RARA-AVIS: the black bird
Frederick Zackel (fzackel@bgnet.bgsu.edu)
Fri, 5 Dec 1997 08:20:08 -0500 (EST)
Sam Spade is the Gamester. His name refers to gambling. The
gamble is a
Life and Death struggle; that helps make the Flitcraft parable
so
important. His facial feature--the inverted V, that he is "a
blonde
Satan"--make him a good witch (or warlock.) Lots of
mythological
symbolisms here. Look who he is up against:
Gutman who is Appetite
Cairo, who may be "the Dandy", a figure which begins with
Poe's
Rue Morgue, goes to Baudeliare (read his poem "Comes thr
charming
Evening" for a marvelous view of Parisian mean streets), then
back to
London, where it splits into two threads: Oscar Wilde and
Sherlock Holmes,
then on to Pound...
Brigit, who is the classic Femme Fatale with her blood-red
hair,
lips and nails and skin as white as bone
etc...
Frederick Zackel
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