Nicholas’s Comments (group member since Oct 15, 2020)

Nicholas’s comments from the Point Blank group.

Chandler writes like the intense racism on display is just an immutable fact of life, but when this book was published, in 1940, the NAACP was 30 years old. Anti lynching laws were proposed in congress though not passed in 1918 and 1935. In six (very turbulent) years, California (where Marlowe lives) would be the first state to legalize interracial marriage. I think Marlowe could have been credibly written as disgusted by racism, but that isn’t the choice Chandler made. And for that, we can pass judgement, especially since Chandler was explicitly trying to write Marlowe as clean in a corrupt world, still living by some chivalric code. Justin was right to be put off by this aspect of the book.

Len Deighton wrote a 9 novel series (three trilogies, beginning with Berlin Game) about a spy named Bernard Samson. Most critics agree the character is inspired by Phillip Marlowe, and the books are definitely hard boiled, and some what noir.

I just finished the second Juniper Song novel, Beware Beware, by Steph Cha. This book is great noir, but with a lot of references to Chandler, so I guess it’s also meta-noir.