I find it interesting that we have had this discussion of the
ending of The Maltese Falcon without a single spoiler alert
(or complaint about its absence). I guess we believe everyone
has read it. I doubt that (I know there are a number of
"assumed reads" I haven't read), so let me say:
SPOILER ALERT:
"Gutman turned the bird upside-down and scraped an edge of
the base with his knife. Black enamel came off in tiny curls,
exposing blackened metal beneath. Gutman's knife-blade bit
into the metal, turning back a thin curved shaving. The
inside of the shaving, and the narrow plane its removal had
left, had the soft grey sheen of lead."
I doubt porcelain would have provided the right heft to stand
in for the true rara avis.
Mark
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Apr 2002 EDT