--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Burton Smith
<kvnsmith@...> wrote:
> What makes Marlowe or Spade or Hammer or even
Brandstetter or Paretsky
> and Millhone tough isn't how many thugs they can
bench press (or what
> they're wearing) but the mere fact they're willing
to go down those
> mean streets.
>
> Courage and integrity and intelligence impress me.
Your fascination
> with leather? Not so much.
>
Kevin, I don't think Patrick was saying anything
substantially different from what you say above. The two
witnesses (you as you see yourself and you as you think they
see you) are going to give different accounts, obviously. If
you dress so that the secondary witness checks you out as
tough, probably the principal witness is telling you that
you're not really tough. Just my hypothesis.
This has been explored thoroughly in westerns. The tough,
quiet,unassuming guy often ends up beating (more often,
shooting) the secondarily tough guy, they guy who puts on the
show. It's a classic situation that probably goes back to the
old mythologies. I kind of recall something like this in the
Icelandic sagas.
Best,
mrt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Mar 2008 EDT