Dilemmas and non-dilemmas

Dashiell Hammett, the father of 'hard-boiled' detective fiction

Yesterday I was 'de-friended', to use that horrible neologism, by someone on facebook (no-on I know in real life, so don't worry) como siempre for offering some constructive criticism and a different opinion. The guy was offering advice for writers. He said that they should give their protagonists a strong moral code and then put them present them with a moral dilemma. The problem was that the example he gave wasn't much of a dilemma. It could easily be resolved with a reasonable compromise or by thinking around the problem. 

Since the example involved a detective, I pointed out that the anti-heroes of the best 'hard-boiled' detective fiction of the 20s, 30s and 40s commonly faced far worse dilemmas. I don't want to spoil the plot of The Maltese Falcon for those of you who haven't read it or seen either of the films, but in the first couple of chapters Miles Archer, the partner of the protagonist Sam Spade, is murdered. It is then established that Spade has been having an affair with Archer's wife, which puts him under suspicion. It's strongly suggested that he's also having a fling with his secretary, who knows about his other affairs.

At the end of the story Spade is confronted with a dilemma, a real one. There is no workable compromise, no clever way round it. He is truly between the devil and the deep blue sea. He decides to play it by the book, and ends up being hated by everyone, including himself. This is not like one of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 dilemmas, which were meant to illustrate the absurdities of war, the military and life in general, but the kind of situation everyone faces at some point.

The Maltese Falcon was written by Dashiell Hammett, a man who was blacklisted by Hollywood for his political views: he was a communist and a leading civil rights campaigner. Hollywood is like that. Like the Greco-Roman god Cronos (Saturn), it devours its own children when they show precocious or exceptional talent or threaten a revolution. Anything new and exciting is quickly stamped out or appropriated and homogenised, then brought down to the lowest common denominator. 

It's impossible to divorce Hammett's politics from his literary works. He took up writing in the early 20s after quitting the Pinkerton detective agency in disgust at its involvement in union-busting activities. He understood humanity and saw clearly the web of collusion between businessmen, politicians, police and gangsters. He was a modernist and a realist. 

By writing honest stories where the ending was never happy, Hammett threatened to bring down the fantasy world of commercial entertainment, where square-jawed heroes face phony dilemmas in unreal, black-and-white morality situations in a mockery of real life.

The Maltese Falcon came out 85 years ago. It was a popular paperback novel - Hammett's first short stories were printed in pulp fiction magazines - not a great and worthy epic like Moby Dick. Two films were made of it within 12 years. The state of fiction writing and filmmaking is getting worse, not better. The rot needs to be stopped. If authors, publishers, producers and directors are unwilling to do so, at least role-players might try.