Sorry William. We can both admire and appreciate The Maltese
Falcon, but you just don't get it.
Though he inspired Marlowe, Spade is a different character
entirely. Marlowe is the romantic, lone knight. He rescues
the damsels from their dragons, even if he doesn't marry them
and live happily ever after. Well, he's a bit sexually
confused, like his creator and many romantic heroes.
But Spade is not confused. He saves no one from anything,
except himself from playing the sap. He neither stops nor
corrects anyone's behaviour. He doesn't care about them. At
best he avenges his partner's death, but only because to do
otherwise would be bad for business. Spade logically
repudiates all notions of romantic transcendence. Get used to
it, he says, this is the real world, and this is what it
takes to survive in it.
You get nowhere just lumping all the tough-guys together.
Marlowe is the tough-talking but romantic searcher. Spade is
condemned to live, briefly as the rest of us, in a world
without love. If you don't think that's screwed, if you think
I'm the one doing the fudging, then be careful not to bend
over in a public washroom.
And please refrain from suggesting that I said Spade is not a
hero. What I said was that he could only be a hero in a
different kind of literature. That would be noir literature.
With all due respect, I am tired of reading posts that try to
paint over noir with a romantic varnish. That would be
semantic dancing. If you imagine Spade is a romantic hero
like Marlowe, then you've at least got to address that list
of reasons he has for handing Brigid over to the cops. Tell
me what's romantic about any one of those, please.
Otherwise, I agree with all you've said, Kerry
>I got to go with Jack on this one. Describing Spade
as
>"screwed" -- with all due respect -- is
semantic
>dancing. For example, he's not dead, in prison,
or
>insane. Now that's screwed and I can't speak for
Jack
>but I sense that's what he means. Spade is a hero
as
>is Philip Marlowe and you can fudge it all you
want
>but he succeeds and lives and all the bad puppies
have
>been slapped with the newspaper. Don't get me
wrong.
>The Maltese Falcon may be the best book of its
kind
>and is a damn fine book of any kind.
>
>But Spade is a hero no matter what environment
he
>swims in. All the PIs are. This is elementary, my
dear
>Watson. There's no getting around it. That is how
they
>function. That they may be morally or
ethically
>flexible only means that they aren't saints. They
may
>not be role models but they sure are heros in the
way
>we understand that term. Frank and Cora from
"Postman"
>are not heros. It's this simple: One is dead and
the
>other is off to prison.
>
>That's screwed.
>
>William
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