Kerry wrote:
>Marlowe and Spade didn't trust this type [various
negative stereotypes]
>of woman, and were blind to the existence of any
other type.
Hmm, I'm not sure of this when it comes to Spade. His
relationship with Effie Perine was one of my favorite parts
of Falcon (and the main thing that I think failed to
translate from the book to the screen - referring to the
Huston film, which I adore). Yeah, Spade treats Mrs. Archer
and Brigid like crap, but Brigid doesn't get any worse than
she deserves, and Sam never pretends to be a "knight" re:
Mrs. A. Fair or not, Spade gets away with more in my mind
because he's set up as an essentially amoral character from
the beginning. I'll freely admit that I'm not totally immune
to "jerk appeal," that being one of the reasons I like HB
guys :).
Jim Doherty mentioned Anne Riordan, jogging my memory on the
"Nancy Drew" character. I found this character to be
annoying, a fairly lame and uninteresting attempt at a "good
girl" character. I can't defend the opinion any more than
that because it's been years since I read "farewell," I'm
just remembering my visceral reaction to her.
Elvis Cole is the closest I can think of to a contemporary
"knight"; (and Spenser I suppose to the extent that Spenser
is contemporary). Since Parker essentially started out
"doing" Chandler, and Crais started out "doing" Parker,
there's no real surprise here. Myron Bolitar is perhaps meant
to be in the "not himself mean" tradition, but in
contemporary terms this translates to "sensitive" (which in
my mind translates to "wuss," but that could just be me). I
find his virtue a little suspect anyway in that he hangs out
with Win - but it's already been well established on a number
of other lists that I just don't get Coben at all, so I won't
drag that horse out and beat it :).
Carrie
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