The Hardboiled Detective

1
The Hardboiled Detective

• Article by Nate Snow
• http//thecommunicationbreakdown.blogspot.com/2008
  /05/detective-fiction-and-hard-boiled-genre.html

2
Hard-boiled

• When Raymond Chandler wrote about the emotional
  basis of the new 'hard-boiled' detective story, I
  believe that he described the 'hard-boiled'
  detectives and their stories perfectly.
• All the early detectives solved mysteries like
  machines, almost never touching on the natural
  human emotions to solve the case, but instead
  relying on their heightened knowledge and what
  sometimes comes across as a sixth sense.

3
Classic

• The 'Classic' detectives (i.e Holmes and Dupin)
  always had the knowledge that was necessary for
  solving the mystery at hand and wanted nothing
  else but the satisfaction of the solution itself.
  
• At times, there appears no other reason for these
  men to exist other than solving 'crimes' with the
  help of their friend/right hand man (Watson or
  Poe's 'Narrator').

4
Hard-Boiled

• The 'hard-boiled' detectives seem to approach
  their cases haphazardly, with minimal knowledge
  of the situation.
• They rely on gut instinct and a 'brawn over
  brains' style of deduction that separates them
  (Spade, Marlowe, Archer) from the 'classic'
  sleuths.

5

• Chandler said, "If you know all you should know
  about ceramics and Egyptian needlework, you don't
  know anything at all about the police." (The
  Simple Art of Murder, 1950).
• This idea that Holmes' extensive knowledge of
  ashes wouldn't count for anything on the new age
  'mean streets' of 'hard-boiled' fiction.

6
Different Setting

• The 'classic' detectives not only possessed
  knowledge that the average person would not, but
  it seems that they also had far fewer loose ends
  to tie up due to the settings in which the
  authors placed them.

• While the 'hard-boiled' private eyes are
  following up leads in the big cities, with some
  of the lowest people on earth, the 'classic'
  detectives are off in the countryside dealing
  with, at the worst, an escaped convict.
• These criminal figures make up the majority of
  players in 'hard-boiled' mysteries.

7
Different Characters

• Not only is the 'hard-boiled' story told in a new
  setting, it is told about different types of
  people.
• The Baskervilles of Homles' 'Hound' and the
  Verinders of 'The Moonstone' are people of wealth
  and elegance, people that would have no place in
  the slums of Hollywood or Los Angeles with the
  'peddlers' and 'grifters', like Gutman or Geiger.

8

• "But down these mean streets a man must go who is
  not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor
  afraid. The detective in this kind of story must
  be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything.
  He must be a complete man and a common man and
  yet and unusual man. He must be, to use a rather
  weathered phrase, a man of honor- by instinct, by
  inevitability, without thought of it, and
  certainly without saying it. He must be the best
  man in this world and a good enough man for any
  world." (The Simple Art of Murder, 1950).