Dealing with the genius of Raymond Chandler

After reading an article sent to me by my mom stating that Michael Connelly turns to Raymond Chandler for inspiration whenever he is stuck for ideas, I decided to read a few of his novels for myself. After all, I am a big fan of the noir style as well as an author of that genre, and I love nothing better than reading about the hard-boiled PIs who populated big, dark, post-war cities like LA.

What I found was prose so beautifully descriptive that it often rivaled the best poetry. Yes, I believe prose can do that sometimes, and Mr. Chandler did it on almost every page. Two elements of his style stand out for me.

First are his gritty descriptions – mostly of post-war LA -- that paint a dark (thus noir) portrait of a crime-ridden city of surprising beauty, with a violent undercurrent. His phrases suck you into that city as sure as a Kansas tornado touching down on a pig farm. It’s gritty, but somehow accessible, compelling and certainly believable. 

Next is the dialog. Mr. Chandler never forgets that while characters are speaking they don’t stop moving – sometimes revealing their guilt or malicious intent through a shifty look or hand gesture that has the potential of drawing a small pistol from some hidden pocket. He combines dialog with the physical world in which the characters live to such a seamless degree, making it rare and totally delicious. It’s no wonder Hollywood elected to make movies from several of his novels, and it’s no wonder that almost all of them became classics including “The Big Sleep,” “Murder My Sweet,” “Double Indemnity.”

As I read more of his novels, one disturbing element rose to the top – his liberal use of the “N-word” in describing black people. He doesn’t use the word in a particularly malicious manner, just in a matter-of-fact way, which is somehow worse. In fact it’s a lot worse because it lessens my admiration of Mr. Chandler even as I recognize that back in those dark years after WWII, racism was accepted to the extent that no one even questioned it.

I still admire you, Mr. Chandler, but I wish you could have been a bit more progressive. No, I wish everyone back then could have been a lot more progressive.


Labels: Solstice Shadows, Solstice Publishing, paradoxes, noir, mystery, crime, LA,