November 4, 2007

"Writers in Hollywood."

Raymond Chandler "I am not interested in why the Hollywood system exists or persists, nor in learning out of what bitter struggles for prestige it arose, nor in how much money it succeeds in making out of bad pictures," wrote Raymond Chandler in the Atlantic in 1945 (while Warner Bros was reworking The Big Sleep). "I am interested only in the fact that as a result of it there is no such thing as an art of the screenplay, and there never will be as long as the system lasts, for it is the essence of this system that it seeks to exploit a talent without permitting it the right to be a talent. It cannot be done; you can only destroy the talent, which is exactly what happens - when there is any to destroy."

Related: For the Los Angeles Times, Richard Rayner reviews Judith Freeman's The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved.



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Posted by dwhudson at November 4, 2007 12:23 PM

Comments

Any time there's a Writer's Strike, I think of this:

Jack, Bob and Elia... Oh and that hot chick!

Posted by: Jerry Lentz at November 5, 2007 4:31 AM

What a pleasure! Many thanks, Jerry.

Posted by: David Hudson at November 5, 2007 5:13 AM