Re: RARA-AVIS: Picking at the Falcon
Mari Hall (found.dead.in.texas@airmail.net)
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:02:04 -0500
Bill Hagen wrote:
>
> I was rereading _The Maltese Falcon_, getting ready to
teach it, and ran
> across a couple of puzzling statements in the
conversation between Spade
> and Cairo, after he disarmed and roughed Cairo up a bit
(Chapt. 5). They
> are talking about the ownership of the bird, Cairo
claims his unnamed party
> had it before it was stolen from him and therefore that
his right to it is
> "certainly more valid than Thursby's."
>
> Then, curiously, Spade asks, "What about his daughter?"
Thursby, of
> course, is dead at this point, but I don't believe any
daughter has been
> mentioned. [Gutman has a daughter, but he hasn't been
introduced into any
> conversation yet.]
>
> Then after asserting "he" is not the owner, Cairo asks
"Is he here in San
> Franciso now?"
>
> I guess the "he" must be Gutman, a man Cairo fears, but
how did Spade know
> to ask the question about the daughter in the first
place? Where does that
> come from? We're supposed to accept it as a shot in the
dark? Or did the
> author "nod" here?
>
> Is this a slip in one of our favorite
classics?
>
> Bill Hagen
> <billha@ionet.net>
>
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Bill, if you are just finding this "slip" you have been
"nodding" <g>.
Just remember in the words of the great Bob Wade "you can't
outline
Chandler" and in my opinion, you can't outline Hammett
either. That is
why men read those books and women read Agatha Christie--men
like
stories and women like characters (although anyone who says
Christie
"developed characters" is also nodding)
--
whose DOROTHYL nom is Kate Warne the ex-Pinkerton in
The Woman With the Rose Tattoo by Mari Hall
See y'all at Bouchercon 29 in Philly Oct.1-4
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