Idiomatic use of "I can still speak English"
March 30, 2016 12:17 PM Subscribe
In the first chapter of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, Marlowe says "I'm thirty-three years old, went to college once and can still speak English if there's any demand for it. There isn't much in my trade." What does he mean by that?
Given that the story is set in the USA in the 30s, and that there is no indication that Marlowe's first language is anything but English, I assume this is being used euphemistically to mean either that he can speak like an educated man, or perhaps that he is capable of carrying on a conversation at all. Do you which? Or is it something else? And was this a common idiom in America at the time, or is it a turn of phrase of Chandler's own invention.
Given that the story is set in the USA in the 30s, and that there is no indication that Marlowe's first language is anything but English, I assume this is being used euphemistically to mean either that he can speak like an educated man, or perhaps that he is capable of carrying on a conversation at all. Do you which? Or is it something else? And was this a common idiom in America at the time, or is it a turn of phrase of Chandler's own invention.
I've always read it that he's educated, and can communicate as an educated man with educated people, but as a Private Detective, he often doesn't need to demonstrate his education. He's mostly moving among less educated people than himself.
Or, put another way, Marlowe speaks English, but his job requires him to talk American.
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 12:27 PM on March 30, 2016 [15 favorites]
Or, put another way, Marlowe speaks English, but his job requires him to talk American.
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 12:27 PM on March 30, 2016 [15 favorites]
The implication seems to be to me that Marlowe's world isn't one where anything so cultured as real English has much in the way of currency.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 12:27 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 12:27 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
I took it to mean that he rejects appearing middle- or high-class -- he went to college "once" -- and is confirming himself as more ordinary, or "blue-collar" as we say now. Then again, I haven't read the book in a long time, so I forget how the character eventually fills out.
(And how meta is it that I can't find a better way to say "mild anti-intellectualism with a side order of possibly false humility"?)
posted by wenestvedt at 12:29 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
(And how meta is it that I can't find a better way to say "mild anti-intellectualism with a side order of possibly false humility"?)
posted by wenestvedt at 12:29 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: In that scene, Marlowe is basically explaining to his client why he is a private investigator and not a police detective. He was fired from his previous job as an investigator for the District Attorney for insubordination. He's not married because he "doesn't like policemen's wives."
Especially in the 1930s, a policeman would not be expected to have a college education. Marlowe is being a little conceited here, and thinks himself above a common police detective, while admitting that his work doesn't actually require much education.
posted by AndrewInDC at 12:30 PM on March 30, 2016 [17 favorites]
Especially in the 1930s, a policeman would not be expected to have a college education. Marlowe is being a little conceited here, and thinks himself above a common police detective, while admitting that his work doesn't actually require much education.
posted by AndrewInDC at 12:30 PM on March 30, 2016 [17 favorites]
See also this exchange from Farewell, My Lovely:
posted by Iridic at 12:36 PM on March 30, 2016 [17 favorites]
“I shall be glad to pay your expenses, if we don’t agree," [said Marriott.] "Are you particular about the nature of the employment?”That's what Marlowe means by "English:" he can recognize the subjunctive mood, though he would never use it so ostentatiously himself.
“Not as long as it’s legitimate.”
The voice grew icicles. “I should not have called you, if it were not.”
A Harvard boy. Nice use of the subjunctive mood.
posted by Iridic at 12:36 PM on March 30, 2016 [17 favorites]
It is easy to see Chandler in Marlowe. Chandler himself was an American writer but was actually British-American and educated at an English public school. So, "English" in this case does mean "proper English" I believe rather than the slangy dialect that is part of Marlowe's trade.
posted by vacapinta at 12:41 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by vacapinta at 12:41 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
It also mirrors Chandler's own "misery", where he actually wanted to write a non-pulp novel ("English") but nobody was actually interested in it. All they wanted was the pulp.
To quote himself (note: almost all of his novels were based on short stories for pulp-magazines):
As I look back on my stories it would be absurd if I did not wish they had been better. But if they had been much better they would not have been published. If the formula had been a little less rigid, more of the writing of that time might have survived. Some of us tried pretty hard to break out of the formula, but we usually got caught and sent back. To exceed the limits of a formula without destroying it is the dream of every magazine writer who is not a hopeless hack
posted by KMB at 12:42 PM on March 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
To quote himself (note: almost all of his novels were based on short stories for pulp-magazines):
As I look back on my stories it would be absurd if I did not wish they had been better. But if they had been much better they would not have been published. If the formula had been a little less rigid, more of the writing of that time might have survived. Some of us tried pretty hard to break out of the formula, but we usually got caught and sent back. To exceed the limits of a formula without destroying it is the dream of every magazine writer who is not a hopeless hack
posted by KMB at 12:42 PM on March 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
I would have read this to mean in his line of work action speaks louder than pretty words, he uses his feet and his fists more than his mouth.
posted by Iteki at 12:47 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Iteki at 12:47 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's worth noting that the share of the population with a college degree has gone up by more than a factor of five since 1940. It's hard to imagine how few people had degrees back then, many of them academics, writers, or priests. The modern phenomenon of mass technical and specialized degrees is unprecendented, so it was extremely unlikely that you'd get a college degree if you weren't planning to use it.
posted by wnissen at 1:05 PM on March 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by wnissen at 1:05 PM on March 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
Best answer: I've read these novels too many times to be strictly good for me... I don't think Marlowe is being conceited so much as cynical - he uses correct English himself - not particularly "high" English, but correct standard American English (only pulp detective I know who doesn't end sentences with prepositions). Not as some kind of arch affect but just because it's correct. But he recognizes that most people don't really care that much about proper English in a private detective.
On the question of whether this kind of statement is/was a common idiom - I would say so. I live in the southern US, and sometimes we say around here "I speak two languages: southern and English." People who use a lot of professional terms, jargon, etc. like doctors, engineers, lawyers will often say something in their terminology and then say "What that means in English is..."
There was a fairly famous standup comedian in the '60s who was based in the south (I won't say who because I don't want to derail). He was known for southern slang and a somewhat redneck type of humor. Family lore has it that he was vacationing around a beach where a member of my family was staying years ago and he was invited to dinner with them. A, shall we say, matriarch of the family said to him something like "Why do you have to talk the way you do in your performances?"
And he responded, in a kind of stagy "cultured" accent: "Because, madam, I don't find that people will pay me to talk like this."
posted by randomkeystrike at 2:42 PM on March 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
On the question of whether this kind of statement is/was a common idiom - I would say so. I live in the southern US, and sometimes we say around here "I speak two languages: southern and English." People who use a lot of professional terms, jargon, etc. like doctors, engineers, lawyers will often say something in their terminology and then say "What that means in English is..."
There was a fairly famous standup comedian in the '60s who was based in the south (I won't say who because I don't want to derail). He was known for southern slang and a somewhat redneck type of humor. Family lore has it that he was vacationing around a beach where a member of my family was staying years ago and he was invited to dinner with them. A, shall we say, matriarch of the family said to him something like "Why do you have to talk the way you do in your performances?"
And he responded, in a kind of stagy "cultured" accent: "Because, madam, I don't find that people will pay me to talk like this."
posted by randomkeystrike at 2:42 PM on March 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
Wow, maybe I don't read enough into these things...I definitely took it to mean like, "Who needs to talk when I've got a gun and some fists to do the talking, and I'm dealing with low-life scum who only understand threats and money half the time?"
posted by Juliet Banana at 5:30 PM on March 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Juliet Banana at 5:30 PM on March 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
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posted by thelonius at 12:26 PM on March 30, 2016 [5 favorites]