Wolfe and Archie

[katallison]

For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, Archie and Wolfe had a spat, after which Archie went hareing off on his own to investigate a murder, and got picked up and brought in by the cops. After long hours in custody, he goes wandering through the precinct station to find a phone, and hears a familiar voice from behind a not-quite-closed door:

~~~~~~~~~~
"...When Mr. Goodwin said that I was not concerned in this matter and that he was acting solely in his own personal interest, he was telling the truth. As you may know, he is not indifferent to those attributes of young women that constitute the chief reliance of our race in our gallant struggle against the menace of the insects. He is especially vulnerable to young women who possess not only those more obvious charms but also have a knack of stimulating his love of chivalry and adventure and his preoccupation with the picturesque and the passionate. Priscilla Eads was such a woman. She spent some time with Mr. Goodwin yesterday; he locked her in a bedroom of my house. Within three hours of her eviction by him at my behest, she was brutally murdered. I will not say that the effect on him amounted to derangement, but it was considerable. He bounded out of my house like a man possessed, after telling me that he was going single-handed after a murderer, and after arming himself. It was pathetic, but it was also humane, romantic, and thoroughly admirable, and your callous and churlish treatment of him leaves me with no alternative. I am at his service. He is my client."

Rowcliff's voice blurted incredulously, "You mean Archie Goodwin is your client?"

The dry cutting voice of Bowen, the DA, put in, "All that rigmarole was leading up to that?"

I pushed the door open and stepped in.

Eight pairs of eyes came at me. Besides Wolfe, Bowen, Cramer and Rowcliff, there were the two who had been pecking at me previously, and two others, strangers. I crossed toward Wolfe. It had been desirable to let him know that I had heard what he said before witnesses, but it was equally desirable to make it plain that his new client had the warmest appreciation of the honor.

"I'm hungry," I told him. "I had a soda-fountain lunch and I could eat a porcupine with quills on. Let's go home."

His reaction was humane, romantic, and thoroughly admirable. As if we had rehearsed it a dozen times, he arose without a word, got his hat and stick from a nearby table, came over and gave me a pat on the shoulder, growled at the audience, "A paradise for puerility," and turned and headed for the door. No one moved to intercept us.
~~~~~~~~~

They. Are. *Adorable.*

(And god, Wolfe would *kill* me for that.)

Comments

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I love the two of them together. I love their relationship, and what they mean to each other when they are sniping at one another. They are a lot of fun.

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

"As you may know, he is not indifferent to those attributes of young women that constitute the chief reliance of our race in our gallant struggle against the menace of the insects.

I didn't remember which of the Stout novels it was from, but years ago I added that sentence to my commonplace book. How lovely to find it here, like coming across an old friend!

[katallison.livejournal.com]

It's a great line, yeah. I truly, earnestly wish I'd succeeded in my various short-lived efforts to keep a commonplace book; Google is a help, but still I'm constantly flailing around for dimly-half-remembered quotes.

And I've been meaning to say -- that painting that you use in your current icon? A reproduction of that hung in my family's living room, all through my childhood and adolescence. My parents were both Kansans, born and bred, and I'd guess it reminded them of their origins. It used to unnerve me a bit--the emptiness, and the ominous sky--but seeing it in your LJ was ... well, like coming across an old friend. *g* Serendipity.

[aerye.livejournal.com]

My SiB! This is the same book I'm on! Serendipity and glee.

See you soon!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Prisoner's Base is one of my favorites. Archie is so affected by Priscilla's death, indignant and inconsolable, but in a tightly-wound way. I love how he and Wolfe interact in that book...and in all of them.

Do you see, as I do, the through line that links Archie with Ray Kowalski? I've always felt Ray was his bastard child, not as successful with either the ladies or attitude, but possessed of the same pugnacious spirit.

Or hell, maybe Archie is Ray and Fraser's bastard child. Don't know. There's just something that feels familiar.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm. Yeah, Wolfe/Archie, like Fraser/Ray, logic vs. instinct, ratiocination vs. action. And like Fraser, Wolfe is essentially a foreigner, *different,* whereas Archie and Ray are all-American guys, street-smart rather than book-learned, good with cars and guns and dancing and dames.

Although Archie has some marvelous resources of self-confidence that Ray lacks. (As I said to aerye a few weeks ago, he's oen of the least neurotic characters in popular culture.)

And I would truly love sometime to sit Fraser and Wolfe down together sometime and have them talk. (While Ray and Archie are off somewhere else, comparing weaponry and cases, sizing each other up, and doing a few "my guy is smarter than your guy, and also weirder" jabs. Heh.)

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

So nicely done here.
Sigh.
I feel better now.
I still can't believe one of the early books actually stated that Wolfe gave Archie a cigarrette case engraved with guns and orchids.
No funny looks from the jeweler, even? Nothing Freudian there.
As for Wolfe and Fraser--oh, to be the eye behind the portrait hole, listening!
Ahha, c'mon, I wanna read that lovely piece of fic.
I could even see Wolfe and Frase getting in a contest of, "You won't believe this one, but my muscleman is even weirder than your thug, he has done even wackier and stupider things than yours has," in their inimitably polysyllabic manner.
Or Frasier might just be incredibly respectful and polite to his elder, asking to be enlightened in that never-give-up manner that has to be interrupted, and then just as they're leaving, he somehow comes up with one of those, "Excuse me, but in the case of X, didn't you in fact take a risk when you did X instead of Y? I understand that forensic science of the time would have recommended that you do Y, I was just wondering why you did X instead?"

[eliade.livejournal.com]

Hee. Man. I want to, you know--*vague hand gestures*--emulate that or something. Somehow. I want to steal it!

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh, that's one of my all-time favorites.

Interestingly, I find it a lot easier to read posts that say "Wolfe and Archie" rather than "Nero and Archie." I *cringe* every time a fan refers to him as "Nero." Isn't that weird? I wonder if I'd feel the same about Fraser, except I gather that Ray V. does call him "Ben" sometimes.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes. As far as I'm concerned, Marko Vukcic is the only one who gets to call him "Nero," period, end of story.

There are actually three characters I can never first-name:
Wolfe;
Fraser;
Mulder.

With the Ray V. exception you note (though he usually uses "Benny," and is the only person who gets to do so). And I can take a Fraser/RayK story with "Ben," if the usage is somehow set up in a way that flows logically to me.

[debg.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear god, one of my favourite of Stout's. Did you know I have an entire small bookcase devoted to Rex Stout? Well, he shares it with Georges Simenon, but the point is, I have every word Stout of fiction ever wrote in which Archie Goodwin appears.

For about thirty years, I've seriously wanted to write myself into one of those books so I could seduce Archie, argue politics with Wolfe, tell Fritz to leave the almonds out of the parfait because I didn't want to die at his table, shock Theodore by declaring that cymbidium is my fave orchid family, and oh, yes, KILL LILY ROWAN.

Because Archie?

Mine.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I've just had this sneaky suspicion we all might end up galpals drinking scotch with Lily, telling Wolfe stories and then Archie stories and laughing our heads off--or actually in bed with her as in not pals at all, somehow she strikes *that* note in my head too--and the next day not quite sure how she did it when we were prepared to hate her tiny ass.
Maybe I haven't read enough of the books. Do not have a sufficient library.
Hmm. Will have to remember theory, as I pick up more of them. A good excuse, anyway...

[debg.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I adore Lily. And I've always got the vibe from her that she was sexually omnivorous. She's a superb character - remember her in In The Best Families, necking with Nero Wolfe?

No, she's a splendid character - But I want Archie as my sex slave/chewtoy/amanuensis.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Hmm...catnip toy?
Oh, I'd want to be a complete hog and add in Fritz's meals and Wolfe's orchids. Sigh. He does have the best taste in orchids, I must say.
I think he'd judge my tastes just slightly on the pledian flashy side (all those big blowsy modern phals, dear me), that I'm not making enough effort to follow up on the more obscure or wildflower-ish species.
It would take some work to persuade him to educate such a plebe, too.
If it was in a modern setting, with modern political issues, I have the feeling we'd end up arguing about it. I mean, you could retread Stout's comments on politics in the Balkans without even changing the words, practically! But then it'd get serious. You know, atomic weight calculations for the fertilizer injector or something. Or agreeing, which can be worse. Noisier.
In our bunch, we use the term vehement agreement for items where people are all shouting furiously and it's not actually an argument. They're all bringing up corroborating points of evidence from different areas of expertise. "Yes! That's very true! And did you know this, and this, and this..." sort of thing.
It tends to be a little hard on the nerves of onlookers, who may not realize it's an agreement.
And Wolfe does hate shouting.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

So this should be the next Wolfe book I purchase, eh?