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Hard Boiled is a sub genre within the more encompassing category of “mystery”. I've been learning and reading all about it. I'm taking a Detective Fiction course in college. As my parents said “are you even getting credit for that?” As an English minor, Yes, I am.
I feel like an expert. I recently got my test back on it and I feel confident and comfortable in talking to you about on this topic. In a surprising turn of events I actually passed it. |
We read three books that fall under the category of “hard boiled”. What I've noticed and learned is that true, gritty hard boiled novels are really gross. And, I don't mean blood and gore. Although, they certainly can be. There's this kind of pornography of violence with these novels.
Hard Boiled novels like to play with this concept of the “other”. The main detective is a strong willed, white, heterosexual male, loner. They don't like women, gays, foreigners, blacks, anyone that could be classified as a minority. It's actually so gross. These stories are fun. They're well paced and melodramatic, but they like to work at the expense of groups who are persecuted.
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Hard Boiled detective stories are supposed to be “real”. They're appeal was directly targeted at this dominant white male American society. A lot of these writers started out in the Black Mask magazine. It's not a surprise that with this target demographic that putting down the “other” was such a popular pastime. It just reasserted their dominance and expanded on the inferiority of the “other”.
One of the first books we read was the classic, iconic The Maltese Falcon. Dashiell Hammett's crowning achievement. The film adaptation starred Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. This book is perfectly violent. It's one of the cornerstones of the sub genre. 
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This book had distinct sexism. I wrote an entire paper on it. Sam Spade, the lead character, slept with every speaking female character except for one. And, he probably would have fucked her if she wasn't sixteen.
Mary Astor and Humphrey Bogart in the movie adaptation of The Maltese Falcon
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The one I found the most disturbing was Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. Where Dashiell Hammett's problematic way of viewing the world was relatively low key. Raymond Chandler enjoyed being overtly homophobic and misogynist. The one thing he did right was make a striking point on police brutality that's still applicable now.
When you read books like this you realize where our culture came from. The Big Sleep would have been mainstream consumable reading. What he wrote was acceptable. It's crazy to think just how much we our society enjoys oppressing minority groups. |
The only book we read that I was actually impressed with, I would be hard pressed to label as clearly Hard Boiled. Ross Macdonald wrote The Underground Man and the detective actually thought (a rarity) It was great to have this well thought, extremely well conceived plot that didn't rely solely on oppressing people. It's hard to even categorize it as “hard boiled”, because it doesn't insist on following some of it's most recognizable cornerstones.
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What I've learned most about Hard Boiled novels is their appeal. They subscribe to this idea of what a male fantasy is and they do a great job at it. I just don't know how impressed I am with that.
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