Intro to Detective Fiction: Hard-Boiled Detectives

Summary

This video script delves into the world of hard-boiled detective fiction, characterized by tough, cynical protagonists often struggling with personal demons. It contrasts this noir style with the lighter, golden age detective stories, highlighting the dark, grim settings and morally ambiguous characters. The script explores tropes like the loner detective, the femme fatale, and the lack of a sidekick, using examples from classic radio shows and novels. It also touches on the social context that led to the genre's popularity during times of hardship.

Takeaways

• 🕵️‍♂️ A hard-boiled detective is characterized by depression, smoking, alcoholism, shabby dress, and a rough demeanor.
• 🗣️ These detectives often have strong accents and are frequently depicted with concussions that don't seem to affect them, reflecting a historical lack of awareness about the severity of such injuries.
• 🌑 Noir style fiction, including hard-boiled detective stories, is typically dark and grim, contrasting with the brighter and more optimistic Golden Age fiction.
• 📻 Hard-boiled detectives were especially popular on radio shows, with characters like Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Richard Diamond being iconic figures of the genre.
• 🏙️ The setting of hard-boiled detective fiction is usually a dingy city in the slums, far from the idyllic English countryside.
• 💼 The detectives in these stories are often financially struggling, barely making ends meet, yet always able to afford alcohol and cigarettes.
• 🔍 The genre emerged as a response to the social changes and hardships following the Great Depression and World War II, offering a more relatable form of escapism for the struggling populace.
• 👤 Hard-boiled detective stories lack a 'Watson' character, often told in first or third person, leaving the detective's motivations and misery unexplained.
• 🚫 Women in these stories are typically portrayed in three stereotypes: the damsel in distress, the femme fatale, or as mentally ill or addicted individuals, often sexualized and used for plot advancement.
• 🔫 Characters in hard-boiled detective fiction are often trigger-happy with little morality, and the stories rarely end with a restoration of order or societal balance.
• 🍸 The hard-boiled detective trope has persisted over time, influencing modern characters like Batman, and can be found in various forms of media, including comedic radio shows for a lighter take on the genre.

Q & A

What defines a hard-boiled detective in fiction?

A hard-boiled detective is typically depicted as depressed, smoking, possibly alcoholic, shabbily dressed, and slouching. They often operate in a grim and gritty world, dealing with rough situations and displaying a hardened demeanor.

How does hard-boiled detective fiction differ from Golden Age detective fiction?

Golden Age detective fiction is characterized by bright settings and good people, often restoring order to society. In contrast, hard-boiled detective fiction is dark and gritty, set in dingy cities, with detectives who are morally ambiguous and unable to restore order completely.

Who is considered the first hard-boiled detective?

Race Williams, a private investigator introduced by Carroll John Daly in 1922, is generally considered the first hard-boiled detective.

What role do women typically play in hard-boiled detective fiction?

Women in hard-boiled detective fiction usually fall into three categories: the damsel in distress, the femme fatale, and the drunken or mentally ill woman. These roles often portray women as either needing rescue, being manipulative and dangerous, or being used for their vulnerabilities.

Why did hard-boiled detective fiction become popular during and after the Great Depression?

During and after the Great Depression, people felt disconnected from the idealized world of Golden Age fiction. They resonated more with the gritty, realistic struggles of hard-boiled detectives, which reflected their own hardships and the pervasive criminal activity of the time.

What is a notable difference in storytelling between hard-boiled detective fiction and other detective genres?

Hard-boiled detective fiction often lacks a 'Watson' character. The story is usually told from the detective's perspective or a detached third-person view, without a companion to help explain the detective's actions or emotions.

How are hard-boiled detectives typically portrayed in terms of their personal lives and relationships?

Hard-boiled detectives are often portrayed as loners with troubled personal lives. They usually have strained or distrustful relationships with women and display few, if any, close personal connections.

What are some common characteristics of the settings in hard-boiled detective fiction?

The settings are usually dark and gritty, often urban environments filled with crime and corruption. The detective's world is bleak, and they operate in the seedy underbelly of society.

What impact did historical events like the Great Depression and World War II have on the themes of hard-boiled detective fiction?

These events contributed to the dark and cynical themes of hard-boiled detective fiction. The widespread poverty, crime, and disillusionment of the time influenced the genre's focus on gritty realism and moral ambiguity.

Can you give an example of a hard-boiled detective and a summary of a story they appear in?

Philip Marlowe, created by Raymond Chandler, is a classic hard-boiled detective. In 'The Big Sleep,' Marlowe investigates a blackmail case involving a young woman named Carmen, who is being harassed by a bookstore owner. The story features typical hard-boiled elements such as morally ambiguous characters, crime, and a gritty urban setting.

Outlines

00:00

🕵️‍♂️ The Essence of Hard-Boiled Detectives

This paragraph introduces the concept of hard-boiled detectives in fiction, characterized by their depressive tendencies, substance abuse, shabby appearance, and rough demeanor. It contrasts these detectives with the bright and optimistic tone of golden age fiction, highlighting the dark and gritty nature of noir style. The paragraph also references 'Calvin and Hobbes' to illustrate the trope of the 'mopey detective' and mentions iconic hard-boiled characters from radio shows like Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Richard Diamond. The setting for these detectives is typically a dingy city, and they are often depicted as barely making ends meet, indulging in drinking and smoking as their only luxuries.

05:01

👤 The Loner and His Women

This section delves into the characteristics of hard-boiled detectives as loners and the role of women in their stories. It discusses the absence of a 'Watson' figure to provide insight into the detective's psyche. Women in these narratives are categorized into three types: the damsel in distress, the femme fatale, and the mentally ill or addicted individuals. The paragraph critiques the portrayal of women as either sexualized or hysterical, and it touches on the theme of the world being a dark and miserable place, as seen through the lens of hard-boiled detective fiction. The narrative often ends with the detective alone, unable to restore order to society due to the overwhelming presence of criminal activity.

10:03

🌍 Societal Reflections in Detective Fiction

This paragraph examines the societal context that shaped hard-boiled detective fiction, including the impact of the Spanish flu and the great depression. It describes the detectives as strong individuals in a harsh world, where everyone is manipulative or abusive. The narrative often concludes with the detective's love interest being convicted or murdered, reflecting the genre's pessimistic outlook. The paragraph also mentions Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe as an embodiment of the hard-boiled detective trope and discusses the portrayal of women in 'The Big Sleep' as typical of the genre, emphasizing their attractiveness and hidden desires or secrets.

15:04

📻 Radio Shows and the Evolution of Detective Fiction

The final paragraph discusses the evolution of detective fiction and its adaptation into radio shows. It contrasts the grim nature of hard-boiled detective stories with the comedic elements found in some radio dramas, such as 'Richard Diamond.' The paragraph suggests that while hard-boiled detective fiction has remained popular in some form, it has also diversified to include more light-hearted approaches. It provides a method to identify a hard-boiled detective by asking three questions related to the nature of the world, the resolution of the story, and the likability of the detective. The paragraph concludes with recommendations for further exploration of detective fiction through courses and podcasts.

Keywords

💡Hard-boiled detective

A hard-boiled detective is a stock character in detective fiction, often depicted as cynical, tough, and world-weary. In the video, this concept is central to the theme, with the speaker describing these detectives as 'depressed,' 'smoking,' 'alcoholic,' and 'shabbily dressed.' They are portrayed as the 'scum of the earth amongst the scum of the earth,' reflecting the dark and gritty nature of the genre.

💡Noir

Noir is a genre of fiction characterized by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity. The video discusses noir in the context of hard-boiled detective fiction, emphasizing its dark tone and the contrast with the 'bright colors and good people' of the Golden Age fiction. Noir is associated with a style of storytelling that is 'dark but quite dark,' as mentioned in the script.

💡Race Williams

Race Williams is a fictional character created by Carroll John Daly, considered the first hard-boiled detective in literature. The video script mentions him as the 'first heartbelt detective,' highlighting his significance in the development of the hard-boiled detective archetype in the story published in 'The Black Mask pulp magazine' in 1922.

💡Golden Age fiction

Golden Age fiction refers to a period in detective novel history known for its elaborate, complex plots and 'bright colors and good people.' The video contrasts this with hard-boiled detective fiction, which is described as 'black, white probably with a lot of red, and absolutely miserable for everyone involved.' This contrast illustrates the shift in societal tastes post-Great Depression.

💡Femme fatale

A femme fatale is a term used to describe a mysterious and seductive woman who often leads men into dangerous and compromising situations. In the video, the femme fatale is one of the three categories of women in hard-boiled detective stories, characterized as 'sexual' and having 'loyalties unknown and or questionable,' contrasting with the 'virginal' damsel in distress.

💡Damsel in distress

The damsel in distress is a classic trope in literature where a woman is portrayed as helpless and in need of rescue, often by a male hero. The video mentions this character type as 'a beautiful young woman' who seeks out the detective's help for various reasons, such as the police not believing her or needing to maintain social status.

💡Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, embodying the hard-boiled detective trope. The video describes Marlowe as 'an attractive, middle-aged man who smokes and drinks too much,' and discusses his role in 'The Big Sleep,' where he investigates a blackmail case, illustrating the typical hard-boiled narrative.

💡Misogynistic

The term misogynistic refers to negative attitudes or prejudice against women. The video script points out the portrayal of women in hard-boiled detective fiction as often 'drunk and or crazy,' which is an expansion of a 'misogynistic worldview.' This critique highlights the problematic representation of women in the genre.

💡Loner

A loner is someone who prefers to be alone or lives in solitude. In the context of the video, hard-boiled detectives are described as 'loners' who do not have a 'Watson' to assist them or share their experiences. This characteristic is exemplified by Sam Spade, who, after the death of his sidekick Archer, 'simply just removes the name from the door and moves on with his life.'

💡Radio shows

Radio shows are audio dramas or programs that were a popular form of entertainment in the early to mid-20th century. The video mentions that hard-boiled detective fiction is especially popular on radio shows, citing characters like Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Richard Diamond, which 'many younger people are unfamiliar with' due to the genre's decline in popularity.

💡Trope

A trope is a recurring theme or motif in literature, film, etc., often used to convey a specific mood or message. The video discusses several tropes associated with hard-boiled detectives, such as their 'fowl-mouthed,' 'angry,' 'depressed' nature, and the common presence of a 'sexy assistant.' These tropes are used to characterize the genre and its narratives.

Highlights

Definition of a hard-boiled detective: a character who is typically depressed, smoking, with an alcohol problem, and dressed shabbily.

Hard-boiled detectives often have rough accents and suffer concussions without apparent long-term effects.

The hard-boiled detective genre is characterized by dark, noir-style storytelling, contrasting with the lighter tone of golden age fiction.

Calvin and Hobbes' 'Tracer Bullet' character is an example of the hard-boiled detective trope.

Hard-boiled detective fiction often lacks a 'Watson' character, leaving the detective's motivations and actions unexplained.

The genre's shift from golden age fiction reflects societal changes post-Great Depression and World War II.

Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Richard Diamond are iconic hard-boiled detectives from radio shows.

Hard-boiled detectives are depicted as loners, with minimal personal connections and a focus on their work.

Women in hard-boiled detective stories are often portrayed as damsels in distress, femme fatales, or troubled individuals.

The portrayal of women in these stories can be problematic, reflecting misogynistic views of the time.

Hard-boiled detectives are unable to restore order to society due to the overwhelming presence of criminal activity.

The hard-boiled detective genre resonated with audiences during times of social and economic hardship.

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe is a quintessential hard-boiled detective with a troubled personal life.

The Big Sleep novel by Chandler features complex female characters embodying typical hard-boiled detective fiction tropes.

Hard-boiled detective stories often end with the protagonist alone, reflecting the genre's dark and hopeless worldview.

The hard-boiled detective genre has persisted in modern adaptations, such as Batman, with a gothic twist.

Comedic hard-boiled detective shows like 'Richard Diamond' provide a lighter take on the genre.

A three-question test helps identify whether a detective character is hard-boiled, golden age, or classical era.

The speaker suggests using 'The Great Courses Plus' for a more in-depth study of detective fiction.

A podcast called 'Radio Detectives' offers old radio shows in podcast form for easy listening.

Transcripts

hello

today we're going to be talking about

hard-boiled detectives

in fiction now you might be wondering

what is a hardball detective well if

your detective

is depressed smoking

probably has an alcohol problem is

rather shabbily dressed

and slouches like a scumbag you got

yourself a hardball detective

usually they also have some rough

accents and they get a concussion about

twice a day

which apparently never really affects

them but that's because they didn't know

that concussions were a bad thing back

then

so if you have any of these you probably

have a very bad case of hardball

detective

so to save our livers and our lungs we

will not be drinking and we will not be

smoking here

even if that would help us get into the

mood think of the hard-boiled detectives

as the scum of the earth amongst the

scum of the earth

much like any other noir style of

fiction

whether that be film or books

it's meant to be dark not quite grim

dark

but quite dark if any of you have ever

read calvin and hobbes

you will know what i mean when i say the

mopey detective who lives in the shadows

who occasionally has a sexy assistant

who walks in and

offers him a cigarette or something

because kelvin occasionally does pretend

to be a 1940s detective

and it is very tropey it is extremely

tropey but he is foul-mouthed

he is angry he is depressed and he is

always smoking or always drinking not

great for a six-year-old but

i guess bill waterson wasn't six when he

drew that so

whatever point is that tracer bullet

his alternate identity is the epitome

of every single trope about hard-boiled

detectives that you'll come across

in essentially any form of the

literature hardball detectives are

especially popular

on radio shows people such as sam spade

philip marlow and richard diamond

are characters that many younger people

are unfamiliar with because the genre

has essentially gone out of style

but that if you've ever listened to any

radio from that

era you will definitely know those names

to start harbor detective fiction is the

exact opposite of golden age fiction

when the golden age was full of bright

colors and good people

heartball detective fiction is black

white probably with a lot of red

and absolutely miserable for everyone

involved

the setting is never the english

countryside and if it is it is really

sketchy

it is usually a very dingy

city down in the slums where the

detective has to get his arms and hands

dirty and covered with grime whether

that be literal or metaphorical

the detective is often barely making

enough to pay for his office space

but he always has enough to drink and

some cigarettes which are apparently the

only thing he ever consumes

can't imagine that that would be very

helpful for your liver

don't do that kids earlier in the

century agave christie's work was

extremely popular

but after the great depression and

during the second world war

people seem to have grown to be

completely disconnected

from the golden age detective fiction

they didn't see the point in glorifying

something

like that when they themselves were

struggling so much they wanted to read

about real people about

themselves or perhaps

some people wanted to read about a world

that was so dark so miserable

that their lives seemed optimistic by

comparison

the first heartbelt detective is

generally considered to be a private

investigator named race williams

in 1922 carol john daly published a

story about

race williams in the black mask pulp

magazine and it is generally considered

to be the first example of

this grim dark detective something that

is very notable about this type of

fiction

is the sheer lack of watsons there is

basically almost never

a watson the story tends to be told

either in first person or

third person and there is no one

to help us understand why the detective

is so

miserable why he drinks so much it is

all filtered through the detective or

through

a third-person perspective who never

really gets into it

sam spade who is a very famous detective

is one of those who starts off with a

sidekick

who's named archer but archer dies and

sam spade never really shows any emotion

about that

he simply just removes the name from the

door and moves on with his life he

doesn't

care while holmes would be devastated by

the loss of his

watson spade doesn't care he's a loner

and

he is always meant to be a loner

sometimes in these stories women take

the role of watsons

such as sam spade's secretary who

occasionally shows

her more feminine side by being

emotional or having emotional reactions

where sam spade is just

hard-boiled essentially rock hard like

absolutely

dead inside she occasionally

says something that strikes sam as a

good idea or occasionally

just bemoans the state of humanity

however

she doesn't go on cases with him because

sam spade

is a loner she stays in the office and

does her secretarial work and he goes

out and does all the dangerous stuff

women in these stories tend to fall into

three categories obviously the damsel in

distress being number one

number two the femme fatale or number

three the drunken mess

and or crazy person which

falls into a whole backwater

of a history of women being portrayed as

hysterical especially in western

literature so take that with a grain of

salt remember that this is where this is

coming from

women being drunk and or crazy is simply

just an expansion of that sort of

misogynistic world view

the damsel in distress is always a

beautiful young woman

who seeks out the private investigator

because the police won't believe her or

because she needs things to be kept

quiet because of her social status

or for a variety of other reasons the

femme fatale

is also beautiful but she is sexual

where

the damsel in distress is virginal

the sexy dark

mysterious femme fatale is out

to get you she often catches the eye of

the detective but her loyalties are

unknown and or

questionable obviously the third

category lumps together the mentally ill

women like

carmen and raymond chandler's the big

sleep

alongside those with other addictions

usually to

alcohol although occasionally it does

venture into

opioids and a lot of sleeping pills

and eating disorders those women who

again are either mentally ill

or struggling with addictions are

usually used in the story to

show that they're corrupt that

they are in such a poor state that the

detective

can bribe them into doing anything the

detective often uses them to gather

clues where they accidentally slip up

and let something out when they

shouldn't have or

whether simply just having a psychotic

break

and yell out exposition

that now the audience and the detective

know and they use it to solve the case

a problematic trope with this third

category of women is that they're often

sexualized

so you have the stereotyped alcoholic

woman who

is also either she's very beautiful and

very sexual or she is very ugly and very

sexual

it kind of doesn't have a gray space but

there's also the type of woman who is

mentally ill and is very

very desperately in need of help but

she's also sexualized

so you have characters like carmen in

chancellors the big sleep

but she instead of getting help because

again this is the 1940s

she instead is portrayed as this

beautiful

naked creature who tries to seduce

marlow and her body is

used as something sexual even though to

the reader it is quite clear that

she needs medication almost everyone in

these stories including the women are

quite trigger-happy and they have they

rarely have any

morality to speak of there's

occasionally the one

pure creature who the detective tries to

save but

those pure creatures those

unicorns are often sacrificed in order

to make the point that the world

is a very dark very miserable place as

america kind of felt the

full force of the great depression the

story seemed to resonate with people

more than golden age fiction

the hard-working detective who fights

his way to justice seemed

more accessible to people especially in

a time when criminal activity seemed to

be

everywhere and poverty was equally well

spread

these detectives had what they needed

and that was it

spade could afford a secretary marla

could afford to dress like a private eye

and

that was about it there were no emerald

type-ins from the queen

no country estates and no end of

criminal activity

they would always have a job whether or

not people would have money to pay for

them was a completely different story

unlike holmes and marple a hardball

detective could not restore the order to

society

because there's simply too much criminal

activity there is

no end to the darkness there's no light

at the end of the tunnel

the whole point is that the world is

miserable and there's nothing to be done

about it

except to try to make a buck out of it

the social changes

happening after the wars were very

difficult to adapt to

the spanish flu was an incredibly

devastating

influenza virus that killed many people

and

these sort of global situations were

what surrounded the people who grew up

during the golden age detective fiction

but who ended up as

writers for the hard-boiled detectives

any hardball detective worth his salt

is a strong man in a man's world he is a

lone wolf

women are almost always eaves they

always lie they always manipulate

and other men always abuse their power

there's no escape from it

everyone is abusive in one way or

another

if the detective finds a love interest

she's almost always convicted of

something by the end of the story

or murdered at some point raymond

chandler's

philip marlow is a great example of this

detective trope

he fulfills essentially every single one

and there's some very good movies so you

don't have to read if you don't like

reading

let's talk about marlow he is a

stereotypical

hardball detective he is an attractive

middle-aged man who smokes and drinks

too much

he doesn't have a secretary and

generally views women with suspicion

the 1939 novel the big sleep features

marlo investigating a blackmail case

a bookstore owner named arthur greiger

is harassing a rich young woman named

carmen

threatening to release her nudes i won't

spoil the ending

of the story but i will say that the

woman in the story are essentially the

embodiment of a typical

hardball detective fiction woman every

woman in the story is

remarkably attractive or has something

they want and something they want to

hide

they either they have wealth and they

want to hide their infidelity or they

have a happy married life but they want

wealth and they're hiding the fact that

they're so

desperately stealing stuff or whatever

it is that they're doing it's always

something

no matter what marlow does in the story

or

who he meets or who he falls in love

with he is going to end up

alone and he does he ends up drinking

alone at a bar

which i'm pretty sure is marvel's one

and only hobby marlow is the protagonist

but his actions addictions and

problems make him a morally great

character

he tends to be a bit more believable

than the all-knowing

good miss marple but at the same time

they are so incredibly troubled that

you sometimes wonder how they manage to

get out of bed in the morning and why

they don't just jump off the nearest

cliff

because again like i said this is a dark

storyline there's never

anything positive in their lives and

when it is it is

always taken away heartbroken detective

fiction has never quite

gone out of style batman is essentially

sherlock holmes in

the modern times with well at least

right now

a goth makeover but in the past with

a fun sidekick and a few crazy

antagonists

and that's fine it changes and these

things come in and out of fashion

of course not everyone wanted to hear

about grimdark detectives all the time

and there are some great comedic shows

from

again that same era the radio show

not the tv show the tv show is terrible

the radio show of richard diamond

is very very funny he is barely scraping

by in the detective business

but he always is making quips and has a

lot of fun on cases and the

radio dramas around diamond are

a lot of fun he is far from a good

character

he is often flirting with other people

even though he has a steady girlfriend

named helen

who is lovely by the way it's great to

see

one woman in these stories that isn't

either crazy or

evil but there are so many femme fatales

that diamond either seduces or tries to

seduce or get seduced by

regardless that again you end up

wondering why does helen stick with

diamond

of course if you want to go a bit more

traditional there are also sam spade

radio shows and

even some remade sherlock holmes ones

that tend to be a little bit darker than

usual which is a bit

difficult to get accustomed to however

they have their merits and they're quite

a lot of fun to listen to

if you want to know whether or not your

detective is a hard world detective you

just have to ask yourself these three

questions

number one is the general population in

this universe good

is the world out to get the detective

number two

does the solution to the problem restore

balance to the world

number three is the detective an easily

likable person

if the answer is no to all three then

you have yourself a traditional

hard-boiled detective

if the answer is yes then you most

likely have a golden age detective

if you answered 1 in 3 as yes then you

have a sherlock holmes type detective

from the classical era detective fiction

can be a lot of fun

and sometimes some people consider

looking at it

through this way as work or that we're

taking the joy out of it

but i personally find analyzing this

sort of literature to be very very

interesting you learn

so much and although you might not

necessarily agree with

all of my generalizations that i've made

in this series

they are generalizations i don't get

paid to make these videos i make them

for fun so

if you want a full lecture series i

don't think i'm qualified a

and b i need a lot more money than what

i have right now so

if you want to learn more about this i

can highly recommend

as the great courses plus which i'm not

sponsored by they have a few

series on detective fiction and they are

essentially university level courses

which i have taken my fair share of

detective fiction university level

courses

i did major in english literature after

all i mean

look at me duh what else would i have

majored in there is a podcast called

radio detectives which is out of boise

idaho it's wonderful

the man takes all the radio shows from

the oldie days and puts them in a

podcast form so you can listen to them

and

his catalog is enormous i'll see if i

can link it down below

anyways i hope you like this video

series leave a comment

down below like subscribe i can't

guarantee that i'll ever make more

videos but you know

not like i have much else going on so

we'll see