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RARA-AVIS: Red Wind: Intention and Essence 

Eddie Duggan writes:

>It might be cosy to hang on to a romantic, reassuring notion of "the
>author's intentions",  but that would suggest that "the author" is a single 
>unified subject, capable of "knowing" and "intention".
>If, for example, a particular person --- a writer, say --- has particularly
>strong fears or feelings about a particular issue --- homosexuality, say --- 
>that writer might consciously deny those fears/feelings 
>and even try to keep them from surfacing in his everyday speech and writing
>(particularly in a culture that is homphobic).  Unconsciously, he may even
>try to purge them from his thinking.  Such efforts might be less than
successful 
>however.
>

        OK...but this line of reasoning seems to simply replace "intention" 
with "libido"  within the same interpretative scheme; it still hypostatizes an
aspect of meaning.  There's no denying the erotic and homoerotic aspects of
Chandler's prose, but they're not its "foundation."  So Marlowe tossing the
pearls into the ocean may be homoerotic and masturbatory, but it's also an
act of recognition: after covering for Stan Phillips (even to Ybarra, don't
forget), he finally acknowledges Stan's deception and implicitly categorizes
himself as a "four-flusher," as someone who deceived a woman out of attraction
for her.  Whatever eros he feels for one of the pair is conditioned not only by 
the eros he feels for the other, but also by his moral sensibilities.  Nor is
Marlowe caught between these forces unconsciously; he may not acknowledge them
explicitly, but the lengths he goes to shield both Lola's feelings and Stan's
reputation indicates some awareness -- at least! -- of the web of conflicting 
attractions and duties that entangle him.  For another example, look at
Marlowe's
conversation with Roger Wade in _The Long Goodbye_ about sexual conventions and
_The Golden Bough_; it's not confused and repressed, but aware and cagey.  

        For me, this indicates that, as a writer, Chandler completely
understood 
the dynamics of human motivations and, as a character, Marlowe is not merely
subject
to his impulses, but activily creates a world and moral order from them.  I
remember
reading somewhere that a mark of seriousness in artistic treatment of sexual
matter
was that they were presented in a sublimated, yet aware manner, while junk
managed
to be both explicit and repressed.  As far as I can tell, the tensions and
complexities 
of Chandler's writing land him firmly in the former catagory.

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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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