Is Marlowe a Racist?

[Dave Monroe]

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:59 PM, John Carvill<johncarvill at gmail.com> wrote:

> 'A Reader's Guide to Raymond Chandler' by Toby Widdecombe
>
> Quite interesting. From about page 33:
>
> "It is, however, important to distinguish the fact of racism in the
> world Chandler describes from the question of whether Chandler's
> detectives are themselves racist. That question has the
> straightforward answer, no."
>
> On the question of Marlowe's homophobia, Widdecombe discusses the
> possibility that Marlowe is in fact himself gay. He ultimately doesn't
> seem to reach any conclusions, except to say that Chandler himself
> seems uncertain of his attitude towards homosexuals.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=1-WNd4rL9YoC&pg=PP1&dq=A+reader%27s+guide+to+Raymond+Chandler#v=onepage&q=&f=false

""It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid-october, with the
sun not shining, and a look of hard rain in the clearness of the
foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue shirt, tie and display
handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on
them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and didn't care who knew
it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be."
--Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (1939)

The horror!  The horror!