Althouse: "He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus. I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it."

April 25, 2017

"He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus. I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it."

"When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor."

27 comments:

Quaestor said...: Raymond Chandler?; 4/25/17, 4:01 PM
JML said...: I like it -- good, clever writing - it is language that makes you think a little and gives you a great mental image of the action in a way most people would not have thought of.; 4/25/17, 4:07 PM
traditionalguy said...: A sane man observing realty. That is refreshing.; 4/25/17, 4:08 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Quaestor,

Yes. I had to click the link to identify the story it came from, but I instantly knew who wrote it. I might have even been able to identify the writer even if I had never read it before- it literally cries out in Chandler's style.; 4/25/17, 4:15 PM
The Godfather said...: A bit over-written though, yes?; 4/25/17, 4:34 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: My favorite is from The High Window.

“She had eyes like strange sins.”; 4/25/17, 4:35 PM
Yancey Ward said...: The Godfather,

Does it read better "He hit me in the gut, and I fell down and hit my head"?; 4/25/17, 4:37 PM
Yancey Ward said...: North, also from High Window:

"From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away"; 4/25/17, 4:41 PM
Michael K said...: His novels about Los Angeles have a lot of LA history, sort of like Hammett and San Francisco.; 4/25/17, 4:58 PM
buster said...: From The High Window (from memory):

"The moon was cold and clear, like the justice men seek but don't find."; 4/25/17, 5:07 PM
Strick said...: I thought of Chandler just the other day, reading an author who would have benefited from reading more of Chandler's words and writing less of his own.

Thanks for the reminder and the chance to go to the link and be reminded of the master's work.; 4/25/17, 5:08 PM
buster said...: Actual quote:

"The white moonlight was cold and clear, like the justice we dream of but don't find."; 4/25/17, 5:18 PM
eddie willers said...: I read it and thought, "This guy's another Chandler. I'll have to pick up one of his books".; 4/25/17, 5:21 PM
Big Mike said...: Chandler, Hammett, Macdonald, people could write in those days. I've always loved the curtain line from The Gutting of Couffignal, which was written by Hammett and featured his "Continental Op" character. People should read and judge for themselves.; 4/25/17, 5:26 PM
tcrosse said...: "She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up."

from The Big Sleep; 4/25/17, 5:41 PM
Virgil Hilts said...: One of my English teachers in high school asserted that the first paragraph in "Red Wind" (and not the first lines from a Tale of Two Cities) was the best opening paragraph in the history of English literature. I think it's a decent candidate for that honor.; 4/25/17, 6:08 PM
Roughcoat said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/25/17, 6:25 PM
Roughcoat said...: The first six paragraphs of "A Farewell to Arms" is the best beginning in English literature, closely followed by the first paragraph of "Moby Dick."; 4/25/17, 6:27 PM
Darrell said...: Was there a Blue Ox?; 4/25/17, 6:32 PM
Darrell said...: I snapped off the Chrysler Building and beat the Althouse Lefties until they were all screaming like little girls. It didn't take long.; 4/25/17, 6:37 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Virgil Hilts said...
One of my English teachers in high school asserted that the first paragraph in "Red Wind" (and not the first lines from a Tale of Two Cities) was the best opening paragraph in the history of English literature. I think it's a decent candidate for that honor.

If that's the one about; "every booze party ends in a fight", I'd say your English teacher was spot on.; 4/25/17, 6:38 PM
eddie willers said...: "There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."

Red Wind - Chapter 1 (First paragraph)
Raymond Chandler; 4/25/17, 6:45 PM
The Godfather said...: @Yancey Ward: Your version is UNDERWRITTEN. Keep working on it.; 4/25/17, 6:59 PM
khematite said...: Understandably, Mickey Spillane has nowhere the reputation that Chandler has. Still, he did write the highly memorable closing lines of "I, the Jury":

The roar of the .45 shook the room. Charlotte staggered back a step. Her eyes were a symphony of incredulity, an unbelieving witness to truth. Slowly, she looked down at the ugly swelling in her naked belly where the bullet went in. A thin trickle of blood welled out.

I stood up in front of her and shoved the gun into my pocket. I turned and looked at the rubber plant behind me. There on the table was the gun, with the safety catch off and the silencer still attached. Those loving arms would have reached it nicely. A face that was waiting to be kissed was really waiting to be splattered with blood when she blew my head off. My blood. When I heard her fall I turned around. Her eyes had pain in them now, the pain preceding death. Pain and unbelief.

How c-could you?” she gasped.

I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it in.

"It was easy,” I said.; 4/25/17, 7:49 PM
Robert Cook said...: ""What's it going to be then, eh?

"There was me, that is, Alex, and my three droogs, Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days, and everybody being very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither."

Among my favorite first few sentences written in English.; 4/26/17, 9:59 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Among my favorite first few sentences written in English.

Figures. If you call it English.
Is that who your avatar is? Dim maybe? Could be Alex.; 4/26/17, 1:27 PM
Robert Cook said...: It's the English slang of the novel, and it's absolute music.; 4/26/17, 6:45 PM