Dashiell Hammett was a committed antifascist and Marxist who nevertheless was critical of the Soviet Union. He was also a Pinkerton who claimed to have left the agency after becoming disillusioned with strikebreaking assignments. Aren\u2019t people fascinating. <\/p>
What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p> Two books this week, because I\u2019m trying to be less neglectful of poetry. Both involve a man who is super not thrilled with the world he inhabits. Both involve a man who would probably do well to live in a country besides the United States. I\u2019m talking, of course, about The Maltese Falcon<\/em> by Dashiell Hammett and Every Song A Vengeance<\/em> by Chloe N. Clark. <\/p> The Maltese Falcon <\/strong><\/em>by Dashiell Hammett: <\/strong>So I actually enjoy this movie a great deal more than the The Big Sleep <\/em>movie. It\u2019s under Casablanca<\/em> but in the same area as To Have And Have Not<\/em> in terms of Bogart movies I enjoy. I also want to put this book in context\u2014writing this way was still relatively new in 1929, and credit to Hammett (and Hemingway) for popularizing this lean-but-descriptive style. That said, I found Hammett\u2014or at least this book, so let\u2019s say Sam Spade\u2014a bit harder to ignore with the contemptuous homophobia, misogyny, and Old Man Who Wouldn\u2019t Have Done That That<\/em> Way, But Okay energy. You can\u2019t \u201cokay boomer\u201d Bogart, but only because these people were Lost Generation. Also, Sam Spade\u2019s kind of a bitch, like in a dishonorable way, how he treats Iva Archer. A precursor to Philip Marlowe<\/a>, but less iconic than Marlowe for a reason. <\/p> Oh, and we can\u2019t forget the cartoonishly terrible description of a fat man, whom Hammett literally names Mr. Gutman. <\/p> There is<\/em> a lot to like in this book. The opening throws your right in with no warning in an exciting way. The \u201cstuff that dreams are made of\u201d theme is foundational to 1) anyone trying to escape the hamster wheel of capitalism and 2) everything the Coen Bros have ever done. It\u2019s a tight mystery, and honestly probably truer to the spirit of noir<\/em> than Chandler\u2019s knight-cosplaying-Romantic hero. Still, I think Chandler does a better detective, and Cain does more interesting social commentary\u2014for anyone out there curious about the Big Three. <\/p> Every Song A Vengeance <\/strong><\/em>by Chloe N. Clark: <\/strong>an extended series of meditations on John Wick, Chloe is absolutely the poet with the right amount of heart to write this book. If, for instance, I had been tasked with writing this book, there would\u2019ve been a hell of a lot more references to Ted \u201cTheodore\u201d Logan and introspection about my love of violent movies vs. my disdain for real-life violence. As it is, though, Chloe thoughtfully explores the hitman in mundane situations, the assassin learning to live with his every day. It\u2019s a delightful book, Chloe has a way with long sentences and interesting line breaks that make reading her poems feel like being guided through some garden path with treacherous yet non-lethal obstacles that she helpfully warns you about. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to? Tim Henson covered \u201cAre You That Somebody,\u201d so. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing this week, longtime Knowers Of Me get it. Shoutout to Beth Ditto, RIP Aaliyah. <\/p>![\"two](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/82a43117-8d73-421d-a60e-77c94f5f7cfe.heic\")
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