Weird Noir

On his Facebook page today, writer/film critic Kim Newman noted that, "I'm amazed so little notice is paid to Philip Marlowe's apparent supernatural encounter in Chapter 30 of The Little Sister. It's one of the oddest passages in detective fiction - and everyone has, like Marlowe, just tried not to think about it and get on with normal life."

I'm curious. Anyone here here ever read it?

One of those posting a reply pointed out that Dashiel Hammett used a faked supernatural sequence in The Dain Curse which included mention of Arthur Machen. Newman responded that "Hammett was the first editor to reprint a HP Lovecraft pulp story in a hardback anthology."

I've read the Hammett and noted that incident myself. (Hammett also makes a little hay with a James Branch Cabell reference.) That entire section of the novel is quite odd if engaging, I've very much wondered if there's a backstory there. Here's what I noted in my review:

The second is perhaps the oddest: an extended Weird shyster cult based on the Gaelic Church of Arthur Machen. A fight scene here could well have been an intentional homage to Machen.

I've not yet read The Little Sister but believe it awaits me in my LOA edition.

ETA strikeout only to later remove it: initially I couldn't find my notes about the Cabell, but it's right there in the review.

>2 elenchus:

Thanks for the LOA reminder - we have that volume out in the stacks. Will grab it the next time I'm physically at work.

Noir is fertile ground for a Weird pastiche, similar to Gaiman's pastiche of Sherlock Holmes. Superficially there's Lethem's Gun, with Occasional Music but as I recall that's more SciFi than Weird.

>4 elenchus:

There's William Hjorstberg's Falling Angel and its lesser known sequel Angel's Inferno. On TV, HBO's CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991).

>1 semdetenebre: I noticed Kim’s post too. It has piqued my interest and between Kim and yourself I am on a hunt for, My Little Sister.

Why is it I hear that title in Humphrey Bogart’s voice?

:-)

It's 30 years since I read all the Chandler novels in one big rush, and I haven't gone back to reread them since. Still got them though. I've just read that chapter of The Little Sister and - gosh, yes. A little standalone vignette in which Marlowe meets a ghost.

I must have realised what it was when I read it, but the strangeness of can't have struck me at the time, and I'd since forgotten about. However, I read The Dain Curse many years later, and the intrusion of the Weird did strike me then.

Why not the Chandler?

A couple of ideas, or three - at the time I read the book was expanding my leisure reading from just Science Fiction and Detective Fiction, Crime Fiction, Supernatural and Horror fiction, were all a bit more mainstream. Why shouldn't they mix it up a bit? Second idea - although I hadn't read much of it, there was plenty of genre television and they weren't averse to spicing things up with a little spookiness. Didn't Starsky & Hutch once have to deal with a vampire? Third - the true nature of Marlowe's interlocutor is only revealed right at the end of the chapter, whereas the Hammett just goes weird for a couple of pages, until a rational explanation is provided.

By the way, I assume you're aware of the Chandler short story "The King in Yellow"? I think he just borrowed the title. From memory (again, I read it a long time ago) it's not supernatural, and I doubt there are any thematic ties to Chambers' story.

>7 housefulofpaper:

I think I first heard about Chandler's "The King in Yellow" around the time that the first season of HBO's TRUE DETECTIVE came out, sparking a lot of discussion and a mini-Robert Chambers craze. Never read it, though. James Lee Burke's superb, existential crime novels aren't exactly noir, let alone weird, but they do feature a New Orleans police detective who may-or-may-not see an occasional ghost. But then, who wouldn't in the Big Easy?

>6 pgmcc: Well, there was a little sister in The Big Sleep but AFAIK the only movie version of The Little Sister was Marlowe with James Garner in the title role.

Chapter 30 does remind one just how good a writer Chandler was.

>6 pgmcc:
If you look at the likes for Kim's post, you can find me. Send a friend request if you are so inclined!

>10 semdetenebre: Will do

This is timely; last couple of days I've been mulling over lashing out on that whole clutch of Hippocampus Machen volumes.

So the OP had me eager to read The Little Sister, just for curiosity; especially as I did like what Raymond Chandler I've read. Then I got to >2 elenchus: ... 'Gaelic'? Machin and I are Welsh, definitely not Gaelic; so now I have to read The Dain Curse as well, to get to the bottom of that. Oh well, I've also liked what Hammett I've read, so ...

>12 alaudacorax:

Looking forward to your reactions to both the Chandler and Hammett! I'm confident Hammett would know the distinction between Welsh and Gaelic, and the Church reflects his characters and not his ignorance. But I could make nothing more of the episode and hope you have some insights.