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RARA-AVIS: Red Wind: homoerotics & mastubatory closure
IMO, I think the detail of the way in which Waldo describes the female's is
feminised: whether that suggests he got the description from her, or
whether it suggests the feminisation is indicative of Waldo's / a
Chandleresque tendency toward / effeminacy is something else.
Someone pointed out earlier [pre-thread] that, whatever the name of the
detective, it is always Marlowe. I think that this is quite correct. In
Marlowe, there is a tendency to de-sexualise or avoid sexualised encounters
with female characters [or to neurotically over-react when things get
'sticky'] and there is an inclination toward what might be called
effeminacy---a tendency to develop relationships with male characters,
characterised by strongly homoeroticdescription and observation. 'Red Wind'
is no exception.
Notice how keen Dalmas is to reassure the woman in 'Red Wind': [Get 'em]
'Off! Now!'
Immediately followed by the assurance, 'I'm not on the make' [ie, he's not
trying to 'make' her].
While the woman, of course, has a sexual 'history': 'my husband hired you
to spy on me', Dalmas's sexuality is expressed in a complex
double-articulation: verbally, he's insists 'I'm not on the make'; mentally
he tells himself 'I wish she *had* come to look at my etchings' an attempt
to assert / reassure himself of his own heterosexual credentials'. This is
somewhat undercut by the sentimentalised feeling Dalmas has cultivated for
a man he's never met: narrative closure is marked by the masturbatory image
of a lone / lonely Dalmas tossing 'pearls' into the sea 'in memory' of
Stan.
Eddie Duggan
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