Style’s the Thing

Raymond Chandler wrote:

… the formula doesn’t matter, the thing that counts is what you do with the formula; that is to say, it is a matter of style.

While Chandler was referring to writing mysteries, I think his observation applies to all genre fiction. This is because genre fiction, commercial fiction, follows a formula. Whether we’re talking about romance, or space opera, or adventure tales, or mysteries, or sports stories, genre fiction is formulaic.

Which brings us to Chandler’s key observation: what’s important is what the writer does with the formula. And what the writer does with the formula is what he called style.

Style differentiates one urban fantasy author from another. Style is the difference between one romance writer and another. And it’s style that differentiates a writer of cosmic horror, from another writer of cosmic horror.

As readers, it’s style that draws us to one author over another. It’s style that moves me, as a reader, to give one writer five stars and another four.

The mystery formula is pretty simple. A kills B. The police think the killer is C, until the sleuth clears C and puts the finger on A.

Erle Stanley Gardner, to shake up the routine, directed his efforts towards the formula. Things such as start with a mystery, the murder should be planned, and the reader should be sympathetic to the victim. Which also means the victim cannot be killed before the story starts.

The end results were very complex plots, but his stories remained formulaic. Perhaps the epitome of the puzzle mystery.

Raymond Chandler, on the other hand, focused on the characters in his novels. Particularly that of Philip Marlowe, his detective. The end result is that Chandler’s mysteries read like literature. They are some the finest novels I’ve read. He brought Marlowe to life. He enables me to experience a California that no longer exists. A California I’d love to live in.

And ultimately it is due to style that Chandler gets five stars from me, and Gardner doesn’t.

It’s all about style. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, and so too is style.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!