Chandlerism

Chandlerism

English

Etymology

From Chandler +‎ -ism, after writer Raymond Chandler.

Noun

Chandlerism (plural Chandlerisms)

1. A passage of writing or dialogue that uses vivid and lyrical metaphors or similes, characteristic of the work of writer Raymond Chandler.
   • 1982 The Review of the news, Volume 18

     As Rigby Reardon, Steve Martin easily mimics the patented Hollywood tough guy of the period, dangling a cigarette from one side of his mouth while distorting a Chandlerism from the other.

   • 1999 Anthony Boucher, letter to Kenneth Millar, published in Tom Nolan (1999) Ross Macdonald: a biography, p114

     I'm especially struck with the way you turn the Chandlerism, the colorful unlikely metaphor or simile, into legitimate novelistic indication of character, rather than trick writing for its own sake.

   • 2002 Film noir reader 3: interviews with filmmakers of the classic noir period, Limelight, p110

     The funny thing is, Chandler would come up with a good image, pictorial, and like I said I would come up with a Chandlerism, as it were.