---
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net wrote:
> I'm with Mario and John. Spade isn't a
particularly
> nice guy, but I
> don't think his attitudes towards gays were at
all
> unusual for his
> times. And it's not like he was targeting
random
> gays. He was beating
> up those who threatened him and his. Don't
think
> he'd have reacted much
> differently if it had been a straight man
who
> pointed a gun at him,
> though he probably would have given him a
more
> "manly" beating, instead
> of pointedly emasculating him by slapping him
and
> taking away his "gun."
>
> As for gunsel, the Rara Avis site's glossary
of
> hardboiled slang
> contains Earl Stanley Gardner's story about
how
> Hammett got that word
> past editor Shaw and into the pages of Black
Mask.
> Here's the direct
> link:
>
> http://www.miskatonic.org/gooseberry.html
****************************************************** It is
interesting that all the male villains in The Maltese Falcon
are homosexual stereotypes and that the ultimate villain,
Brigid O'Shaughnessy, is a misanthrope who lures men into
criminal behavior, murdering them or leaving them for others
to murder when they've out lived their usefulness to her.
While on the opposite side is stalwart, heterosexual, Samuel
Spade who may play fast and loose with the truth in the face
of psychosis but in the long run, unlike Archer & Jacoby,
does not fall prey to the lure of illicit sex. Donald Spoto
wold have a field day with the underlying psychology of this
novel.
Patrick King
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