Dashiell hammet

D hammet story in current New Yorker an inch and a half of courage a great example of the kind of stories serious writers popular writers and hacks of all sorts had to generate back in the day when people actually read stories in magazines and mags actually paid writers for their work. The very best writers rose above the expectations and conventions of magazine fiction - think f Scott Fitzgerald eg - but others just provided marketable commodities. This story is an example - a little fake moral lesson about a man who gains some fame thanks to a heroic rescue and then becomes too proud and cocky and his life is destroyed until he atones. Hammet is a pro so this little toss off is well written and constructed w fine carpentry - but it is hardly stirring or surprising once you pass the striking opening scene - a child looks out the window of a burning building. Hammet and heirs smart enough to know this piece would not be part of his legacy so it hasn't been printed or reprinted till now. It does no harm to hammet however to see him as a working pro - but the piece also feels musty and dated. Though short fiction today is no longer a commercial venue I think the art of the short story today is far beyond what was envisioned back then - then it was a way to make a buck but now a way to make a reputation. Thank g Munro Trevor Beattie Saunders et al have been able to create and publish their terrific fiction without having to curb their talent to meet the standards and expectations of a commercial market.

Sent from my iPhone