Dick,
Re your observation below:
> Philip Marlowe is not a working class
> hero. His previous
> employment (cop, DA's man, whatever), and his
humble
> origins, if they
> were humble, have nothing to do with it. He's
an
> intellectual. A social
> critic. A snob. He replays classic chess games.
He
> recognizes paintings
> and he knows poetry and authors. He can name
every
> flower on a Southern
> California hillside. He finds an eager naked babe
in
> his bed and tosses
> her out, then tears up the linen. He's not
an
> average Joe. He's a white
> knight. A hardboiled white knight.
Marlowe's being an intellectual and his being "working class"
are not mutally exclusive. In "The Simple Art of Murder"
Chandler makes a point of the hero's working class roots ("He
is the best man in his world and a good enough man for any
world.") "His world" is the mean streets. Moreover, for all
his intellecutalism ("I went to COlleg once and I can still
speak English if there's a need for it"), Marlowe's speech
pattern is naturally colloquial. Marlowe fits the "tough and
colloquial" definition as well as any and better than
most.
JIM DOHERTY
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