It has been a few years since I read The Dain Curse. It’s my least favorite of the Dashiell Hammett novels/series featuring the Continental Op, which means I like it very much indeed. There are plot problems, yes, and its unusually gothic for Hammett, but there are lots of lovely bits, and the language is of course breathtaking.
I had wanted to write about race and racism in the book, and examine whether the obvious signs of racism (Mr. Hammett’s and the Op’s) do, in fact, reflect an actual belief in the inferiority of people who have not-so-pale skin, but I haven’t the energy or the time to put into doing it right, and I haven’t any desire to do a half-assed job of that. There are so many jobs I should do at least half-assed, I don’t require another. Still, it’s an interesting topic. It’s hard to know if (or rather to what extent) I’m putting my own ideas into Mr. Hammett’s head and to what extent I’m reading what he put in the words. And, of course, there’s the general problem of how to read anything written before, oh, 1965 at the earliest without dealing with the racism of the author and his culture. Not that stuff written later isn’t racist, necessarily, but we begin at that point to have works, authors and cultures which share my own views, and which are therefore Correct.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.