The Mean Streets

     According to Raymond Chandler, “Realism takes too much talent, too much knowledge, too much awareness” (Chandler, 531). His primary criticism of mystery, crime, and detective fiction was the complete lack of realism in plot, clues, characters, and language. Chandler’s main intention in writing The Simple Art of Murder was to create what he thinks is the best possible formula for the most realistic of American detective stories. In writing his essay, Chandler was very specific in the setting in which the crime and mystery takes place. “The realist in murder writes of a world in which gangsters can rule” and crime is prevalent (Chandler, 532). The term “’mean streets’ has come to codify the grittiness and the chaos that signifies a text as realistic rather than contrived”  so therefore, “setting becomes the crucial component to writing reality” (Effron, 330). Although Chandler never states that the setting should be named as a place that actually exists, he and his successors “return to the realism of the 'mean streets' by using real city settings” realizing that the most preferable setting used for these realistic formulas was naturally the large, crime-filled, and very real famous American cities (Effron, 331).

My specific examples of these are…

• San Francisco, CA
• Los Angeles, CA
• Harlem of New York City, NY
• Manhattan of New York City, NY

     While writing about these actual cities, the author is very deliberately endeavoring realism. It may be somewhat risky in writing about very large and well-known areas and authors have created and ensured realism in their settings with the use of the detective’s specific knowledge of the ins and outs of the mean streets, and the city’s relationship to crime and justice. Effron discusses how the use of the city confirms “the legitimacy of the events portrayed in the narrative as a description of the society and culture represented in the novel” and what the use of the city’s topography brings to the story’s authenticity (Effron, 334). He makes a clear argument but I would like to take that further. In addition to the city enhancement of the story’s authenticity, it adds to the feel and overall complexity. Not only does the city affect the story, but the story affects the city because the depiction of a city in these stories has a profound effect on its culture and image. Because of the use of real cities in fictional detective stories, these authors create romanticized personifications and culturally significant portrayals because of the language and emphasis they use when describing their realistic settings.

San Francisco

Zigzags of Treachery by Dashiell Hammett

     Raymond Chandler singles out “Dashiell Hammett as the person who rescued the genre by bringing it back to the real world” (Malmgren, 371). Having read Hammett’s Zigzags of Treachery, I have to say that I agree with him. Not only is the in plot, clues, characters, and language realistically written according to Chandler precepts, but realism is enforced by the detailed description of the setting in San Francisco. Almost immediately the Continental Op begins tailing Mrs. Estep following her from Montgomery, to the Union Square, to Post Street and Kearney, Powell Street, the St. Francis taxi stand, her flat on Laguna, and the Sutter Street car line. As a “former investigator for the Pinkerton agency in San Francisco,” Dashiell Hammett is able to devise very specific and real details of the Continental Op’s routes taken during the shadowing and investigation (Clark, 15). Not only does this add to the realistic nature of the story, it adds to and complicates the mystery that the Op is investigating. By specifically addressing the windy and zigzagging streets of San Francisco, we begin imagining a complex and difficult setting in which only our detective, a man of the streets, could possibly hope to navigate. On streets such as these, nothing is what it seems. Not only are the players in the mystery involved in Zigzags of Treachery, but also the streets of San Francisco itself.

     One of Malmren’s main arguments is that “throughout Hammett's fiction runs the fear that nothing can be taken at face value, nothing is what it appears to be” (Malmren, 375). By writing this way, Hammett uses the windy treacherous streets of San Francisco to not only add confusion but also deception. However, no matter how complicated the description of the streets are, the Op is never disoriented. Not only does the unnavigable San Francisco complicate the already complicated mystery, but it plays with our image of our hero. The detective, a man pursuing a criminal, seeking justice, and wishing to reveal crime, is a man very at home in a “world where a cheap and thin veneer of glamour conceals a shabby or seedy reality” (Malmren, 372). Like San Francisco, our Op is a surprisingly complex character. For a man seeking the truth, he seems far too comfortable while role-playing. He is able to deceive the criminal Ledwich, making him believe that he is an ally. Hammett writes an exceptionally interesting tale in which the setting almost plays as a character. By looking at the relationship between the detective and the city, and the detective’s relation to justice, we see that San Francisco has as much to do with the detective’s character as his actions and speech does.

            

     One of the most interesting results from stories such as Zigzags of Treachery is that because San Francisco is depicted as a very conceivable and realistic home for murder and deception, our overall idea of the city can arise. Because of detective novels that emphasize the importance of the city, and its role in crime and mystery, San Francisco is almost personified. San Francisco, literally a maze of zigzagging streets, is personified as much as a role-player as the Op is. San Francisco may have a romantic, interesting, colorful exterior, but as soon as you begin navigating it, it is so easy to get lost. There is a darker and frightening side of San Francisco arising from the illusion. The title Zigzags of Treachery not only describes the actions of the dishonest characters, but also the zigzagging streets of the city.

Los Angeles

Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler

     In writing detective novels, Raymond Chandler “had brought [Los Angeles] to life in literature, giving it a mythical aspect of which even its inhabitants were unaware” (Clark, 7). Having lived there for most of my life (however short) I completely agree. Los Angeles is known for many things (sunshine, glamour, money, surf) but when I imagine Los Angeles Crime, it is so much more romantic and “Hollywood” in my head that it is in real life. The image of this Los Angeles is almost completely based off of its depiction in the classic Hollywood studio sets and perhaps the most iconic Los Angeles movie sets are those designed based on the pictures painted by Raymond Chandler’s novels. I am not sure how others imagine this city in the early 20th century, as this topic is very subjective, but my favorite version of Los Angeles is in a shadowy black and white with lots of empty misty alleyways and dim streetlights: the perfect setting for Humphrey Bogart to walk down in trench coat and hat.

    Interestingly enough, Raymond Chandler’s specificity of the topography of the Los Angeles streets were intended to make a fiction as real as possible. Although the adventures of Philip Marlowe were envisioned and conceived, they were still set to mostly real streets and areas of Los Angeles. In Chandler’s Trouble is My Business, Arbogast’s office is on Sunset and Ivar, Harriet Huntress’s hotel is on North Sycamore, Jeeter’s Estate is in Bel Aire, and City Hall is on Spring Street (Chandler, 515). However, although I have seen these streets and these places, and definitely recognized them while reading, I still pictured them in a classic romanticized Hollywood way. Ironically, the writing practice intended for realism is what added to my idealism.

    Los Angeles in stories such as Trouble is My Business is transformed the “into a place of unnameable dangers, menacing shadows, and evil lurking in every door, that is, an exciting place” (Salzani, 170). This excitement that Chandler’s Los Angeles brings to the detective novel also explains why the adventures of Philip Marlowe translated so well to film. Like San Francisco added to the complicated deception in Hammett’s detective fiction, Los Angeles makes Chandler’s writing that much more edgy and exciting. Los Angeles and the residents within are portrayed as young, aggressive, confident, and bold. Chandler creates a “city setting of beauty and brashness” explaining “the hero who moves within it,” Philip Marlowe (Hamilton, 156). For the early twentieth century, Philip Marlowe was masculine, dashing, and still cool. His place on the Los Angeles streets reinforces his seductive yet aloof brand of heroism. Philip Marlowe’s relationship to the city may not complicate or create depth, but it definitely adds to his greatness, as he is everything treasured in Hollywood film (well… a classic Hollywood film. I’m not sure if Chandler’s misogyny or racism would be appreciated as much today). Los Angeles is a part of Philip Marlowe as much as Philip Marlowe is a part of LA. Perhaps the reason why my conception of classic Los Angeles is so romanticized is due in part because this city without the cynical yet romantic Philip Marlowe would just be incomplete.

     Because of the dominance of the Los Angeles film industry, “the idiosyncrasies both of the Los Angeles landscape and of its inhabitants are known to millions around the world who go to movies and watch television” (Ward and Silver, 1). It is interesting to note that as Raymond Chandler worked as a screen writer, he began to detest the city. Even “his mouthpiece Marlowe” began to reveal his disgust with Los Angeles in later stories (Clark, 154). How is it that a man that hated Los Angeles could shape one is its most representational characterizations? He painted Los Angeles into not only mean streets but incredibly thrilling streets. “Since the forties, practically every film about a private detective has appropriated something from Raymond Chandler in one way or another” and his idea of excitement and justice as laid out in his essay The Simple Art of Murder is what has basically defined film Noir (Clark, 16).

     If you hadn’t noticed, I love LA.

Harlem

The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher

     Rudolph Fisher sets his novel The Conjure-Man Dies on the streets of 1930’s Harlem in New York City. He calls it “A Mysterious Tale of Dark Harlem” already impressing upon the reader the importance of the dark and shadows within the novel. “The literary genre of the detective story snoops into the “dark side” of the metropolis, transforming it into a place of danger, fear, and angst” (Salzani, 158). However, he begins the novel by describing the “bright-lighted gaiety of Harlem’s Seventh Avenue” which complicates Salzani’s argument by not only exploring Harlem’s dark side but directly contrasting it to the bright and shiny exterior (Fisher, 3). Also, in specifying “Seventh Avenue,” he is creating believability through the use of a real street. Like Noir set in a city of the real world, its actual existence and our preexisting knowledge and familiarity of the area add to our understanding of the mystery. Like Hammett and Chandler, Fisher makes Harlem into a player in the mystery almost as important as Bubber, Dart, Dr. Archer and Frimbo, our detectives. Each detective has a unique relationship with the city, and with the extreme contrasts of its light and dark character, and each in turn brings Harlem to life in their own way.

     Bubber Brown, our somewhat atypical Noir detective, seems as though he is our private eye just starting out. Although he lacks the desirable, dashing, and seductive qualities of Philip Marlowe, like a true Chandler detective, he has uncompromised honor despite his close relationship with the mean streets. Bubber’s form of detection is that similar to Hammett’s Continental Op. He hits the streets, making Harlem his partner in the mystery. Although the shadows of Harlem serve to hide felonies and murders, the shadows alternatively serve Bubber, concealing him as he follows and does his detective work. He is a man who is close to the streets, utilizes them for justice, but does not let the murkiness of the darkness compromise his honor.

     Dr. Archer however, does not have a physical relationship with the streets themselves, but his form of deduction is related to the stark contrasts of Harlem’s light and dark. He is a man of science, and therefore he sees things scientifically and rationally. He is able to sift through the fogginess, cloudiness, and confusion that a shadow may put on a situation and see the solution for what is true. In this way, Dr. Archer’s relationship with Harlem is his ability to decipher Harlem’s genuineness from its fraudulence.

     Unlike Bubber’s ability to function in darkness and Dr. Archer’s ability to discern the darkness, Frimbo has taken his relationship to Harlem’s darkness a step further. He is able to manipulate it, giving him a psychological advantage in his work. He utilizes the darkness in order to create intrigue and mystery in the surroundings of his work.

     Detective Dart actually seems to me to have a far deeper handle on Harlem’s darkness for most of the novel. He is able to read and sense the light and dark within people, or in other words, the truth and lies in their words. Because of his incredible profiling ability, he seems to also be able to pick up on the way others perceive darkness and is able to manipulate light and dark just as Frimbo had for his own purpose of interrogation.

     Because of Harlem’s sharp contrast of light and darkness, and all of the deceiving shades of grey in between, the way we perceive Harlem is made more and more complex. This personification of Harlem is particularly culturally significant. The portrayal of Harlem as a complex and deep city of darkness is important when considering the thought provoking and intellectual works produced in the Harlem Renaissance. By making complex relationships between the characters and the shades of light in the city, Fisher has created an interesting dimension of the way we perceive justice in detective novels. Harlem’s justice is seen through light, darkness, and shadow, but completely different by each detective.

Manhattan

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

     Since the point of this blog is to not only detect the purpose of setting a fictional story in a real city in order to create realism, but also the city’s effect on the story and the story’s effect on the city, perhaps you are thinking… how does the graphic novel Watchmen have anything to do with this? It is indeed set in the very real city of New York, particularly Manhattan, but the storyline is as about as unrealistic as you can get…  Nixon, a notoriously unsuccessful president, seeking a third term, and America not only had a definitive victory in Vietnam, but is was caused by an INVINCIBLE BLUE SUPER GOD MAN… Dr. Manhattan… umm… yes, where am I going with this? I promise I have a point.

     “The underlying principles behind the switch from using fictionalized street names to real street names” by authors such as Hammett, Chandler and Fisher, is because readers that “know these things are real" will "start to suspend disbelief” (Effron, 331). I know that it takes a ridiculous amount of suspension in your beliefs to accept that Watchmen could be a true story, but nonetheless, the fact that real corners of New York are explored by these masked adventurers, and real historical figures are included (although history itself rewritten) adds an interesting dynamic. It’s almost as if it could be true and it was written as a conceivable alternate universe for what may have happened in the first masked hero, the “Hooded Justice” did decide to fight crime. Perhaps you don’t quite believe that Dr. Manhattan could exist quite yet, but I definitely believe that, put into a world such as this, heroes such as the Comedian, Rorschach, and the Nite Owl would indeed behave in such a way that they do and would indeed experience the trauma, scars, and psychological damage. If these certain people did exist, in reality, these would be the very problems that they would face. In order to legitimize the suffering and conflict that these hooded heroes endure, Watchmen takes place in city very familiar and real to us.

     Like San Francisco’s characteristic of deception, Los Angeles’s thrill, and Harlem’s shadows, Manhattan, through the graphic novel Watchmen, is personified affecting the lives of our hooded adventurers. However, Manhattan has much bleaker characteristics according to Watchman. Unlike the other cities, which to certain degrees help the detectives with their pursuit of justice even if it means the use of dishonesty in the duration of their case, New York’s level of crime is far more devastating to the vigilante. The crime, whether committed by individual citizens or on a geopolitical scale, is traumatizing and tests the heroes in their idea of justice. In the end, our heroes agree that one of the hugest crimes against humanity and wide scale mass murder would need to go unpunished. In this way, the darkest side of the city possible is revealed by Manhattan. Throughout Watchmen, New York becomes one of the most interesting elements in the novel. New York’s crime and corruption not only tests the masked adventurers and super heroes, but New York eventually becomes a specific character, the tragic victim to the degeneracy and conflict of the world.

     Reading Watchmen has not only changed my previous understanding of New York, but has complicated my understanding of justice. You can choose to look at New York through two different perspectives: the clear cut right and wrong of Rorschach or accept the idea that there are subjective grey areas and perhaps the existence of a noble deception or crime. Is murder always wrong? Does that mean killing as punishment or retribution for murder is okay? Is murder committed in order to save lives justified? Is murder, even mass murder, in order to bring unity and peace warranted? New York has taken on a dark and dangerous character in my mind. What seems like horrible sin and crime is either unpunished or the justice served is almost as horrendous as the original crime. What is justice?

New York, man.

In Conclusion

     By creating realism in detective fiction, authors have personified well-known cities that may even be our home. These cities not only become representational, but because of the characteristic given to them, the detective and justice are complicated as they relate and are affected by the city itself.

• San Francisco is a place of unnavigable deception.
• Los Angeles is a place of romantic thrill and daring.
• Harlem is a place of shadows and unnatural darkness.
• Manhattan is a place of trauma and tribulation.

     Having grown up in Los Angeles, I understand why it is depicted the way it is. It is interesting to note how a physical place can be molded by not only the aesthetics of the architecture, topography, and population, but by fiction, novels, and popular culture. If someone were to write a detective novel about Santa Barbara, what would they emphasize about this town? Would they, (like the detective television show “Psych”) emphasize the darkness underneath a shiny, sunny cover of beautiful weather and wealthy people? Or could Santa Barbara be assigned something deeper and more profound? How has crime and mystery fiction shaped your impression of the city you live in?

Works Cited

Chandler, Raymond. The Simple Art of Murder. New York:
          Vintage Books, 1950. Print.

Chandler, Raymond. Trouble Is My Business. New York:
          Vintage Books, 1992. Print.

Clark, Al. Raymond Chandler in Hollywood. Los Angeles:
          Silman-James Press, 1996. Print.

Effron, Malcah. "Fictional Murders in Real 'Mean Streets':
          Detective Narratives and Authentic Urban
          Geographies." Journal of Narrative Theory
          39.3 (2009): 330-46. MLA International
          Bibliography. Web. 29 Aug. 2012.

Fisher, Rudolph. The Conjure-Man Dies. 1st. Ann Arbor: The
          University of Michigan Press, 1992. Print.

Hamilton, Cythia. Western and Hard-Boiled Detective
          Fiction in America: From High Noon to Midnight.
          Houndmills: MacMillan Press, 1987. Print.

Malmgren, Carl D. "The Crime of the Sign: Dashiell
          Hammett's Detective Fiction."Twentieth Century
          Literature. 45.3 (1999): 371. Print.

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC
          Comics, 1987. Print.

Salzani, Carlo. "The City as Crime Scene: Walter Benjamin
          and the Traces of the Detective." New German
          Critique: An Interdisciplinary Journal of German
          Studies 100 (2007): 165-87. MLA International
          Bibliography. Web. 29 Aug. 2012.

Ward, Elizabeth, and Alain Silver. Raymond Chandler's Los
          Angeles. New York: The Overlook Press Woodstock,
          1987. Print.