Is Marlowe a Racist?

[Otto]

In the tenth chapter of "The Big Sleep" Chandler lets Marlowe say
about himself that if someone of his weight can look like a gay he's
the one. I've got only the German text, sorry:

"Wenn einer mit hundertachtzig Pfund wie ein Schwuli aussehen konnte,
dann schaffte ich das bestens."

("Der große Schlaf", Diogenes, Zürich 1974, p. 45)

That doesn't sound very homophobic, at least to my ears.

Otto

2009/8/20 John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com>:
>> It's not as if there were a lot of heterosexual, openly pro-gay writers in the US at the time.  Can anyone name one?  You can't really attack someone for being a product of their times.
>>
>> Laura
>
> Yes, fair point. And we still don't know what Chandler's attitude
> really was. I'd guess he was pretty confilcted on the matter: in his
> heart he felt he should be on the side of homosexuals, as they were
> the underdog, but in his head he realised he felt too uncomfortable
> about homosexuality to have an easy or uncomplicated relationship with
> the idea of someone being gay. Chandler went to an English 'Public'
> (i.e. private) school, so who knows what wen to there.
>