RARA-AVIS: Red Wind

• To: rara-avis@icomm.ca
• Subject: RARA-AVIS: Red Wind
• From: michael david sharp <msharp@umich.edu>
• Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 16:55:19 -0400 (EDT)
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• In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970525222926.20089A-100000@vex.net>
• Reply-To: rara-avis@icomm.ca
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I quite liked "Red Wind" (this was the first time I'd read it). I found
all the business with the pearls, however, distracting. Specifically, all
of section 7 (are all editions divided into seven parts?) seemed forced
and extraneous to me. Marlowe's final gesture, casting the "pearls" out
into the ocean, struck me as uncharacteristically sentimental.  Why did
Lola Barsaly affect him so deeply?  And why does he "dedicate" the casting
off of the "pearls" to "Mr. Stan Phillips?"  That is, why does he
incorporate Lola's lost love into the structure of this final sentimental
gesture? 

One other question I have. When thinking back on Waldo's last moments
alive, Marlowe remarks that "Waldo had described the girl's clothes in a
way the ordinary man wouldn't know how to describe them" (end of section
1).  What is Marlowe saying (or implying) about Waldo here?  At first I
thought Marlowe was suggesting that Waldo was a "fairy" -- but now I'm
uncertain.  If Marlowe doesn't think Waldo is an "ordinary man," what does
he think Waldo is?

Michael

----------------------------------------------------------
Michael D. Sharp, Dept. of English, University of Michigan
(msharp@umich.edu)                      

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