IVIV some reader response/cultural context for Doc: Philip Marlowe

[Doug Millison]

I agree with this first reader, below. I wouldn't want to spend time  
with Marlowe or in his world, but he's fun to read.  Call it political  
correctness if you wish, and make it sound like a bad thing if you  
will, but I prefer spending time with men who actually like and  
respect women, who don't go around looking for a fight, and if I found  
myself in a job that forced me to associate daily with the police, I'd  
be looking for an another way to make a living.  Your mileage may vary  
and that's cool.  If you want to see Marlowe as a knight in shining  
armor who seeks always to fight the good fight against corrupt cops,  
go for it. I see him a different way.

Likewise, I sympathize with Pokler's plight in GR, but that doesn't  
mean I'd enjoy spending time with him. He let his love of technology  
outweigh anything else, until it's too late.  I don't much care for  
the engineers I know, either, who worked on weapon systems when they  
had a choice to do other work - something about their ability to  
ignore what puts the paycheck in their pocket that doesn't sit quite  
right with me.

Some freshly-Googled nuggets:

"The second Marlowe story continues to establish him as a racist,  
sexist, homophobic asshole that I just can't help but love. I'm not  
alone, either!"
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2050.Farewell_My_Lovely

"Marlowe is not perfect to be sure. He harbors many of the prejudices  
of his age, notably racism and homophobia."
…from:  Whodunit?: A Who's Who in Crime and Mystery Writing By  
Rosemary Herbert
http://books.google.com/books, search Philip Marlowe+racism

Crime Fiction By John Scaggs  re  Chandler's use of racial  
stereotypes, "reflex racism", "reeks of prejudice", "Marlowe's racist  
fear of America being overrun by this population", compare with Easy  
Rawlins, "depiction of womenn as threatening 'other' "
http://books.google.com/books, search Philip Marlowe+racism
"When I had a Hammett habit I needed to kick, I tried to start  
Farewell, My Lovely, and found it unpalatable, primarily because of  
the racism on display in the opening chapter"   http://www.spinelessbooks.com/bookviews/ChandlerR_TCO.html

Provided only to counter the assertion that this sort of thinking is  
beyond the pale. They start coming up on the first page of Google  
search results, which means that these links, as evaluated by Google's  
algorithm, rise to the top because of the number of other web sites  
that link to these.

I'm interested to dig into Doc with close reading, to see what Pynchon  
has in fact written about him.  From the get-go, after listening to  
Pynchon's narration in the book trailer video, I'm disinclined to like  
Doc, because of the way he says he has collaborated with the police in  
the past.  But I found myself liking his voice, and wound up having  
fun reading the book. So I'm motivated to look deeper.  Same with  
Chandler and Marlowe, in fact.  I've read The Big Sleep and Farewell,  
My Lovely twice now -- once in high school, again in the past 2 weeks.  
Pynchon's taking them seriously, so I will, too.