Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Big Sleep, a look at Marlow

Is Marlow a modern man? No. To be modern is to be of your moment. Marlow’s Los Angeles is a corrupt city full of gambling and illegal rackets. Marlow does not fit in to this city. Although he is not a completely law abiding citizen, he is not morally corrupt or at least not nearly as much as his current surroundings. Marlow’s persona consists of cleaver thinking and deductive reasoning that keep him busy. Perhaps this is why he has not been caught up in the corruption of his environment. However, there are a couple very modern things about Marlow. The things that are modern about his character are not just in sync with his surroundings of Los Angeles, but in sync with the era. I am talking about his addiction to cigarettes and alcohol. The extent to which Marlow smokes and drinks can definitely be linked to the era he lives in. This is the only thing that I really did not like about Marlow and in result Chandler. The amount of time that Chandler spends on the description of Marlow’s bad habits is insignificant to the story line. If something this destructive and damaging has nothing really important to do with the plot it is annoying and a waste of time to read. Now, if the type of cigarette Marlow smoked was special and it tied him to a place and time of an event that would not have been so pointless. I guess it is just a personal opinion though, because I just hate when popular culture of a time promote and encourage such destructive habits.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

My Favorite TV Program

My favorite crime TV program is The Profiler. This show is a classic crime scene show with investigators and police. What i liked about this show is how different it was and that the episodes were never similar. The way the main character solved the crime by touching things and having visions that reveal the answer was so unique that you couldn't help to watch. I also really liked that the actors didn't change and the way the writers would occasionally bring back some key characters to help which were very interesting.