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Re: RARA-AVIS: Red Wind: homoerotics & mastubatory closure 

Michaela wrote:

>...  I thought pulp fiction
>was written for quick entertainment for the masses and quick money for
>the author.  I think maybe we are reading too much into the stories. 

        Chandler expressed his intentions pretty clearly in the
essay "The Simple Art of Murder," along with his position on what
I guess we'd call today the high/low culture distinction.  He was
for high culture without being a snob, just as Marlowe was a moralist
without being a prig.  We may be off the mark in discerning his
precise intention in writing "Red Wind", but I don't think we're
taking it too seriously.

        But even if we forget about his programmatic statements, that
Chandler may not have intended to express Dalmas/Marlowe's
sexuality through what Eddie calls "a complex double-articulation,"
doesn't mean it's not there.  Tossing the pearls into the
ocean may or may not make sense for many reasons, and -- for me, at
least -- reading the story means discovering those reasons and seeing
how they work or don't work together.  Chandler may have written "Red
Wind" for a quick buck, but it's a mark of ability and depth as a writer
that his knowledge of character and storytelling would be evident even
where he didn't consciously apply it.  Tell _that_ to your English prof
from the 60's and see if it wouldn't make him drop his copy of Dorothy 
Sayers.

        That said, I think Joshua Lukin's likening of Marlowe's attitude
towards Stan with his feelings for Terry Lennox in _Long Goodbye_ hits
the nail on the head -- but the thing that impresses me most about Marlowe's
character is that his compassion for losers and four-flushers never blinds
him to their faults.
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Curtiss Leung                              (212)267-7722 Voice
hleung@prolifics.com                       (212)608-6753 Fax
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"Futility is...hard to deal with" -- Patrick Bateman
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