Agree that Travis gets a trifle tiresome with his
oft-rehearsed self-doubts, VIZ tin-horn knighthood. But I've
always read it as a genuine attempt at idealism, in a world
and genre which naturally suspects idealism. The Quixote
reference puts it in that context. In spite of the opening
knight business in The Big Sleep, always seemed to me that
Marlowe expressed it more in terms of code, what detectives
do. It may read better because it doesn't raise the question
of whether there is anything more than the code.
Found myself wondering too,whether writers that use the
knighthood reference might be influenced by earlier Western
writers who wanted to fashion a chivalric cowboy hero.
Wister's The Virginian comes to mind.
Bill Hagen
<
billha@ionet.net>
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