IVIV Chandler

[John Carvill]

Well, Doug, as we say in Belfast - "I appeal to the crowd!" Am I being
frantic? Childish? Hope not.

> You're wrong about what I'm doing, John,

Well, you're wrong about my being wrong about what you're doing, Doug...

> I'm certain I can find any
> number of critics who will read and interpret Chandler any number of ways.

Go for it.

> ... if you're going to point to this that or the other "expert"
> and claim his or her authority settles a literary  disagreement once and for
> all -- that's the childish move, John.

Maybe, but then that's not what I did. As I previously noted, I'm
*not* claiming Toby W (who I never heard of until yesterday) as any
kind of 'expert'.  I'm not holding up anyone as an 'expert'. If you
are basing what you are saying - that Marlowe is a 'brute' - on your
reading of Chandler's books, well, where exactly are you getting that
from? Why do you seem to think Marlowe enjoys violence, or spends a
lot of time hanging out with cops, etc.?

It's interesting to note, nobody has as yet provided any example, from
the texts, of Marlowe's racism or brutishness. Nothing.

Sorry, Doug, but you are the one who's coming across as frantic. I
don't know why you can't keep this civil, after all we've been
exchanging emails for years now and despite disagreeing over
particular issues, never fallen out. Frankly, it sounds to me like
you've got a bee in your bonnet about Marlowe being some sort of Judge
Dredd figure. Dunno why. And as someone who has been on the receiving
end of police violence myself, I have no fondness for that sort of
behaviour. But I don't think Marlowe does either.

I cannot understand how you could have recently (re)read Chandler, yet
still be able to say this:

> Marlowe and company wouldn't accept a black president any more than today's pinhead tea-baggers do.

Here you are not saying that Marlowe's language would today be
considered not too 'politically correct', or that he sometimes
reflects dodgy attiyudes... no, what you are saying is that he is an
out-and-out racist. Totally, utterly wrong.

Cheers
J