--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Crider"
<bcrider@h...> wrote:
> Last paragraph of THE DOOMSTERS:
>
> "For once in my life I had nothing and wanted
nothing. Then the thought of
> Sue fell through me like a feather in a vacuum. My
mind picked it up and
> ran with it and took flight. I wondered where she
was, what she was doing,
> whether she'd aged much as she lay in ambush in
time, or changed the color
> of her bright head."
>
> Bill Crider
Thank you, Bill. And now allow me to open The Long Goodbye at
random and plunk my finger down (as per my earlier
challenge):
****
"You're a very forgiving man, Mr. Edelweiss."
"Well, I ain't a Christian," he said. "And I'm not knocking
Christians, you understand. But with me it's real. I don't
just say it. I do it. Oh, I almost forgot the most
important."
He got out a picture postcard and pushed it across the desk
after the money...
**** OK, so this is a bit apples and oranges. I'll say what I
like about both passages. First, the RM: well, I don't like
it at all through that feather part, but I like the last line
a lot, mainly the notion of "ambush" (who is she going to
ambush? him? it's such a compellingly hostile metaphor for a
woman he seems to long for in some way) and the "color of her
bright head" (not "hair," as you might expect), which is a
terribly cryptic and poetic way to remember a woman. The
Chandler I love 'cause Edelweiss is a sap and Marlowe knows
it but does not show contempt for him. I like how Chandler
gives Edelweiss the meaningful line about Christian hypocrisy
(which in RM would surely come out of preachy Archer's
mouth). Marlowe is fairly curt and Edelweiss fills the scene
(in a very memorable way for a character who makes only this
one appearance in the entire novel and has Zero to do with
the plot). Btw, one of the things I admire most about TLG is
how it dallies in scenes that don't advance the plot (e.g.
the two *wrong* Dr. V's, and the set of ordinary clients
Marlowe sees -- of which Edelweiss is one). These scenes are
entertaining in their own right and go a long way to
deepening the characterization of Marlowe.
What do you like about the Doomsters paragraph? (or the TLG
one?)
mds
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