The Long Goodbye

[monk222]

~
"I like bars just after they open for the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny and the barkeep is giving himself that last look in the mirror to see if his tie is straight and his hair is smooth. I like the neat bottles on the bar back and the lovely shining glasses and the anticipation. I like to watch the man mix the first one of the evening and put it down on a crisp mat and put the little folded napkin beside it. I like to taste it slowly. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar - that's wonderful."

I agreed with him.

"Alcohol is like love," he said. "The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off."

-- The Long Goodbye

Yeah, the Chandler piece is really hitting the spot. Philip Marlowe is proving to be a real lifesaver on this festive holiday weekend. While Monk is reading, his world goes black & white, and his voice goes gruff, with his thoughts going laconic and concrete.

But it's getting late and it's time to make with the feet...

Comments

[wordlesswriter.livejournal.com]

You always manage to pick the passages that make me want to read the book.

any chance you're going to read hemmingway's "for whom the bells toll"? I tried reading it but it bored me no end. perhaps through your post I'll enjoy it.

just a thought.
.:smiles and winks:.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

*chuckling* I'm not a real Hemingway fan myself. "The Sun Also Rises" was alright, and I'm curious about "Moveable Feast", but I don't see myself checking out "For Whom the Bell Tolls" anytime soon, lol.

Later, doll!

(Books may not be a real substitue for life, but I find they help, heh.)

[dave-rainbow.livejournal.com]

Was there anything real behind those 'Dixon Hill' things that Jean Luc Picard used to act out on the holodeck - I mean, was there a real series of books? What a stupid question I'm asking ---

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

A Trekkie, too? You are such a surprising genius.

I enjoyed "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but the reference didn't ring any bells.

But you might be interested in this google result. (http://www.newforcecomics.com/trekref/dixonsetsyn.htm)

After reading that myself, I am now wondering how much of Chandler might be considered derivative, being struck, for instance, by the title, "The Big Goodbye." But I'm thinking that Chandler perhaps brought the vision to its fullest realized potential.

[dave-rainbow.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much as I remembered it; I think there was more than one episode in that vein. The trouble with trekkies is that they can be so out of it that a page like that could be treating fictional fiction as real fiction --- if you see what I mean ---

I think it was during the period of TNG that I learned to so heartily detest political correctness. Of the four (you can't really call what they are now serving up as a fifth helping, yuk) versions of Star Trek, TNG is my least favourite, with the exception of some outstanding episodes. The series took a huge change for the better when Gene Roddenberry died, and they began to take scripts which involved things happening - like the Borg.

I think there was a view that these highly trained professionals of the future would never display emotional strain under fire, and it was played that way with that in mind. The result? Boring! But some of the ideas are excellent; is Q a follow up from a 'Classic' series episode?

I am sorry to say that it was Mr Spock who first interested me in science, swiftly followed by Kerr Avon of 'Blakes Seven'. I am not alone in that, but I am no longer proud :)

My own favourite is Deep Space 9, which has the human characters in it (the Ferengi, the Bajorans, whatever - not the humans, by and large!), and surprisingly the female captain works in Voyager, though precious little else does apart from Jeri's bodysuit. All the other female captains touted in the films and whatever are non-credible cardboard cutouts; Janeway I find believable. And Tuvok is more Vulcan than Spock. But why do they have pixies in the Delta Quadrant? Aaaagh!

(Mr Rainbow will now spend the afternoon recovering from this bout of temporary fandom).