"It seems as if I'm like a piece of antique furniture or a pedigreed dog, I'm in the luxury class. You keep me on for beauty."
......WHAT. *goes and looks at that part again* Oh my god, that's a real quote. I swear, there are little slash elves that go back and put these quotes in the book when I'm not looking.
(Speaking of "man of action" I totally already squee-d over on my lj about Archie calling himself that, but what I only noticed on a re-read is that it's actually a callback to something *Wolfe* says-- in Chapter 7 when Archie is theorizing about why Paul Chapin might go around with an unloaded gun: ".... As a man of action you are tolerable, you are even competent. But I will not for one moment put up with you as a psychologist. ...." So when Archie calls himself that later on, it's not only Archie being sort of endearingly self-deprecating and boasting at the same time, it's also a very personal sort of needle at Wolfe! And it also goes to show how much Archie *really listens*-- even putting aside his memory-- to the things Wolfe says to him.)
I enjoy fan stories that pick up this issue, from both angles--Archie chafing when he starts to feel like a kept boy, but also Wolfe's desire to surround himself with beauty.
Yeah, I wonder. You would certainly think that someone who is *as much of a genius* as Wolfe is, esp. in these early books, could figure out some way to make money that doesn't involve so much time and effort and people invading his house and creating deadly enemies and disrupting his meals and forcing him to take responsibility for sometimes making mistakes and getting innocent people killed, and so on. Seriously, after one of their more major jobs for a corporation, just take some capital and buy a chain of laundromats, or a sheep farm in New Zealand, and hire some people to run them, then sit back and live off the profits. Become a tycoon! They certainly have enough rich connections to help them start it off. And, sure, ok, they do need a LOT of money to run the brownstone, and maybe "start a new business!" isn't the first thing on anyone's mind during the Depression, and maybe Wolfe is a little too much of a control freak to sit back and let other people run, say, a hotel that he owns.... but also, maybe the main reason why that isn't an option? If Wolfe did that, he'd really have no reason to keep Archie around.
I mean, he'd still need a stenographer/secretary and possibly a bodyguard, but he wouldn't need a private detective of Archie's caliber. I wonder if that underlies, sometimes, Archie's push for them to *work*. If they don't take on private detection jobs, he's basically a pretty secretary! I can totally picture Archie having this faint subconscious fear that maybe Wolfe will just never accept a job again, and *what does that make him*? He would totally have to leave, his self-esteem couldn't take it.
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Date: 2010-04-21 07:34 am (UTC)"It seems as if I'm like a piece of antique furniture or a pedigreed dog, I'm in the luxury class. You keep me on for beauty."
......WHAT. *goes and looks at that part again* Oh my god, that's a real quote. I swear, there are little slash elves that go back and put these quotes in the book when I'm not looking.
(Speaking of "man of action" I totally already squee-d over on my lj about Archie calling himself that, but what I only noticed on a re-read is that it's actually a callback to something *Wolfe* says-- in Chapter 7 when Archie is theorizing about why Paul Chapin might go around with an unloaded gun: ".... As a man of action you are tolerable, you are even competent. But I will not for one moment put up with you as a psychologist. ...." So when Archie calls himself that later on, it's not only Archie being sort of endearingly self-deprecating and boasting at the same time, it's also a very personal sort of needle at Wolfe! And it also goes to show how much Archie *really listens*-- even putting aside his memory-- to the things Wolfe says to him.)
I enjoy fan stories that pick up this issue, from both angles--Archie chafing when he starts to feel like a kept boy, but also Wolfe's desire to surround himself with beauty.
Yeah, I wonder. You would certainly think that someone who is *as much of a genius* as Wolfe is, esp. in these early books, could figure out some way to make money that doesn't involve so much time and effort and people invading his house and creating deadly enemies and disrupting his meals and forcing him to take responsibility for sometimes making mistakes and getting innocent people killed, and so on. Seriously, after one of their more major jobs for a corporation, just take some capital and buy a chain of laundromats, or a sheep farm in New Zealand, and hire some people to run them, then sit back and live off the profits. Become a tycoon! They certainly have enough rich connections to help them start it off. And, sure, ok, they do need a LOT of money to run the brownstone, and maybe "start a new business!" isn't the first thing on anyone's mind during the Depression, and maybe Wolfe is a little too much of a control freak to sit back and let other people run, say, a hotel that he owns.... but also, maybe the main reason why that isn't an option? If Wolfe did that, he'd really have no reason to keep Archie around.
I mean, he'd still need a stenographer/secretary and possibly a bodyguard, but he wouldn't need a private detective of Archie's caliber. I wonder if that underlies, sometimes, Archie's push for them to *work*. If they don't take on private detection jobs, he's basically a pretty secretary! I can totally picture Archie having this faint subconscious fear that maybe Wolfe will just never accept a job again, and *what does that make him*? He would totally have to leave, his self-esteem couldn't take it.