The Repeatable Pleasures of Ross Macdonald: RGBIB Ep. 59

[@Inadougadavida]

Very enjoyable video. I discovered Ross MacDonald last year, simply browsing at a local library, and then not long afterward bought a 1945 edition of Hammett's short stories at a thrift store. That volume is in poor condition, but I find it valuable for its historicity, as Philip K. Dick might say. Thanks for taking the time to make these videos.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, Guitar Writer! Great having you in the bathtub. Those old Ross MacDonalds keep getting better not older (unlike me)! Stay safe and keep strummin'! s

[@DAGDRUM53]

Great presentation. Ross Macdonald was a novelist operating under the guise of mystery writer, character realism was front and center with him. I like to think he's every bit as poetic as Chandler, just in his own way. Anthony Boucher, like Black Mask, was a brand name you could trust, who famously said, "I should like to venture the heretical suggestion that Ross Macdonald is a better novelist than either Hammett or Chandler." I second that. Especially after rereading heavyweights like The Instant Enemy & The Goodbye Look.

[@Scottmbradfield]

I think you (and Boucher) are right, he did write much better novels. Most of Chandler's are kind of circuitous tho I forgive him anything for THE LONG GOODBYE. I also love THE INSTANT ENEMY and GOODBYE! Stay safe. s

[@larrycarr4562]

Glad this report popped up tonight in my KZbin menu, Ross is one of my favorites. Coincidentally, I’m in the middle of reading The Wycherley Woman, very strange tale.

[@larrycarr4562]

Ha,talk about unhappy families, put the Wycherley family on the list.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah Wycherly is a good one! s

[@larrycarr4562]

Scott, thanks for the reply. I read mostly mysteries and westerns, these days. So I enjoy when you stray outside Literary fiction. Any plans to put Oakley Hall, John LeCarre or Andrea Camilleri into your bathtub? Stay soaking!

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@larrycarr4562 We did Camilleri a few months ago in one of our Coronation segments... May do Hall some day, though I never could read Le Carre myself... stay safe! There will be lots of crime noir in our bathing future!

[@phillipanthony2402]

i enjoy sharing the bathtub with you. subbed.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, Phillip, you're welcome anytime... (Psst... pass the loofah...) s

[@irish66]

Hello from Ireland. Chandler is my favourite author. I would consider all of the novels favourites except the last one. I think his best are Farewell my Lovely, and The Long Goodbye. I have probably read all of the McDonald novels, at least some more than once, but the plots are so hard to follow. McDonald may not have used metaphors, but has any author used as many similes?. I think The Underground Man is his best novel. It was made into a tv movie with Peter Graves. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. Better are full Cast audio adaptions of The Zebra Striped Hearse, and Sleeping Beauty with Harris Yulin making an excellent Archer.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Hi Irish 66. yeah, MacDonald is a much different writer and yes, Long Goodbye is one of my all-time favorites. I'm doing another "hard-boiled" in next few days. Did you see Paul Newman's HARPER? That's a great film version of Lew Archer (Harper). Can you give me more specific location? I'll pop you onto the International Bathing Alliance map. It entitles you to read books in any bathtub in the world! And it's free!

[@irish66]

@@Scottmbradfield Hi Scott. Yes I have seen Harper many times. and The Drowning Pool. Harper is excellent. Drowning Pool a good movie, but not in the same league. Gee i don't know when i last had a bath. Wait, is bathtub a metaphor for something?

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@irish66 I'm afraid it's a metaphor for everything. Harper is one of the great detective movies!

[@irish66]

@@Scottmbradfield carlow

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@irish66 You are now officially a Bather. Do you feel different? You should. Here's the proof: drive.google.com/open?id=1Tc7RT3iL24ErPt8HJgjXj4m5Pey1HnSi&usp=sharing

[@njuham]

Harper! No, I was only kidding you, I'm only a brown belt.

[@braunhausmedia]

I met him briefly during a signing in Santa Barbara. He was sitting by himself and there was no line to buy his book and I wondered why. The book was The Blue Hammer and I have to wonder if he was at the beginnings of his decent into Alzheimer's. Even before this Millar (aka MacDonald) was a troubled man who reportedly had an emotionally distant wife and a very troubled daughter, both of whom he was reported to have slapped on various occasions. It's said that a lot of this dysfunction comes out in his Archer books...

[@Scottmbradfield]

That's sad to hear, I know almost nothing about this life. The Blue Hammer, like all his late novels, is very good and very melancholy... s

[@peterzang]

Scott is a helluva writer too

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks for thinking so, Peter! s

[@herberthuber8500]

Which Scott? Sir Walter Scott?

[@chase36chase]

sorry for bad english: i think archer is more vulnarable. he gets hurt. his nose broken. in one novel i recall, he vomits after seeing someone get shot, ore something. also in my opionion archer is less macho than marlowe.

[@Scottmbradfield]

I think you are right. Though Marlowe is a pretty soft touch for anyone with a sad story! Where are you located?

[@chase36chase]

germany@@Scottmbradfield

[@Scottmbradfield]

​Great! We love Germany in the bathtub, Ray! I just put you on the map.

[@JohnKrill]

I believeSue Grafton was a big fan of Macdonald.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah, I believe she uses Ross Macdonald's invented town of Santa Theresa as home for her Kinsey Milhone (sp?) I haven't read her in a long time...

[@rs4425]

Thank you. Which one of Ross MacDonald's books would be best to start with?

[@Scottmbradfield]

Hi RS. They're all good. but they get better right up to the end. THE CHILL is one of my favorites and plants you in the middle of the series-it's not a sequential series, really, so it doesn't matter where you start. But THE CHILL is fab! Give me a name and location and I can put you on the IBA map if you like! Scott