In Praise of the Long Sentence - CrimeSpace2024-03-29T00:56:24Zhttps://crimespace.ning.com/forum/topics/in-praise-of-the-long-sentence?id=537324%3ATopic%3A354697&feed=yes&xn_auth=noShe is very languid and very…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-25:537324:Comment:3561492012-09-25T13:02:06.615ZCaroline Trippehttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/CarolineTrippe
<p><em><strong>She is very languid and very shadowy and she speaks softly out of nowhere and you can't lay a finger on her because in the first place you don't want to and in the second place she is reading</strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land" rel="nofollow"><strong>The Waste Land</strong></a><strong> or Dante in the original </strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong> </strong></em></p>
<p><em>And she likes long sentences, no doubt.</em></p>
<p><em>This sounds like Chandler…</em></p>
<p><em><strong>She is very languid and very shadowy and she speaks softly out of nowhere and you can't lay a finger on her because in the first place you don't want to and in the second place she is reading</strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land"><strong>The Waste Land</strong></a><strong> or Dante in the original </strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong> </strong></em></p>
<p><em>And she likes long sentences, no doubt.</em></p>
<p><em>This sounds like Chandler being just a WEE BIT anti-intellectual! So reading The Waste Land makes a woman un-sexy? Or Dante? Or Kafka? Or adoring music? Oh, Raymond, Raymond! You ARE dating yourself---don't need a powder blue suit to do it! </em></p>
<p><em>So would it be OK for a brunette to like all those things? I am not and have never been either shadowy or languid! :) </em></p>
<p><em> </em></p> Well, that I would have to a…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-25:537324:Comment:3561462012-09-25T12:56:05.644ZCaroline Trippehttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/CarolineTrippe
<p>Well, that I would have to agree with! Back when it was sort of OK to "slug" a dame. </p>
<p>This is turning into a pretty interesting discussion, though! </p>
<p>Personally I'd like to see more of these on Crime Space. Livens things up!</p>
<p>Well, that I would have to agree with! Back when it was sort of OK to "slug" a dame. </p>
<p>This is turning into a pretty interesting discussion, though! </p>
<p>Personally I'd like to see more of these on Crime Space. Livens things up!</p> If nothing else, passages lik…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-14:537324:Comment:3553112012-09-14T23:29:14.174ZJude Hardinhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/festus
<p>If nothing else, passages like this are interesting from a historical perspective, illustrating the prevailing attitude toward women at the time.</p>
<p>If nothing else, passages like this are interesting from a historical perspective, illustrating the prevailing attitude toward women at the time.</p> I liked it too. But then agai…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-14:537324:Comment:3552182012-09-14T21:04:29.793ZEric Christophersonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/datahog
<p>I liked it too. But then again I like blondes.</p>
<p>I liked it too. But then again I like blondes.</p> Maybe I'm just a Chandler fan…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-14:537324:Comment:3553042012-09-14T21:02:47.602ZJack Getzehttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JGetze
<p>Maybe I'm just a Chandler fan, but I love this. Yes he is showing off a little, showing us his chops, trying to sound like a writer (which is what Jude maybe hears and doesn't like). It's okay. He IS a freaking writer. Go for it Ray!</p>
<p>Maybe I'm just a Chandler fan, but I love this. Yes he is showing off a little, showing us his chops, trying to sound like a writer (which is what Jude maybe hears and doesn't like). It's okay. He IS a freaking writer. Go for it Ray!</p> I get the "snappy". However,…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-14:537324:Comment:3553032012-09-14T14:23:40.946ZI. J. Parkerhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Ingpark
<p>I get the "snappy". However, in the meantime (a long meantime) we have learned to relate to P.I.s who don't care about what clothes they wear, embracing the natural look instead. They are, in fact, rough and tumble, and that becomes a part of their character and establishes priorities that don't rely on appearance. I'm not so sure that 1939 was really so much into men wearing powder-blue suits and ogling ornate residences.</p>
<p>I get the "snappy". However, in the meantime (a long meantime) we have learned to relate to P.I.s who don't care about what clothes they wear, embracing the natural look instead. They are, in fact, rough and tumble, and that becomes a part of their character and establishes priorities that don't rely on appearance. I'm not so sure that 1939 was really so much into men wearing powder-blue suits and ogling ornate residences.</p> He forgot about book-buying b…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-14:537324:Comment:3553872012-09-14T12:32:43.029ZJude Hardinhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/festus
<p>He forgot about book-buying blonde, who was busy choosing a title that didn't insult her.</p>
<p>I don't see much good about this. Difference of opinion I guess. If I were to teach a creative writing course, I would use this as an example of what not to do. <em>If</em> you want to get published.</p>
<p>He forgot about book-buying blonde, who was busy choosing a title that didn't insult her.</p>
<p>I don't see much good about this. Difference of opinion I guess. If I were to teach a creative writing course, I would use this as an example of what not to do. <em>If</em> you want to get published.</p> The nice thing about the inte…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-13:537324:Comment:3552102012-09-13T23:32:21.205ZJon Loomishttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JonLoomis
<p>The nice thing about the internet is that you can always have it both ways, just by moving the goalposts a little. But then there's this long, reflective passage on blondes, from <em>The Long Goodbye. </em> It's completely unnecessary to the story, it goes to character but probably doesn't tell us much about Marlowe that we don't already know, and it has a bunch of long-ass sentences in it that I, having a medical condition, could not hope to say in one breath. Leonard would probably cut…</p>
<p>The nice thing about the internet is that you can always have it both ways, just by moving the goalposts a little. But then there's this long, reflective passage on blondes, from <em>The Long Goodbye. </em> It's completely unnecessary to the story, it goes to character but probably doesn't tell us much about Marlowe that we don't already know, and it has a bunch of long-ass sentences in it that I, having a medical condition, could not hope to say in one breath. Leonard would probably cut it. It's just Chandler showing off, but it's brilliant--maybe the best passage in the book. </p>
<p></p>
<p><em>There are blondes and blondes and it is almost a joke word nowadays. All blondes have their points, except perhaps the metallic ones who are as blond as a Zulu under the bleach and as to disposition as soft as a sidewalk. There is the small cute blond who cheeps and twitters, and the big statuesque blonde who straight-arms you with an ice-blue glare. There is the blonde who gives you the up-from-under look and smells lovely and shimmers and hangs on your arm and is always very very tired when you take her home. She makes that helpless gesture and has that goddamned headache and you would like to slug her except that you are glad you found out about the headache before you invested too much time and money and hope in her. Because the headache will always be there, a weapon that never wears out and is as deadly as the bravo's rapier or Lucrezia's poison vial.</em></p>
<p><em>There is the soft and willing and alcoholic blonde who doesn't care what she wears as long as it is mink or where she goes as long as it is the Starlight Roof and plenty of dry champagne. There is the small perky blonde who is a little pal and wants to pay her own way and is full of sunshine and common sense and knows judo from the ground up and can toss a truck driver over her shoulder without missing more than one sentence out of the editorial in the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3065/is_2_32/ai_97179245">Saturday Review</a>. There is the pale, pale blonde* with anemia of some non-fatal but incurable type. She is very languid and very shadowy and she speaks softly out of nowhere and you can't lay a finger on her because in the first place you don't want to and in the second place she is reading <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land">The Waste Land</a> or Dante in the original, or Kafka or Kierkegaard or studying <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proven%C3%A7al">Provençal</a>. She adores music and when the New York Philharmonic is playing Hindemith she can tell you which one of the six bass viols came in a quarter of a beat too late. I hear Toscanini can also. That makes two of them.</em></p>
<p><em>And lastly there is the gorgeous show piece who will outlast three kingpin racketeers and then marry a couple of millionaires at a million a head and end up with a pale rose villa at Cap d'Antibes, an Alfa-Romeo town car complete with pilot and co-pilot, and a stable of shopworn aristocrats, all of whom she will treat with the affectionate absent-mindedness of an elderly duke saying goodnight to his butler.</em></p>
<p><em>The dream across the way was none of these, not even of that kind of world. She was unclassifiable, as remote and clear as mountain water, as elusive as its color.</em></p> You are funny, I.J. The book…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-13:537324:Comment:3552852012-09-13T23:21:41.992ZJon Loomishttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JonLoomis
<p>You are funny, I.J. The book was written in 1939. It's set in Los Angeles. Marlowe's outfit would've been considered pretty snappy, given the time and place. </p>
<p>You are funny, I.J. The book was written in 1939. It's set in Los Angeles. Marlowe's outfit would've been considered pretty snappy, given the time and place. </p> Aw, geez, now I'm going to ha…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2012-09-13:537324:Comment:3552032012-09-13T22:38:56.399ZEric Christophersonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/datahog
<p>Aw, geez, now I'm going to have to burn another suit ...</p>
<p>Aw, geez, now I'm going to have to burn another suit ...</p>