“Mean and Shabby and Wrinkled”: The Experience of Middle Age in American Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction

Abstract

This article examines the nuance of aging masculinity presented in hard-boiled detective fiction, something that is frequently lost amid sleek Hollywood portrayals of these characters. The detectives of this genre are inevitably middle-aged men and aging—along with vulnerability—is thus a fundamental, if often disavowed, element of the form. Among the early authors of this school, Raymond Chandler proves to be the most reflective on the topic of mortality. This article examines The Long Goodbye (1953) as a guiding illustration of hard-boiled insights into aging, along with supporting examples from the genre’s history, particularly the works of Dashiell Hammett. The question of hard-boiled realism is of special note to this discussion, as these works ostensibly offer a platform for more “true” representations of male bodies as they age. However, Chandler’s hard-boiled realism, typified in the 1944 essay “The Simple Art of Murder”, bases authenticity on style and language rather than on verisimilitude. This conflicting realism undoubtedly explains the halting representations of aging in hard-boiled fiction. The detective’s experience of age can be disavowed with a well-chosen quip or a well-placed right hook. This essay will read this inherent tension—that is, between articulation and renunciation— with respect to male aging within the hard-boiled ethos.

Keywords

• mid-century american fiction
• detective fiction
• hard-boiled
• masculinity
• aging