Raymond Chandler's Urban Space

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at some of the specific locations in the texts and their metaphorical significance before taking the discussion of urban representation to a wider scope by looking at Chandler's depiction of the Los Angeles and its inhabitants. It also examines the author's use of media and architecture as symbols of facade in both novels.

From the Paper:

"Firstly, Chandler paints an image of Los Angeles as a "new center-less city in which the various classes have lost touch with each other because each is isolated in his own geographical compartment." As an urban sprawl, Chandler's Los Angeles accommodates a social structure that is similarly sprawling away from any central sense of community. "Neighborhoods are irrationally segregated from each other...and expensive ones like...Idle Valley are made inaccessible to those without cars or credentials." This quotation raises two important observations. The first is the significance of the name Idle Valley. As a valley it geographically shelters its inhabitants from exterior influences, presumably the citizens of the greater metropolis of Los Angeles and of the lower classes. "

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