James R Winter wrote:
Spade is not a tarnished knight. He's really a sleazewad who
develops a conscience as time goes by.
*********** I wasn't thoroughly convinced that Spade ever
developed a conscience. His spiel at the end seems to
indicate that he turns her in primarily because he thinks she
would stab him in the back some time in the future if he let
her go. Note that when she asks him what he would have done
if the falcon had been real, he does not nobly claim that the
outcome would have been the same, but noted that would have
required a reassessment. Even in the end, Spade's morals were
flexible where his well-being came into play.
The tarnished knight label more aptly applies to to
Chandler's Marlowe, but it should be noted that Marlowe, too,
could be a pig. Isn't it in FAREWELL, MY LOVELY where he gets
filthy drunk and plays tongue tag with a guy's wife right in
his home, and then makes arrangements to meet her later when
interupted by the husband. There are several scenes in
Chandler's works where I think Chandler transfers his own bad
habits to Marlowe, drawing him out of character to my way of
thinking. My personal feeling is that Chandler thought that
if he could transfer his sins to Marlowe, and Marlowe could
be thought of as noble at the end of the book, that in some
way redeemed Chandler. Redemption in print, a baptism in
ink.
miker
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 29 Nov 2004 EST