"He was handsome but sexually confused. The English public school system had marked him (“devastated him, ” one friend said) with an aversion to sex and he was, in all probability, in 1919 at the age of thirty-one, still a virgin."
"通俗故事是美国特有的,其灵感都源于美国西部的英雄。及至19世纪,一代又一代的美国人不断往西部拓展,而这一变化也使得美国人愈发将早期移民的欧洲根基抛在身后(既有字面意义,也有比喻意义)。西部开拓者不仅将开化的行为带到未经驯服的荒野,也从荒野中没取了力量和个性。"换言之,秩序与无拘无東的自然的碰撞造就了美国人的精神。最典型的通俗杂志(被称作“廉价惊险读物”)的封面上往往会有牛仔的图片,他们已然成为新美国的化身。他们都是硬汉,在野外如在家中,不过他们也将法治的精神带到了荒野。这一新美国精神的表达也出现在严肃文学之中,比如倉姆斯・费尼莫尔・库柏( James Fenimore Coope)在1826年"
"Ray referred to the Doheny case in The High Window, seeking to show that the corruption within the institutions of Los Angeles contributed to the way its people behaved. When they cannot tell fact from fiction, truth from lies, the city becomes a dangerous place."
"RKO picked up the rights to Ray's Farewell, My lovely but, in what now seems a strange and rather ridiculous move, ditched both Philip Marlowe and the title. The Falcon Takes Over (1942) uses Ray's plot, retains Moose Malloy and Anne Riordan, but relocates the action to New York City. Marlowe's plac"