User talk:Kathi L. Berke/Philip Marlowe and His Women

I never wrote an original entry for Wikipedia. I only commented once. I don't think I formatted this correctly. I didn't include a signature and timestamp and boy, I think I need to study subpage protocol to link things. Is that correct?--Kathi L. Berke 09:27, 29 December 2007 (CST)

I'm here to help! ;) Basically, for the subpages you'll put {{subpages}} at the top of every page (talk, article), and then create a "metadata page" which includes data about the article that's required for the template. If you check under "recent changes" you can see the history of each page by clicking on the "Diff" link on the left hand side. --Robert W King 09:29, 29 December 2007 (CST)

I appreciate the edits. I'm trying to learn how an article differs from a literary analysis. I'm wondering if I should expand the article to cover all the important women in his novels, or move onto something else.--Kathi L. Berke 02:28, 30 December 2007 (CST)

Raymond Chandler

Kathi, you ask what you can do. Personally I would appreciate a lot an article about Raymond Chandler. I made a stub. If you feel like it you can edit it and add whatever you know and feel about Raymond Chandler. Don't worry about layout, the other "citizens" will take care of it. Do you know anything about Chandler's influences on/from Dashiel Hammett and Ross McDonald (two other authors in this genre that I like)?--Paul Wormer 04:09, 30 December 2007 (CST)

Text of article moved by a Constable to Talk page for further reflection

As an experienced, and professional, writer, I feel that the quality of writing in this article is very poor, certainly not of encyclopedic standards.

Moreover, I am certain that it constitutes Original Research, not merely synthesis of existing prior research and knowledge, which is what most CZ articles are. If there were active Literature Editors, I would ask them to put a Delete template on it. In the meantime, therefore, I am moving it to this Talk page, as permitted for Constables to do exercising their own judgment. Hayford Peirce 00:58, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

More explanation. The original author said that she had never before written a Wikipedia article or Citizendium article. She imported the text of this article already 100% written, and I devoted a certain amount of time to editing it and getting it into proper format. Aside from spending a single day working on it, however, the original author never again returned to it. I thought at the time that it would be edited and improved but such has not happened. Whether or not it is actually "embarrassing", to use a term in our policy statement that would permit it to be moved to Cold Storage, I don't know. It is, in my opinion, close to it. Hayford Peirce 01:03, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Two years on... I would support deletion of the whole thing as original research, really. John Stephenson 11:40, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for reminding me, John. I guess that we'll have to get an Editorial Council official ruling on this. I'll start the wheels turning. Hayford Peirce 16:35, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Removal

Removal suggested by John Stephenson 11:40, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Editorial Council: Case 2011-xxx

Opened: Peter Schmitt 09:50, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Closed: moved to user space of User:Kathi L. Berke. Peter Schmitt 20:33, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

---

Comments

I suggest to move the page to user space -- even though other Citizens have edited it, too. --Peter Schmitt 09:58, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Original article below

Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled protagonist of Raymond Chandler’s mystery novels set in a noir Los Angeles of the 1930s and '40s, is generally considered the modern model of private detectives, yet a close analysis of Chandler's 1940 book Farewell, My Lovely indicates that Marlowe is in the romantic vein of English Renaissance heroes.

His name itself recalls that of Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), the great poet and playwright. Christopher Marlowe’s love poetry is glorious:

Come live with me, and be my love
And we shall all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.

-The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

As with Lancelot, the greatest knight of the Arthurian legend, Philip Marlowe’s code of honor is unshakeable: his holy grail is to catch the murderer and administer justice. Chandler’s third novel is called The Lady In The Lake. Without any mention of it in the book itself, the title obviously refers to the Lady of the Lake, who took the neglected Lancelot into her magical domain, where she raised him and was responsible for his lessons in courtly love and demeanor.

Like Lancelot, Philip Marlowe keeps seeking his true identity through his knightly adventures. In the legend, Lancelot excelled throughout his education and training and grew into a mature and handsome youth—the Lady never revealed to him his true identity as the son of a king. She did, however, prepare Lancelot to leave her for King Arthur’s court, Camelot, although she loved him like a son, knowing that he would be the greatest knight of all. The Lady and Lancelot traveled to Camelot, where she made Arthur promise to knight Lancelot; and she told Lancelot that upon his knighthood, his true identity would be revealed to him.

In Farewell, My Lovely Philip Marlowe encounters the virginal Anne Riordan, who is attempting to avenge her father, a policeman who died a broken man while trying to fight corruption in Bay City, Chandler's name for a thinly disguised Santa Monica. She comes across Marlowe at the place where he is to pay ransom for Mrs. Lewin Lockridge Grayle’s stolen jade. Helen Grayle has sent one of her minions, Lindsay Marriott, to pay the ransom and retrieve the jade, and at the last moment Marriott has enlisted Marlowe as a bodyguard. The plan goes awry and Marriott’s brains are bashed in. Marlowe admires Anne Riordan’s courage. She has seen Marriott’s dead body first. When Marlowe asks her, “Did he have blonde hair in waves?” she replies quietly, “Not now. He might have had—once.” She invites Marlowe to her house for a drink but he refuses.

Anne arranged Marlowe’s introduction to Mrs. Helen Grayle, the owner of the stolen jade. He marveled at her photograph. “She was a blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.” He compared Helen Grayle to the old masters. She could make a man forsake his sacred vows, but not Marlowe. When he met her, he noticed that “[h]er hair was of the gold of old paintings and had been fussed with just enough but not too much.” However, “[s}he had a full set of curves which nobody had been able to improve.”

Helen was no virgin. She was sexually active. Her husband was fully aware of her dalliances, including Marriott, but he didn’t care. He loved her anyway. She came to Marlowe’s room alone, eschewing a chauffeur, for his sexual company, although she protested, “I’m not one of those promiscuous bitches. I can be had, but not just by reaching.”

Marlowe was gallant when he refused Anne Riordan’s initial advances. She was not promiscuous like Helen. At the end of the story, when Helen, the sexual predator, was vanquished, Anne sums up Marlowe’s knightly behavior. “You’re so marvelous,” she said. “So brave and determined and you work for so little money. Everyone bats you over the head and chokes you and smacks your jaw and fills you full of morphine, but you just keep right on hitting between tackle and end until there all worn out. What makes you so wonderful?” “Go on,” [Marlowe] growled. “Spill it.” Anne Riordan said thoughtfully, “I’d like to be kissed, damn you!” Marlowe had proven his knighthood. He defeated the enemy and saw that justice was done. Now he was worthy of the virginal princess.

Even Helen, the murderer, was capable of a gallant gesture. She shot Lindsay Marriott because he was the weak link that could betray her, but she kept a code of honor. She committed suicide rather than subject her husband to the rigors of her criminal trial.

Marlowe had completed the trials and journey he faced throughout Farewell, My Lovely. He administered justice and won the hand of the virginal Anne. Although he is considered the model for the modern detective, he is a Romantic hero, chivalrous to the end.