> The belief that there is a "dingus"
> handed down from the Knights of Malta, encrusted
in
> jewels covered with lacquer, is fanciful.
Killing
> people to get hold of it, is psychotic.
Fanciful? It is a work of fiction, after all.
And it is never suggested in the novel or the films that the
real statuette doesn't exist in the FICTIONAL world that they
depict. Merely that the bird in hand at the end of the story
is a fake, which gives the ending a rather noirish
poignancy.
It's certainly an original interpretation, I'll grant you
that, but it is never suggested in or supported by the text
(or more likely the screenplays) that these people are
delusional; unable to distinguish reality from fantasy.
Misled, murderous, treacherous, greedy, obsessed? Yes. But
not nuts.
(I think that's the clinical term)
So the characters (Brigid, Thursby, Gutman, the sea captain,
etc., etc., etc. -- even Spade himself, who at first suspects
Brigid has somehow switched birds) believing in the bird's
existence is not a sign of any "psychosis."
We now return to regularly scheduled programming, where we
learn that Philip Marlowe was also psychotic, because no
Sternwood family ever lived at that actual Los Angeles
address. You could check old phonebooks or voter registration
rolls.
Kevin
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