The Big Sleep and the American Badass
Here is a movie poster of The Big Sleep, because movies are inherently more interesting than books.
For the Cyberpunk class I’m taking this semester (if you don’t know what Cyberpunk is, get educated) , the first book we checked out was Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. That probably rings a bell because of its film incarnation starring Humphrey Bogart as the protagonist, Philip Marlowe.
The story of The Big Sleep isn’t especially important for what I want to talk about today, and on top of that, it has one of the most convoluted plots I’ve ever had the displeasure of deciphering. While trying to adapt it for the screen, the team of writers simply could not tack down who murdered one of the characters. They got Chandler on the phone, and his response was, “I haven’t a clue.”
That being said, it is still a great book, both as a detective story and as an exploration of 1930’s culture. Since his appearance in The Big Sleep, Philip Marlowe has become an archetype in American storytelling. He’s a hard-boiled detective in Los Angeles during the 1930’s mobster era.
A recurring symbol throughout the story is the white knight. As the first image in the book, Marlowe stands in front of a tapestry hanging in his the front hall of his wealthy client. Upon it, a knight tries frantically to free a naked maiden from the tree to which she is tied. He is having trouble doing so, and Marlowe feels like he should give him a hand. Later in the book, in Marlowe’s apartment, he examines his chess board. He’s been belaboring his next move, fingering the white knight piece and then putting it down again over and over, unsure where to move it. ”This isn’t a game for knights,” he comments.
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