--- "Kerry J. Schooley" <
gsp.schoo@murderoutthere.com> wrote:
>
> Sorry William. We can both admire and appreciate
The
> Maltese Falcon,
> but you just don't get it.
With all due respect, we'll just see about that.
>
> Though he inspired Marlowe, Spade is a
different
> character entirely.
> Marlowe is the romantic, lone knight. He rescues
the
> damsels from
> their dragons, even if he doesn't marry them
and
> live happily ever
> after. Well, he's a bit sexually confused, like
his
> creator and many
> romantic heroes.
>
> But Spade is not confused. He saves no one
from
> anything, except
> himself from playing the sap. He neither stops
nor
> corrects anyone's
> behaviour. He doesn't care about them. At best
he
> avenges his
> partner's death, but only because to do
otherwise
> would be bad for
> business. Spade logically repudiates all notions
of
> romantic
> transcendence. Get used to it, he says, this is
the
> real world, and
> this is what it takes to survive in it.
>
> You get nowhere just lumping all the
tough-guys
> together. Marlowe is
> the tough-talking but romantic searcher. Spade
is
> condemned to live,
> briefly as the rest of us, in a world without
love.
> If you don't
> think that's screwed, if you think I'm the one
doing
> the fudging,
> then be careful not to bend over in a
public
> washroom.
My, my, the lady doth protest too much. First of all, for all
your angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin hair-splitting, all
I said was that they both functioned in the books as heroes.
Yes, Molly had a yellow Mustang and Gertrude had a red T-Bird
but they both drove cars. Your distinctions make no
difference in how the narrative functions.
>
> And please refrain from suggesting that I said
Spade
> is not a hero.
> What I said was that he could only be a hero in
a
> different kind of
> literature. That would be noir literature. With
all
> due respect, I am
> tired of reading posts that try to paint over
noir
> with a romantic
> varnish.
I've had some pretty serious "discussions" with people on
this list and yet I don't think a one of them would ever
suggest that I ever used a romantic varnish for anything.
(Although I do believe Marlowe is trying to get yours out of
his hair.) What you don't get is that Spade doesn't exist in
noir literature. He isn't screwed. That's the whole point.
This isn't on the level of tracking activity with a particle
accelerator. It's very simple. He's a hero and he succeeds in
the end. Whether he has a pure or tainted vision is window
dressing. Whether he's personally conflicted (as they say
these days) is irrelevant. It may be what makes the hero
interesting but he remains just that. Yes, he operates in a
corrupt world but that doesn't make it noir. It is you that
is applying the varnish. You're trying to take the
surroundings and defining the character by it when the
reverse is true. That's what separates hard-boiled from noir
and yes, in that regard Hammer, Spade, Marlowe are heroes.
And yes, they can only operate is a sick and corrupt world.
But that's the nature of the hard-boild genre.
William
Essays and Ramblings
<http://www.williamahearn.com>
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