I go along with the general theory that the parable is
Hammett's way of letting readers see a little into Spade's
psyche. But I've always thought it also was another example
of a writer putting himself into his creation. Hammett was a
guy who, assuming his biographers are accurate, was a working
detective who adjusted to not being a detective, who married
a lovely nurse because, well, he was in this hospital, then
adjusted to a life of not being in a hospital. And to carry
it past the time when he wrote The Maltese Falcon, he was a
writer who adjusted to not being a writer. A little
simplistic, but what the hell ...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Feb 2008 EST