Jack,
Re your comments below:
> Another question: Would it have been a
better
> book told third-person single POV or
first
> person?
No. It's only by maintaining the "camera/tape recorder" mode
and staying out of the minds of the characters that Hammett
is able to keep Spade's motives a surprise.
We're all so familiar with the book now, that the surprises
are vitiated, but there are, in fact, two major surprises at
the end. One is that Brigid turns out to be the killer. The
other is that Spade's motivation throughout turns out to have
been FINDING the killer. And, since, on the surface, Spade
looks as crooked any of the other characters, that WOULD be a
major surprise were we not, in the first place, already so
familiar with the story, and, in the second place, so
influenced by the conventions of the private eye sub-genre
(conventions that were not nearly so calcified by 1929) to
automatically regard the PI character as a good guy.
In effect, were it not for those outside influences, we, as
readers, might be as prone as any other character to make the
mistake Spade chides Brigid for making, assuming that he's as
crooked as his reputation makes him out to be.
And for us to make that mistake, or at least to be kept in
doubt, Hammett has to maintain that extremely objective
style.
> Or have we all been influenced by
> Chandler into thinking that the PI story is
best
> told from the single point of view?
Well, I think that's a no-brainer. Of course he has. That's
why, conservatively, 90% of all post-Chandler PI stories have
been 1st person.
> I just read the book again last week, and I
don't
> want to take the time to look it up, but
maybe
> someone else might remember--isn't the only
time
> Spade is "off camera" during the scenes that
show
> Gutman's daughter?
My recollection is that Spade's on camera with Miss Gutman.
Doesn't he take a cab out to one of the suburbs, Burlingame,
to meet her?
JIM DOHERTY
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail
- 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads.
Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for
free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Sep 2004 EDT