Quote Sunday: Raymond Chandler – ‘Down These Mean Streets’ from The Simple Art of Murder
Chandler’s classic essay on a model for a fictional detective is both a literary gem and a philosophical framework for life
"In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. 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 an 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 his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.
He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him asa proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks—that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.
The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in."
I don't recall where or when exactly I stumbled upon this little gem of a quote. I was in my twenties, browsing the internet for one thing or another–as you do, and it jumped out of the screen. I must have read it hundreds of times, and each read is just as poignant as the last. I even wrote a number of lyrics based around it.
The Simple Art of murder is a collection of essays published in 1950. This quote, one of Chandler’s most revered, is from an essay first published the Atlantic in 1944. Never one to shy away from his opinions, Chandler was for famed for his witty and cutting outbursts, but brilliantly accurate observations of life. His writing became known as ‘hard boiled’, a term often used in conjunction with the noire detective genre. Chandler, who was born in Chicago but educated in London, was a master of wisecracks, metaphors and hyperbole, who could, in one turn of phrase, describe the horror of crime scene, make you shocked and saddened at society, then make you laugh with his droll, black humour. He wrote seven novels with his character Philip Marlowe, whom classic cinema fans will know most from The Big Sleep (1946), portrayed seminally by Humphrey Bogart.
I had never thought of redemption being such an inherent a quality of art. But it’s true. Hapless heroes who are flawed yet essentially good is what keeps the pages turning; keeps people watching. We are not only rooting for the bad guy to be apprehended, but rooting for the protagonist to sort out their own lives too: failing relationships, addictions, self-destruction. Each case sees them learning about themselves and trying to redeem themselves. One of the running themes with any hero is that they must sacrifice for their heroic acts, and this puts massive strain on their home life. They chose a calling that serves a bigger purpose, but the price for it is often high, with spouses and children feeling left-out in the cold. As readers we want them to find love, or to mend their homes. I think this true of all art. Caravaggio’s art is a glaring attack on society and we admire that in his work. But what gets art lovers truly invested in his work is that search for redemption–Caravaggio was on the run for murder, and died in his quest. And in music, the struggles and woes of artistes are what fans invest in often more than the music; a cult of personality where we follow the underdog through their successes, falls from graces and resurrections.
Down these means streets a man must go, who is not himself mean, is perhaps the greatest way to sum up not just the detective character, but a metaphor for life. Good people go through bad times, and to keep that goodness if the only way to sustain the hope of redemption. I often see Chandler’s character description like Rudyard Kipling’s poem If. To hold ones head up when the world goes to hell. To not get sucked into the world that you must walk through. To have the wit and humour to converse with anyone, but at the same time not be arrogant. To accept that we are all flawed but that be okay. The world is tough and more people should be like it. But not too good, because then the world would become dull.
I think this quote should be on the walls of every school and college. It is a writer’s astute philosophical look at society, through the eyes of a fictional detective who has to see the worst of it without losing that which makes him good; without losing hope.
Cheers for reading.