Later, Bill Denton wondered about bundling porn with dope (or
other vices).
This may be an older version of the "gateway" metaphor that
activists like
to use to suggest that no drug is "innocent." [Used in
arguments against
legalizing marijuana.] So perhaps porn and the desire for
porn were
considered a sort of "gateway," as emphasized by the Legion
of Decency and
campaigns against "immoral" books and films that began in the
20s?
I agree with Thomas Jones about the named characters in "The
Big Sleep,"
but I seem to remember Geiger's "black book" had enough
respectable names
for the D.A. to consider it a favor that Marlowe would hand
it over to
him--so a coverup results, which is good for Marlowe's
clients, the
Sternwoods. And when Marlowe has Geiger's staked out, doesn't
he notice a
number of well-dressed men--and women--going in to pick up
some porn? So
Geiger's porn business, and the fact that it was allowed to
exist, seems
another indicator of how widespread simple vices (like
gambling too) put
everyone close to the line.
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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