IVIV Chandler

[Mark Kohut]

IV as spoof-homage? my first reading.
Rational Marlowe vs. Doper Doc
Tough world  vs. low intensity one
Macho marlowe   vs. Pussy-eating Doc
Bad Boy Marlowe  vs. All-Hangs-Out Doc


--- On Thu, 8/20/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV Chandler
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 10:30 AM
> What makes Marlowe and Sam Spade
> (channeled by Humphrey Bogart) work is that they're rough
> around the edges (maybe, in Marlowe's case, to the point of
> brutishness), but underneath is the moral core, the heart of
> gold.  Hidden away like that, it's a lot more endearing
> than if they wore it on their shirt sleeve, playing the
> indignant (and inherently boring) good-guy/hero. 
> Pynchon gets it kind of wrong with Doc, who seems pretty
> laid back and affable on the outside, robbing us of the fun
> discovery that there's a moral core hidden away. 
> Bigfoot makes a better hero in that regard.  Speaking
> for womankind, we're attracted to the bad boys because we
> want to ferret out the good hidden within.  
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com>
>  You're not basing this on the text(s), just a
> >feeling you have that Marlowe is a 'brute'. Marlowe is
> always on the
> >side of the downtrodden and defeated. He'd a been a
> prime candidate
> >for The Counterforce. Hell, when Pynchon wants to
> express the fat that
> >all is lost and nobody can help, at teh end of GR, he
> has Philip
> >Marlowe suffering a migraine, reaching for his whiskey
> bottle, and
> >feeling homesick for the lasce balconies of the
> Bradbury building.
> >Hardly a brute.
> >
> >For the last time, Doug, Marlowe doesn't hang aroudn
> with cops, he is
> >not generally on friendly terms with them. They usually
> pull him in
> >for questioning and rough him up and get in the way and
> acn't be arsed
> >to solve crimes, whereas Marlowe *does* care, and
> abjhors murder and
> >seeks to do justice for victims. And even the few cops
> he does
> >occassionally fraternise with, who he's stayed friends
> with since his
> >days in the District Attorney's office, still treat him
> with suspicion
> >and come knocking on his door at 2am in the morning
> wanting to shake
> >him down.
> >
> >Go read 'Farewell, My Lovely', there you can see plenty
> of racism, but
> >you can also see it's not Marlowe who's teh racist, and
> in fact, the
> >endemic racism is one of the factors which serves to
> alienate Marlowe
> >from society.
> >
> 
>