The Long Goodbye, Chapter 49

[Charles Albert]

*Chandler turns that around by blowing a hole through T.S. Eliot's
pretensions.*


I don't see how this follows......Earlier in the novel Marlowe offers Amos a
tip, or, if he'd prefer, a book of T. S. Eliot's poems which Amos declines
because he already possesses the works. It seems unlikely that Chandler
would discount the intellectual capacity he has established for the
chauffeur simply to take a swipe at Eliot. If anything, an enthusiasm for
Eliot, sufficient to motivate an analysis of Prufrock, appears consistent
with Marlowe's other higher level affinities, specifically chess. I take
Marlowe's comment about Eliot and women as evidence of his intimacy and
fondness for him, and even as an expression of a kind of kinship. Marlowe
offers several "insights" on the nature of women - his digression on blondes
is a riot worthy of Nabokov - but he is continually tripped up by his
inability to accurately discern their motivations, a shortcoming he shares
with Prufrock.



love,
cfa
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