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In \u201cThe Simple Art Of Murder,\u201d noir demigod Raymond Chandler describes the fictional ideal of \u201cthe private eye\u201d (very different from a regular private eye) like this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor\u2014by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things. He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man\u2019s money dishonestly and no man\u2019s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks\u2014that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness. The story is this man\u2019s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it\u2019s just me, but it doesn\u2019t seem like a stretch for a lot of people to imagine themselves as Phillip Marlowe\u2014an imperfect person, sure, but the last sane and dignified person in a world gone mad. Feels like that\u2019s a very American view to take, honestly.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
credit: Wikimedia Commons, madras91<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Follow the news and the world has gone mad. 70% of the country hates fascism, yet we have a fascist government. Democrats sweep congressional elections<\/a>, but can\u2019t get enough people to show up to work to impeach Pete Hegseth<\/a>. Climate change gets addressed in Digger<\/em> and not really anywhere else. Police departments nationwide remain funded. War continues all over. Elon Musk gets to keep making stuff, the AI industry gets to keep up its war on humanity. Scroll any social media feed and it\u2019s bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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![madras91<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFollow the news and the world has gone mad. 70% of the country hates fascism, yet we have a fascist government. Democrats sweep congressional elections<\/a>, but can\u2019t get enough people to show up to work to impeach Pete Hegseth<\/a>. Climate change gets addressed in Digger<\/em> and not really anywhere else. Police departments nationwide remain funded. War continues all over. Elon Musk gets to keep making stuff, the AI industry gets to keep up its war on humanity. Scroll any social media feed and it\u2019s bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Film_noir_(46520029632).jpg\"){kind=link}