[lbo-talk] Hard boiled philosophy

John Adams jadams01 at sprynet.com
Sun May 14 14:53:41 PDT 2006


On May 14, 2006, at 2:32 PM, andie nachgeborenen wrote:


> I noticed an interested spell-check created typo in my
> last post, that Hammett was a GI worth listening to.
> Of course I meant a guy, but he was, in fact, also a
> GI in WWII. And a Communist. Chandler thought the
> Commies were a joke and mostly hated the rich as
> phonies, but his depiction of capitalist society,
> leaving out accounts of actual production, is one that
> Marx would largely applaud.

Isn't it in _The Big Sleep_ where Chandler admits to admiring the old patriarch who'd hired him--damn! I mean, where Marlowe admits, etc--but says he (roughly paraphrased) "doesn't know any ways to make a hundred million dollars honestly", then goes on to explain the gangsterism inherent in big business?


> was working on a book on how ex or underground
> Commies dealt with Truman-McCarthyism and the
> blacklist by, in part, producing noir as well as,
> among other things, Gilligan's' Island.

I wondered why that moderately funny sit-com was such an influence on me. Now I know.



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