philip marlowe in his debut novel the big sleep, classic darling of noir and hardboiled fiction alike, says a lot of very profound things that are very wistful and sad, like describing the titular big sleep or being incredibly concussed about life or drugged or whatever it is this time, and so marlowe, he says a lot of things is what i am saying,a nd on the whole they are extremely good things. and the best thing philip marlowe ever got made to say in his whole thirty years of publishing is when he said he wanted to be buried in dirt so worms coudl have sex on his grave i think. “did you know worms are of both sexes and any worm can love any other worm?” says marlowe, handcuffed or tied up or whatever, to a woman who mocks him for having just been unconscious. marlowe prefers worms, which are of both sexes and can love any worm. besides telling me, the reader, that a woman taking up the entire divan had plenty of legs, is the most profoundly fascinating noir turn of phrase i’ve ever read and chandler coined the term “mean streets”
“There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.”
