201d (p. 7)<\/p>\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English Summer<\/em> (1976) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-912-94633-4<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cWithout magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, American-British author & screenwriter<\/p>\n

\u201cFarewell, My Hollywood\u201d (Spring\/Summer 1976) Antaeus; reprint as “A Qualified Farewell,” in\u00a0The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler <\/em>and English Summer: A Gothic Romance<\/em>, ed. Frank MacShane, New York: Ecco Press, 1976, pp. 68-69<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Undated \u201cbrittle little communication,\u201d written about 18 months after Chandler had been rejected as a screenwriter by an unnamed Hollywood producer.]: \u201cI am not trying to knock the art or profession of writing for the screen. This as to do with my private conception of what writing is, and what a writer is entitled to get out of his work, other than money. It has to do with magic and emotion and vision, with the free flow of images, thoughts, and ideas, with discipline that comes from within and is not imposed from without. It has to do with that sense of power over one\u2019s medium which comes not frequently and lasts not long, and is one of the least egotistical emotions in the world, because one knows perfectly well it is merely an established communication with the subconscious mind. It has to do with that rare facility of expression which has nothing to do with conscious technique, since technique bears the same relation to it as a grammarian bears to a poet. Without this or the hope of it, writing is a lost endeavor. Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism.<\/span> Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production, and in the end not even that, since showmanship on the most frankly commercial level contains an element of incessant striving for perfection, if it be only a perfection of detail.\u201d (pp. 68-69)<\/p>\n

Source note<\/em><\/strong>: According to the Notebooks of Raymond Chandler<\/em> publisher\u2019s acknowledgments, the essay \u201cA Qualified Farewell\u201d first appeared in Antaeus<\/em> under the title \u201cFarewell, My Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf635381-89e54d59-dac8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English Summer<\/em> (1976) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-912-94633-4<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

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Resources<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”Wrapper-Author-Resources”]Learn more about Raymond Chandler <\/strong><\/span>| Here are a few good places to find out more –<\/p>\n