Re: RARA-AVIS: Ross Macdonald's influence

From: David White ( dpwhite237@yahoo.com)
Date: 29 Nov 2004


I think Archer is intentionally two-dimensional. MacDonald wanted the reader to view the surrounding characters through Archer, Archer as passageway into the novel. He wanted the reader to be able to make other judgements about the characters, while Archer acted as the conscience of the novel. Therefore, Archer can't really have a past or any real characterizations (especially in the later novels, save perhaps The Blue Hammer), that would impede on the impact of the surrounding characters in the novel.
 
-Dave

Richard Moore < moorich2@aol.com> wrote: For the sake of argument, granting every point in the above paragraph about MacDonald's better antagonists, protagonists, etc., I am intrigued that your praise does not include the character Lew Archer. For myself, I've always found Lew Archer a bit, well, two- dimensional, certainly hazy in comparison to the various fully-drawn protagonists and antagonists.

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