| Raymond Chandler is a British-American novelist whose private investigator Philip Marlowe series makes him a pioneer and leading figure of the hard-boiled school in detective fiction.As a writer,Chandler does not limit his focus to plot,but crafts distinctive prose style instead.With his style,his sense of language and his sense of place,Chandler successfully gives literary form to Southern California as he observed it from the 1910s onwards.Through the first-person perspective of the private investigator Philip Marlowe and depictions of certain places and characters in The Big Sleepand Farewell,My Lovely,Chandler presents the cultural geography of Los Angeles in the 1930s and1940s in terms of its urban landscape and social background.Through the depiction of the Sternwood family and their residence,Chandler suggests that Los Angeles is Eden-like far fromparadisal.Under the disguise of a pacific Eden,it is actually a dangerous and deadly tropical jungle.Through depictions of Bay City（the actual city of Santa Monica）,Chandler presents the urban ecology.Though not far from the city of Los Angeles,it is evident that Bay City has a distinct,thoughrelated,political environment.The most notable feature of Bay City is control of the city government by a local gambling syndicate,giving the edge to private power over the public good,and opening the door to further corruption.Exacerbated by the Great Depression,money has become the only gauge measuring success and social status.Chandler portraysthe social classes as clearly divided by the amount of money individuals make.From another perspective,provided wealth has ben acquired（the method is irrelevant）,the divide between different social classes can be easily bridged.Although named the“city of angels”and touted by city boosters and the new film industry,Los Angeles in Chandler’s fiction is actually a decaying,corrupt and crime-ridden place.Chandler presents his realistic vision of Los Angeles through the eyes of his detective protagonist,Philip Marlowe,as the author develops the hard-boiled genre,exerting a deep and constructive influence on ensuing writers.In his works he breaksthrough the conventions of earlier genre fiction and emerges as one of the key American novelistsof the 20th century. |
