[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

For all who bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith but haven't yet read it, I have good news.

I have even better news for all those who haven't bought it but are curious!

I bought the book and read it so you don't have to! I read it so that you can save your print processing neurons for the original Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin and no one but Jane Austin. Trust me, the original is better.

The addition of the undead to the mix does nothing to improve Ms. Austin's story, though as I said in an earlier thread, the scene where Mr. Darcy first proposes marriage to Elizabeth and is promptly kung-fu kicked into the fireplace is amusing.

thanks for your dedication Tom ! i for one appreciate your sacrifice.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I've read both (shame on me) Poodle Springs, that's the one he completed from Chandler's unfinished manuscript and Perchance to Dream. You're right, they're not that good, and they take place after the original Marlowe canon. What's most interesting about Marlowe as seen through Parker's eyes is that Spenser, Parker's original creation, was directly based upon Marlowe. There's an interview somewhere where Parker says (paraphrasing)

I just thought of what Marlowe would do and I had Spenser do it.

If you want somehing fun and original, not parody or imitation, then William F. Nolan's "The Black Mask Boys" series is worth a look. In the series, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet and Erle Stanely Gardner are amateur sleuths solving crimes.

http://www.thrillingdetective.com/ey...mask_boys.html

Also, the TV movie of Poodle Springs isn't half bad, with James Caan playing the aging Marlowe.

hm, the black mask boys series sounds good. i'll keep my eyes open for it.

Originally Posted by basschick

i like spenser, and i like marlowe, but i definitely agree with you. i felt that in poodle springs, marlowe had sort of morphed into spenser. robert b. parker is very profilic, and i really enjoy his work, but he doesn't like chandler. sort of reminded me of the "new" peter wimseys - just didn't hit the mark for me.

i was disappointed by the "new" peter wimseys" as well (well, i only read one of them, i think it was thrones and dominations maybe), so now i'm convinced, i won't read poodle springs. i've yet to find an unfinished book completed by someone else that i really liked. i'm not sure why they keep doing it.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

The problem with Spenser, I find, is that there are plots in them, whereas Chandler really didn't have any plots. He just wrote about an interesting character muddling through from one event to another, and described in a great way too. I'm still not 100% sure what the Big Sleep is about (neither was Chandler when he was asked).

I've not seen the Black Mask Boys available anywhere, not even on the darknet, which is a shame.

that's one of the things i love best about chandler. it's really all about the ambiance, and the writing, and the details.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

You know the famous Big Sleep movie anecdote, don't you? If not, I'll repost it here for anybody who deoesn't know.

The film version of The Big Sleep is remembered for its convoluted plot. During filming, allegedly neither the director nor the screenwriters knew by whom chauffeur Owen Taylor was murdered or if he had killed himself. They sent a cable to Chandler, who told a friend in a later letter: "They sent me a wire... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big...281946_film%29

heh. i was about to post that exact story. although i heard a different version : the screenwriters sent a wire to chandler asking who killed the chauffeur because they had no idea, and he wrote back saying "it was X" (i can't remember who he said). they wrote back saying "it couldn't have been X, he was [in prison] at the time" (in prison, or something... i'm not good with details). so chandler replied "well then i don't know who it was either." i love that story. and the film with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart is possibly my favourite film ever. definitely in the top 5.