L.A. Exile Writers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

L.A. Exile Writers - Essay Example In addition to being one of the foremost crime novelists of the 20th century, Raymond Chandler is also recognized as one of the greatest writers of Los Angeles. In articulating Los Angeles it’s clear that Chandler assumes a sort of outsider status. Rather than romanticizing the various daily on-goings there is almost a sense of condescension in his tone. For instance, he writes â€Å"an evening with the sports page, the blatting of the radio, the whining of their spoiled children and the gabble of their silly wives† (Chandler). It’s clear that rather than romanticizing the movie star nature of Los Angeles, Chandler is attempting to present it in a more gritty light, with a self-conscious flavor. In other instances, Chandler attempts to depict the behind the scenes reality of the city, demonstrating producers that speak of the nature of the movie business in cynical terms. In all its an engaging portrait of the city that eschews romanticized notions of celebrity p arties and Hollywood for a grittier and realistic edge. A lot of how Chandler does this is by showing off the people who did not make it into the Hollywood and Los Angeles dream as well as those who did. Although his novel The Little Sister, already quoted above, is about the disappearance of an airline engineer, there are parts of it which deal specifically with some of the studios. In chapter 19, Marlowe goes to a movie production studio and notes that the entrance area has bulletproof glass. He mentions that he â€Å"never heard of anybody shooting his way into the picture business,† and a woman behind him laughs and says she wishes that was all it took (Chandler). In this short section, Chandler has deftly managed to point out the paranoia of the rich Hollywood types, as well as showing that for every bullet proof glass protected studio there are many people who do not make it into them. In this way he successfully deflates the image that Los