The poet of collision

James Ellroy on Dashiell Hammett:

Hammett’s male-speak is the gab of the grift, the scam, the dime hustle. It’s the poke, the probe, the veiled query, the grab for advant­age. It’s the threat, the dim sanc­tion, the offer of friend­ship cloaked in betray­al. Plot holes pop through Hammett’s stor­ies like speed bumps. The body count accretes with no more hor­ror than prat­falls in farce. It does­n’t mat­ter. The lan­guage is always there.

(via The Guardian)