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.