Vicki, just a few thoughts-- Well, Walter Huff DOES have a
"filipino houseboy"...
(Don't remember if I'm spelling that correctly as regards
Cain)...and in one sense, to have racism NOT be a major thing
makes it that much more potent (if subtle) a critique of its
appearance in its parent society...re Tim Willocks,
introducing Thompson:
"On the rare occasions that the average modern Literary
writer stumbles onto a powerful image or image system he or
she cannot resist wrapping it around themselves and parading
up and down the page as if it were a designer dress" Granted,
TW doesn't exactly follow his own advice's implications re
subtlety (as the disappointing conventional end to GREEN
RIVER RISING demonstrates all too clearly), and he may be
exercising his pet terrier, Elite, a bit--but this obsevation
seems to me one reason why sledgehammer writers like DeLillo
and Stone tend to lose appeal after a novel/film or so.
(I think your own Miami Purity succeeds admirably at the
subtle treatment of the theme, by the way, beginning right
off when Ms. Parlay enters the dry cleaners & speaks with
Marisol.) Rob
---
vhend1234@aol.com wrote:
> I think Hammet is much worse on the
racism/misogyny
> than other writers of
> that period because of the casual assumptions
that
> fall into the background. It's
> fine to have a character who's a racist, as
a
> character flaw, but it bugs me
> how it's not really a purposeful point in
the
> Maltese Falcon. Notice that
> Cain, being in the same era, has no racism, and
his
> women might be bad, but
> they're not weak.
> Vicki
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have
been
> removed]
>
>
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