"I do a great deal of research - particularly in the apartments of tall blondes"
About this Quote
Chandler frames lechery as method, and that’s the joke: the private eye’s most sacred alibi - “research” - is repurposed as a pickup line. The line works because it borrows the prestige of discipline (archives, interviews, late nights at the typewriter) and swaps in something conspicuously unserious: “the apartments of tall blondes.” It’s hardboiled voice doing what hardboiled voice does best, turning desire into a deadpan credential.
The subtext is a two-part wink. First, it skewers the myth of the writer as monkish worker. Chandler’s detective fiction runs on legwork and observation, but also on fantasy: the city as a stage, women as types, temptation as plot engine. Second, it punctures masculine self-importance. The speaker doesn’t confess to being distracted; he boasts that distraction is his job. “Particularly” sharpens the irony by pretending there are other, equally rigorous research sites, as if blondes are merely one data set among many.
Context matters: Chandler is writing out of a mid-century ecosystem where the “tall blonde” is shorthand for a certain noir commodity - glamorous, dangerous, conveniently legible. The line sells that shorthand while admitting it’s a construction. It’s charming, yes, but also revealing: women are reduced to scenery that validates the male narrator’s appetite and wit.
The real intent isn’t to report a habit; it’s to assert a persona - worldly, amused, slightly guilty, and completely in control of the punchline.
The subtext is a two-part wink. First, it skewers the myth of the writer as monkish worker. Chandler’s detective fiction runs on legwork and observation, but also on fantasy: the city as a stage, women as types, temptation as plot engine. Second, it punctures masculine self-importance. The speaker doesn’t confess to being distracted; he boasts that distraction is his job. “Particularly” sharpens the irony by pretending there are other, equally rigorous research sites, as if blondes are merely one data set among many.
Context matters: Chandler is writing out of a mid-century ecosystem where the “tall blonde” is shorthand for a certain noir commodity - glamorous, dangerous, conveniently legible. The line sells that shorthand while admitting it’s a construction. It’s charming, yes, but also revealing: women are reduced to scenery that validates the male narrator’s appetite and wit.
The real intent isn’t to report a habit; it’s to assert a persona - worldly, amused, slightly guilty, and completely in control of the punchline.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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