You guys, I am like 10 hours of sleep behind on the week, which is going to be a 7-day work week by the time I'm done with it, but SOME BURIED CAESAR. <3 <3 <3
Here are some more of my random sleep-deprived thoughs.
-- One of the things I love about the Wolfe books (and that I think makes them total fan-bait) is how much fun Wolfe and Archie have with words. Not just "here's a big word you probably don't know," but goofing off with slang, with quotations ("I think it's in Spenser!") the times when Archie has to translate Cramer's "street" talk and police jargon for Wolfe, with French words via Fritz, etc. I bet Wolfe was such a kick to write. If I were Rex Stout I would write Wolfe monologues all day long. *G* Anyway, there is one bit in "Some Buried Caesar" which I love to death, where Wolfe is trapped on top of the rock, and he thinks Archie is messing with him, and he doesn't say "Archie, when I get off this rock--" he says, "Archie, when once I get--" Even trapped on a rock, his Wolfe-grammar is impeccable. *hearts*
-- Archie guesses that Caroline Pratt, golf champ, is a lesbian: ".... You're a champion detective, and Hickory Caesar Grindon is a National champion bull, and I'm a golf champion ..."
I thought, so that accounts for the wrists and arms, she's one of those.
When I first read this I thought "does he mean lesbian?" because you'd think that if he really thought so, he'd be flirting with Lily instead of her when they're at the house drinking highballs (sure, he could just be playing hard to get, but this is before he gets the whole speech from Caroline about how that's the best way to catch Lily, so who knows.) Then I was watching "So Proudly We Hail" which is this 1943 movie about nurses in Bataan and such, and there's this bit where a strapping young Navy man protests to, I think it's Paulette Goddard or Claudette Colbert, one of those two anyway, that "No woman's going to give ME a sponge bath!" and she gives him the eyebrows and goes "Oh, one of THOSE!" So I'm pretty sure that's what it means.
-- Wolfe and women in this book-- you know, to me Wolfe is like the complete inversion of a misogynist, in that, generally most misogynists will SAY they don't hate/fear women, but act and talk as if they do. Whereas Wolfe makes a point of *saying* he has issues with women, but if he didn't *say* so, there are whole books where you'd never know-- this one is maybe the best example. There's not a woman in the book that he doesn't end up complimenting or respecting or even semi-sort-of flirting with at some point.
Caroline Pratt: he laughs at her "Dr Livingstone" joke (well, his lips twitch, which for Wolfe is a laugh, anyway) and then thanks her for rescuing him by saying "Thank you for having intelligence and using it."
Nancy Osgood: he seems really, sincerely impressed with her when she suggests that, even though her brother is dead, technically he won the bet and Pratt will have to pay the money: "My dear child." Wolfe opened his eyes at her. "What a remarkable calculation. Amazing. It deserves to bear fruit, and we must see what can be done. I underestimated you, for which I apologize. ...[etc].. That's a superb idea, to collect from Pratt to pay Bronson. I like it. By winning his last wager your brother vindicated, as far as he could, all his previous sacrifices in the shabby temple of luck. Magnificent and neat... and fine of you, very fine, to perceive the necessity of completing the gesture for him ...." And, true to his word, Wolfe *does* keep quiet about Clyde's gambling debts, and at least as far as I can tell, his father never finds out about them. Unless it comes out in the suicide note/confession, I guess. But anyway, Osgood Sr. never finds out from Wolfe.
Lily Rowan: Lily, I think, impresses him by saying "I'll come back and GET my orchids" rather than just telling Wolfe where they can be delivered. Also he probably appreciates the feudal overtones of her making an advance to him in advance of making friends with Archie. And then they totally get along at lunch! He, as always in the company of good food, was sociable and expansive. Discovering that Lily had been in Egypt, he told about his house in Cairo, and they chatted away like a pair of camels, going on to Arabia and making quite a trip of it. She let him do most of the talking but made him chuckle a couple of times, and I began to suspect she wasn't very obvious and might even be smooth.
I think it's really adorable that, first of all, on a Doylist level, Rex Stout clearly thought it was necessary for Wolfe to approve of (if not "like") the love of Archie's life, and on a Watsonian level, it's just adorable that Archie starts getting really intrigued and/or impressed with Lily when she makes Wolfe laugh. *G*
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-14 08:32 am (UTC)You guys, I am like 10 hours of sleep behind on the week, which is going to be a 7-day work week by the time I'm done with it, but SOME BURIED CAESAR. <3 <3 <3
Here are some more of my random sleep-deprived thoughs.
-- One of the things I love about the Wolfe books (and that I think makes them total fan-bait) is how much fun Wolfe and Archie have with words. Not just "here's a big word you probably don't know," but goofing off with slang, with quotations ("I think it's in Spenser!") the times when Archie has to translate Cramer's "street" talk and police jargon for Wolfe, with French words via Fritz, etc. I bet Wolfe was such a kick to write. If I were Rex Stout I would write Wolfe monologues all day long. *G* Anyway, there is one bit in "Some Buried Caesar" which I love to death, where Wolfe is trapped on top of the rock, and he thinks Archie is messing with him, and he doesn't say "Archie, when I get off this rock--" he says, "Archie, when once I get--" Even trapped on a rock, his Wolfe-grammar is impeccable. *hearts*
-- Archie guesses that Caroline Pratt, golf champ, is a lesbian: ".... You're a champion detective, and Hickory Caesar Grindon is a National champion bull, and I'm a golf champion ..."
I thought, so that accounts for the wrists and arms, she's one of those.
When I first read this I thought "does he mean lesbian?" because you'd think that if he really thought so, he'd be flirting with Lily instead of her when they're at the house drinking highballs (sure, he could just be playing hard to get, but this is before he gets the whole speech from Caroline about how that's the best way to catch Lily, so who knows.) Then I was watching "So Proudly We Hail" which is this 1943 movie about nurses in Bataan and such, and there's this bit where a strapping young Navy man protests to, I think it's Paulette Goddard or Claudette Colbert, one of those two anyway, that "No woman's going to give ME a sponge bath!" and she gives him the eyebrows and goes "Oh, one of THOSE!" So I'm pretty sure that's what it means.
-- Wolfe and women in this book-- you know, to me Wolfe is like the complete inversion of a misogynist, in that, generally most misogynists will SAY they don't hate/fear women, but act and talk as if they do. Whereas Wolfe makes a point of *saying* he has issues with women, but if he didn't *say* so, there are whole books where you'd never know-- this one is maybe the best example. There's not a woman in the book that he doesn't end up complimenting or respecting or even semi-sort-of flirting with at some point.
Caroline Pratt: he laughs at her "Dr Livingstone" joke (well, his lips twitch, which for Wolfe is a laugh, anyway) and then thanks her for rescuing him by saying "Thank you for having intelligence and using it."
Nancy Osgood: he seems really, sincerely impressed with her when she suggests that, even though her brother is dead, technically he won the bet and Pratt will have to pay the money: "My dear child." Wolfe opened his eyes at her. "What a remarkable calculation. Amazing. It deserves to bear fruit, and we must see what can be done. I underestimated you, for which I apologize. ...[etc].. That's a superb idea, to collect from Pratt to pay Bronson. I like it. By winning his last wager your brother vindicated, as far as he could, all his previous sacrifices in the shabby temple of luck. Magnificent and neat... and fine of you, very fine, to perceive the necessity of completing the gesture for him ...." And, true to his word, Wolfe *does* keep quiet about Clyde's gambling debts, and at least as far as I can tell, his father never finds out about them. Unless it comes out in the suicide note/confession, I guess. But anyway, Osgood Sr. never finds out from Wolfe.
Lily Rowan: Lily, I think, impresses him by saying "I'll come back and GET my orchids" rather than just telling Wolfe where they can be delivered. Also he probably appreciates the feudal overtones of her making an advance to him in advance of making friends with Archie. And then they totally get along at lunch! He, as always in the company of good food, was sociable and expansive. Discovering that Lily had been in Egypt, he told about his house in Cairo, and they chatted away like a pair of camels, going on to Arabia and making quite a trip of it. She let him do most of the talking but made him chuckle a couple of times, and I began to suspect she wasn't very obvious and might even be smooth.
I think it's really adorable that, first of all, on a Doylist level, Rex Stout clearly thought it was necessary for Wolfe to approve of (if not "like") the love of Archie's life, and on a Watsonian level, it's just adorable that Archie starts getting really intrigued and/or impressed with Lily when she makes Wolfe laugh. *G*