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WASTES

                                            March 21, 2006

One of the better scenes of
"The Deep Blue Good-By" (1964)
(p.52, Fawcet Gold Medal ed.):


    Travis McGee has been taking care
    of a woman who is still quite
    shakey at having been messed over
    badly by the villain of the story.

    He explains to her that
    he's going to go after
    the bad guy and attempt
    to steal the loot back,
    because that's the                        In other words, he does the
    business that he's in.                    revelation-of-secret-identity
                                              scene.
       Instead of the standard reaction
       ("Oh, don't do it Trav, it's too
       dangerous!") she responds:

          "Isn't it a waste?"

          "A waste of what?"

          "Of you!  It seems so degrading ...
           You could be almost anything."


It isn't a bad question,
and it's certainly not a
bad question to ask this                No sane person
kind of adventure story                 wants to be
hero:                                   Philip Marlowe.

   How did you get stuck
   living this horrible                    THE_FALCON
   life?  You have to be
   able to do something
   better than this.




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