The Comedian, the Flâneur, and, Most Recently, the Social Media Poster
February 28, 2023 3:39 PM Subscribe
The flâneur, the detective, and the comedian are precursors of the practitioners of the online cleverness that has become such a nuisance today. The Internet is a spaceless airport. Like passengers in an airport, its users are fundamentally idlers. They occupy themselves with browsing—both the objects available for consumption and their fellow consumers. They are placed in a similar but even more extreme position of impotent omnipotence. The world is at their feet, but they cannot really act in it except to pose and acquire. At the same time, the Internet enables control of people’s movements and desires in a way the airport could only dream of. All this naturally prompts a desire to wrest back some semblance of control. from The Impotence of Being Clever by Alexander Stern
"Write beautifully what people don't want to hear.”
-Frederick Seidel.
posted by clavdivs at 4:56 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
-Frederick Seidel.
posted by clavdivs at 4:56 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I love clever things and turns of phrase, but they are (as I see it) meant to be caught, if you can, au volant and then released before the next breath.
Very much my own view. I grew up with and subsequently grew out of a worldview that largely prized references to prerecorded media above all else. I am sure many of us know someone who considers themselves a rare wit for always having a quotation from The Simpsons/Monty Python/Seinfeld/Spinal Tap at the ready. It grows tedious.
On the other hand, if someone is well-versed in, I dunno, the writings of Ambrose Bierce or Busby Berkeley musicals or Tom Robbins novels, I’d be much more inclined to hear them out. At least it would beat hearing The Knights Who Say Ni again.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:55 PM on February 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Very much my own view. I grew up with and subsequently grew out of a worldview that largely prized references to prerecorded media above all else. I am sure many of us know someone who considers themselves a rare wit for always having a quotation from The Simpsons/Monty Python/Seinfeld/Spinal Tap at the ready. It grows tedious.
On the other hand, if someone is well-versed in, I dunno, the writings of Ambrose Bierce or Busby Berkeley musicals or Tom Robbins novels, I’d be much more inclined to hear them out. At least it would beat hearing The Knights Who Say Ni again.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:55 PM on February 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't think the line this essay draws through the concept of the detective is right, at least not the kind of hard-boiled detective fiction like Chandler's Philip Marlowe that the essay references.
In Chandler's 1944 essay The Simple Art of Murder, he specifically attacks the older (generally English) kind of detective fiction where a clever sleuth sitting outside of it all solves unrealistic murders-as-puzzles. He contrasts it with his own work and the work of Dashiell Hammett, who situate crime in the real world along with the detectives who solve it.
Hardboiled detectives like Marlowe aren't clever analysis robots like Holmes or Poirot. They're in the messy, sweaty, dirty streets of a realistic world, and rather than cooly analyzing and solving puzzles, they're very often barging or being forced through their cases while getting badly damaged along the way.
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:18 PM on February 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
In Chandler's 1944 essay The Simple Art of Murder, he specifically attacks the older (generally English) kind of detective fiction where a clever sleuth sitting outside of it all solves unrealistic murders-as-puzzles. He contrasts it with his own work and the work of Dashiell Hammett, who situate crime in the real world along with the detectives who solve it.
Hardboiled detectives like Marlowe aren't clever analysis robots like Holmes or Poirot. They're in the messy, sweaty, dirty streets of a realistic world, and rather than cooly analyzing and solving puzzles, they're very often barging or being forced through their cases while getting badly damaged along the way.
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:18 PM on February 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
"Gittes’s cleverness functions more as a cover for vulnerability than evidence of invulnerability. And it is far less successful: It tends to betray insecurity in the course of covering it up. [...] Similarly, neo-noir detectives’ attempts to connect the dots, far from exhibiting rational command from outside, are overconfident, easily confused, and frequently end up making things worse."
This, to me, is more interesting than the rock solid self-confidence the author seems to admire (and mourn the loss of).
posted by Termite at 8:43 PM on February 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
This, to me, is more interesting than the rock solid self-confidence the author seems to admire (and mourn the loss of).
posted by Termite at 8:43 PM on February 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thank you for posting this deeply insightful essay.
posted by blue shadows at 9:46 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by blue shadows at 9:46 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I dont think the author is saying “Marlowe good, Gittes bad.” I think he sees them both as expressions of the same alienation and impotence.
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:02 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:02 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I dont think the author is saying “Marlowe good, Gittes bad.” I think he sees them both as expressions of the same alienation and impotence.
posted by ducky l'orange
You are right. My comment was perhaps a little too harsh. What I wanted to say was that what the author describes as insecurity and "cover for vulnerability" makes a much more interesting literary character - at least for me. There is some of it in Marlowe as well, otherwise he would be insufferable.
posted by Termite at 2:20 AM on March 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ducky l'orange
You are right. My comment was perhaps a little too harsh. What I wanted to say was that what the author describes as insecurity and "cover for vulnerability" makes a much more interesting literary character - at least for me. There is some of it in Marlowe as well, otherwise he would be insufferable.
posted by Termite at 2:20 AM on March 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
But my god this excerpt is fantastic:
Take this remark from detective Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely: “I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat, and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:53 PM on March 1, 2023
Take this remark from detective Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely: “I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat, and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:53 PM on March 1, 2023
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In more immediate terms, it's always a bit disconcerting to have commonplace witticisms, a bit of wordplay or sliver of insight offered in response to some quote or morsel of news, engaged with at such immense levels. To make a pun and then have a vagary of algorithm elevate it to such heights of visibility is unfair to the pun. It was never meant to live longer than the groans that follow it.
I love clever things and turns of phrase, but they are (as I see it) meant to be caught, if you can, au volant and then released before the next breath. A clever tweet given life beyond the time it takes anyone to scroll past it and chuckle has already passed beyond its time, like a human living ten thousand years.
Let cleverness live, and then for god's sake let it die!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:28 PM on February 28, 2023 [16 favorites]