Raymond Chandler writes the most eloquent and descriptive lines, it is hard to choose one small section to focus on. I literally fanned through the book and blindly chose the following section for a Close Reading:
"...I had a bellyfull of the Sternwood family.
I read all three of the morning papers over my eggs and bacon the next morning. Their accounts of the affair came as close to the truth as newspaper stories usually come -- as close as Mars is to Saturn." (pg. 118).
Chandler's style of writing gives the speaker an addictive personality which draws the reader in. I love the crass, nonchalant, and direct disposition of the narrator. He has a dry, but clever sense of humor. I also love the way he transitions from one paragraph to another or from one chapter to another. In this excerpt he moves from speaking figuratively about having a "bellyfull of the Sternwood family" to describing his breakfast the following morning.
In this piece the narrator is looking through the morning newspapers to see if either of them have put these connected murders together only to find that each has been "solved" with very simple and far from the truth explanations.
The narrator describes the newspaper's accounts of the stories to be as close to the truth "as Mars is to Saturn"(pg. 118). The satire here is that while the two planets may only be separated by one other planet, the planet which separates them happens to be the largest (by far) planet in the solar system, Jupiter which places them more than three "earths" apart.
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. First Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Edition, 1992.
Hi, Amanda!
ReplyDeleteI decided to read a different book, but I took a glimpse on the synopsis of the book you chose and it seems this one is also an investigative one. I may read it in the future because this is definitively my favorite genre!
Anyway, I found your analysis really interesting and I love the Mars/Saturn analogy. I love reading your stuff; it is always so interesting and you're so thoughtful in your words!