Location! Location! Location!

I was not certain of many facts while reading Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, but I was always certain of the location. Chandler uses the space of Los Angeles extensively, from the hills to the ocean, and name drops just about every city surrounding it, including America’s finest city and my home, San Diego. As someone who knows all of the mentioned locations and has been to several of them, I was surprised at how I still felt uncertain and unsafe in the space. Chandler uses the darkness of Los Angeles to implement the darkness of the noir theme into the novel. He creates such vivid scenes of despair and descent into darkness that even places I had positive associations with became tainted by noir. Ventura, where my boyfriend’s grandparents own avocado and lemon orchards and cousins are always around to swim with, now is the line where the police will catch a murder if he makes a run north. The Pacific Ocean, where I surf and swim with sharks, now hides gambling ships, murders, and anyone else trying to hide secrets. San Diego, my home and the city I know like the back of my hand, (presumably) hides an elusive and powerful man. The novel imbeds my home with secrets and uncertainty, proving no one and nothing is safe from the darkness, even places bright during the day can change with the setting sun. This reality has helped me grasp noir and has helped me realize the mindset of the writers at the time. Chandler lived in Los Angeles, but he could still write it as this dark and scary place where corruption and murder infect every aspect. Even he could see his home as a place filled with darkness, and that cynicism, which has been difficult to grasp, became clear in the new telling of Los Angeles.