Influence of Western Genre in Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction - Coursework Example

Influence of western Genre in Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction A hard-boiled detective movie or novel refers to a detective story with a street smart, professional, investigator at its centre (Earnshaw 10). These realistic novels characterize an environment characterized by violence and corruption. In Raymond Chandlers book Farewell My Lovely, Philip Marlowe takes the role as the protagonist of hard-boiled detective novels. Hard-Boiled style of detective fiction is distinctly different from the “golden age” of British detective fiction (Wolfe 17). Action replaces logical reasoning and suspense replaces mystery. The author gives more attention to Violence, sexuality and physical danger to the hero than to solving the crime (Shapiro 26). Rather than the detective restoring order and law, he comfortably exists in the confusion of the both worlds as an intermediary between the Law and order world. Hence hard-Boiled detective fiction is a genre which defines itself against the morality, sense of law and order. Western genre of film and literature is a genre that revolves around stories pre dominantly set in the late 19th century in the American Old West (Earnshaw 79). Most Westerns set occur between the American Civil War of 1865 and the early 1900. Recurrent themes within Western Film and literature include conquest of the Wild West, the cultural separation of the west and the east, the West’s resistance to modern change, and outlaws. Western Film usually revolves around a character who is the hero or protagonist, and it emphasizes the importance of honor and sacrifice. Such protagonists portray characters such as gunslingers, and bounty hunters (Wolfe 29). The protagonists depict semi-nomadic wanderers who wear bandannas, spurs, and buckskins. They use revolvers or rifles as tools to enable their survival. They ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches. Western genre of film and literature often portrays conquest of the wilderness and subsequent subordination of nature (Shapiro 38). All this is usually in the name of civilization or takes over the territorial rights of the native occupants of the frontier. The genre from the west usually brings out a society based on pillars of honor and respect, rather than the upholding of law and order (Stevens 23). People have no social responsibility larger than their surrounding persons in the neighbouring environment, family and friends or themselves alone. In many scenarios here, one cultivates a reputation by acts of violence. In an interesting twist, they can be generous (Wolfe 36). This is because generosity creates a dependency relationship in the hierarchy of social status. In the Western genre, these themes are fore fronted; the introduction of law and civilization often portrayed as regrettable and unaccepted if inevitable (Shapiro 47). Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction has significantly been influenced by the Western genre that has extensive roots through both literature and film. In the novel, Farewell My Lovely, authored by Raymond Chandler, Philip Marlowe finds himself poking his nose into matters that do not concern him. His curiosity leads him to follow a well built white man into a black nightclub (Stevens 36). Here, he finds himself entangled in a murder nobody is interested or even cares to solve. After his investigations, he realizes he is dealing with a totally different case with a high-society spin. What follows is his encounter with stolen jewellery, a gambling ship and police corruption. Along the way, Chandler brings out the seamy side of life. He takes a look keenly at race and makes the point that from the police point of view two cases stand true: the authorities care nothing about the murder of a black man but they treat a white mans murder differently indeed (Smith 14). This part of the novel is a bit controversial (Stevens 52). Chandler uses the slang and racial slurs common to the streets of his era. We discover that although Marlowe uses the same language, his attitude toward the blacks who appear in the novel is considerably different from that of the authorities, who could not care less about the murder of a black man who do not much care who knows it.. Hard-boiled crime fiction just uses a different style of clichés and stereotypes and includes a murder mystery. However, the environment brought out by hard-boiled writers and the environments they chose for their novels represent the western genre. Men in Chandlers novels have carefully manicured nails and wear cologne and adorn jewelry. The Maltese Falcon (1930) and Farewell, My Lovely (1940) provide instances which document this manoeuvre: In the novel Farewell, My Lovely Marlowe describes the living quarters of Lindsay Marriott (ex-Harvard). The carpet almost tickled my ankles. There was a concert grand piano closed down. On one corner of it stood a tall silver vase on a strip of peach-colored velvet and a single yellow rose in the vase. It was the room where people sit with their feet in their laps and sip absinthe through lumped sugar and talk with high, affected voices and sometimes just squeak. It was a room where anything could happen except work. This reflects the western genre where as earlier stated, brings out a society organized around codes of honor, rather than the upholding of law and order. By the 1930s when Chandler started writing hard-boiled fiction organized crime was on the rise. After the end, of Prohibition (1933) syndicates in LA moved into drugs, prostitution, unions, the oil business, in which Chandler worked for most of the 20s, and gambling for which the off-shore ships in Farewell, My Lovely provide a venue (Smith 52). This also shows the influence of the western genre where we see the theme of violence and crime. Western Film usually revolves around a character who acts as an intermediary between the world of criminals and the Law and order world. In Farewell, my Lovely, Moose Malloy kills Mr. Sam Montgomery, current owner of Florians night club. Philip Marlowe, who is the hero, is a private detective. He happens to be in the next room. Moose, who has been looking for his old girlfriend Velma, escapes and Marlowe, agrees to help the police bring him to justice. Marlowe then goes poking around Jessie Florians place. Jessies deceased husband Mike owned Florians when the neighborhood was predominantly white. Later, Marlowe accompanies Lindsay Marriott to a money-for-jewelry exchange after Marriotts lady friends jade necklace is stolen. Subsequently, Marriott dies, and the money disappears. All this brings out characteristics of the western genre borrowed by hardboiled detective fiction. There is no Law and order. The western Genre influences Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction in the following ways: Presentation of violence Violence unfolds unpredictably, unfairly, unchivalrously, against anyone at any time. Presentation of resolution at closure In Chandler, there is no real resolution; it is hard even to tell who is guilty. Presentation of Western Genre Lifestyle There are incidences of embracing the low life characterized by hard drinking and gambling lifestyles. There are also loner attitudes towards relationships (multiple divorces; permanent bachelorhood). Presentation of community Instead of refined community where we expect everyone to be counted on to behave in the required and predictable ways, we portray the society as violent, unpredictable and dangerous (Smith 78). Urban setting makes the community be difficult as opposed to the small, rural town where everyone knows everyone else(Earnshaw 92).The setting is now a transformed, anonymous and densely populated Big City for instance Los Angeles. Hard-boiled detective in this case Philip Marlowe defines himself against others: Individual (self-preservation) defines himself against the community which stands for self-sacrifice. Though when we think of "city" we think of "community," it is the opposite: what few communities exist in the "Big City" environment tends to be engulfing, dangerous, and corrupt. Hard-boiled Detectives like Phillip are always loners just like in the western genre. Any introduced relationships do not work out due to betrayal and rejection. Slang also brings us into Marlowes world and forces us to share its values. Examples: "shine." "Shine killing, "shine box" and "smokes" in the first chapter. Slang tells us whats current in a world and what the world values. The meanings of the slang words are almost always revealed indirectly, sometimes much later, from context; Chandler carefully gives us just enough information to tell us what is going on. Thus, a few chapters after the "jujus” discovery on Lindsay Marriotts body we get a little disquisition about marijuana in the U.S. In conclusion, western Genre has had an immense effect on hard-Boiled Detective Fiction. Despite the severe decline in the output of Westerns since the early 1970s this section has been included to emphasize the historical importance of critical work using the Western as a case study through which much genre theory developed. The work on Westerns as a genre has established a research paradigm or set of limits of thinking about genre which needs revising. Westerns need to be thought as an open-ended genre which is both hybrid and multi-generic. As Neale (2000) points out Westerns have occupied a pre-eminent position in writing of all kinds on genre in the cinema. It has hence had immense influence on hardboiled detective fiction. It has always been related to the public interest in the problems of modern, urban life, particularly in crime. Crime as a feature of Western social life was not generally recognized until the rise of large cities in the early 1800s, a period that corresponds to the creation of mass reading public. The fascination by and afraid of crime, new city-dwellers vilified and romanticized criminals, as well as those who fought against them. Work cited Earnshaw, Steven. The Handbook of Creative Writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2007. Print. Wolfe, Peter. Something More Than Night: The Case of Raymond Chandler. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1985. Print Shapiro, Michael J. Deforming American Political Thought: Ethnicity, Facticity, and Genre. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2006. Print. Stevens, Mark A. Merriam Websters Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Mass: Merriam- Webster, 2000. Print. Smith, Erin A. Hard-boiled: Working-class Readers and Pulp Magazines. Philadelphia, Pa: Temple Univ. Press, 2000. Print. Read More