http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=2163

See also:

http://gadetection.pbworks.com/Carr,+John+Dickson

Hi, Alberto,

I just got some status Sappers.  They are snazzy looking, though I notice all
the Stratus books I've gotten from Amazon the last year have these glossy covers
that tend to curl badly.  I hate that!  Yet the Stratus Feeeman Crofts and
Austin Freemans I got from UK back in 2002 have non-glossy covers that stay flat
and I like that so much better.  I wonder why this changed?

Curt

--- In GAdetection@yahoogroups.com, "Alberto Oyarbide/Upbeat" <upbeatdiscos@...>
wrote:
>
> This is my first post to this group so hello, everybody.
> Some 10 years ago, the british imprint House Of Startus printed a very nice
collection with the Bulldog Drummond series by Sapper. It's still available in
paperback. Nice edition.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Alberto.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

numbered 318, the most since June 2004, when there were 718 (!).  That's nice to
see, though I wonder what the heck was going on in June 2004?!

Curt

I'm hoping someone can help me out. I have to write up a 'mock' thesis proposal
-- I'll be doing my Master's thesis next year, so have some time to work on it,
but meanwhile I have to mention theoretical groundings. My thesis will be on the
snobbery, racism, anti-Semitism and class assumptionsn -- any "isms", really --
in GA.

I'm at a bit of a loss, cos I'm not doing the usual 'literary' studies of GA, so
all the usual theories of writing don't quite apply. Certainly I'll be
considering the politics and socioeconomics of the 20s and 30s, and possible
causes of the ignorance that allowed racism, etc, to flourish.

But I can't really think of what I need to say. Any ideas?

Best,
Meredith


Director
Between Us Manuscript Assessment Service
www.betweenusmanuscripts.com
Author of Treason, winner of the 2003 Eppie Award for Historical Fiction,
available by order from bookshops and from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and
www.bewrite.net



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'd check the numeous theses that have been written on this subject already.

   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Meredith Whitford
   To: GAdetection@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 11:13 AM
   Subject: [GAdetection] theory?



   I'm hoping someone can help me out. I have to write up a 'mock' thesis
proposal -- I'll be doing my Master's thesis next year, so have some time to
work on it, but meanwhile I have to mention theoretical groundings. My thesis
will be on the snobbery, racism, anti-Semitism and class assumptionsn -- any
"isms", really -- in GA.

   I'm at a bit of a loss, cos I'm not doing the usual 'literary' studies of GA,
so all the usual theories of writing don't quite apply. Certainly I'll be
considering the politics and socioeconomics of the 20s and 30s, and possible
causes of the ignorance that allowed racism, etc, to flourish.

   But I can't really think of what I need to say. Any ideas?

   Best,
   Meredith

   Director
   Between Us Manuscript Assessment Service
   www.betweenusmanuscripts.com
   Author of Treason, winner of the 2003 Eppie Award for Historical Fiction,
   available by order from bookshops and from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and
www.bewrite.net

   [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I've written a piece about the rise in U.S. crime fiction imports, which
centers on what the form, in all its wonderful variety, has depended on for
its success over the decades. Article here:
http://stkarnick.com/culture/2010/07/02/u-s-publishers-head-overseas-for-new
-crime-novels/. Best, Sam Karnick





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Good article, Sam.

The "globalization" of the genre, culminating with Stieg Larsson topping the
NYT best-sellers list and the "invasion" of the American market by
foreign-language offerings, is another in a series of false good news.
Instead of bringing much-needed diversity to a genre that has sorely been
lacking it for decades, it actually comforts the prevailing orthodoxy. Since
most readers (and critics) are at least just as interested in settings and
characters than in plots it is no surprise they mistake localism for
originality and devour books they would find tripe if they were set in
London or New York. Scandinavian crime fiction in particular brings nothing
new in term of treatment, subject or approach (Nordic writers adhere to the
European doxa that crime fiction must be serious, socially-conscious and
politically charged, and their plotting and storytelling techniques are
borrowed from American, British and even French-language sources - Simenon
is a major influence on most of them) but the exotic settings and mores sell
it.

I have been thinking a lot - well, it would be more accurate to say that I
have been thinking even more than usual about the future of the genre and
unlike most people in the fandom I find it quite gloomy as it threatens to
dissolve in the mainstream and lose its identity while rejuvenating in the
process an exhausted "general fiction" (cf. Atkinson or Chabon who
reinvented themselves as "literary" crime writers) The only way to save it
might be to go the way of science-fiction, that is, ceasing to try to appeal
to the general public and retreat into a self-built ghetto. Surely it would
do much damage commercially, but it might relight the fire.

Friendly,
Xavier


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

*Please note, the sender's email address has not been verified.



The author's points might apply to lots of contemporary mystery writing
including, ironically, the very Mankell she seems to admire.

Friendly,
Xavier




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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

GADers!

Sam, could you rerun your URL? The relevant email seems to have scuttled
off into a dark corner of my computer and I cannot lay hands on it.

Lately there has been a fair bit of comment on publishers' rising
interest in imported or translated novels and I have been taking notes.
Thus my latest Cunning Plan is to adopt a thick foreign accent and
change my name to one with no vowels whatsoever and plenty of zeds 8-}

There was an article in today's WSJ ** on such novels and I noticed a
revealing tidbit. The writer stated "...translating a book can add tens
of thousands to production costs."  It'll be interesting to see what
authors say about that level of remuneration!

** Fiction's Global Crime Wave
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703426004575338763878488670.html

Mary R
http://home.earthlink.net/~maywrite/

On 2 Jul 2010, at 16:11 , Xavier Lechard wrote:

> The only way to save it
> might be to go the way of science-fiction, that is, ceasing to try to appeal
> to the general public and retreat into a self-built ghetto. .

Are you exaggerating for effect, or are you proposing that science fiction
writers made a conscious decision to do this?


Mike

Meredith

I was wrong to generalise.  There are a fair number of theses on racism in crime
fiction (www.theses.com and http://ethos.bl.uk) should have details but - while
others may know different - I don't think a comprehensive survey of all of the
isms has been done.

Tony


----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Medawar
To: GAdetection@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [GAdetection] theory?



I'd check the numeous theses that have been written on this subject already.

----- Original Message -----
From: Meredith Whitford
To: GAdetection@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 11:13 AM
Subject: [GAdetection] theory?

I'm hoping someone can help me out. I have to write up a 'mock' thesis proposal
-- I'll be doing my Master's thesis next year, so have some time to work on it,
but meanwhile I have to mention theoretical groundings. My thesis will be on the
snobbery, racism, anti-Semitism and class assumptionsn -- any "isms", really --
in GA.

I'm at a bit of a loss, cos I'm not doing the usual 'literary' studies of GA, so
all the usual theories of writing don't quite apply. Certainly I'll be
considering the politics and socioeconomics of the 20s and 30s, and possible
causes of the ignorance that allowed racism, etc, to flourish.

But I can't really think of what I need to say. Any ideas?

Best,
Meredith

Director
Between Us Manuscript Assessment Service
www.betweenusmanuscripts.com
Author of Treason, winner of the 2003 Eppie Award for Historical Fiction,
available by order from bookshops and from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and
www.bewrite.net

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The cornerstone work on this subject remains Colin Watson's Snobbery with
Violence, with notable asides in Julian Symons' Bloody Murder.  Both are
non-academic authors, of course, being "merely" good writers.  Of course a great
many books and articles over the last forty years refer to these isms; I myself
spend a lot of time talking about them in my Humdrums manuscript.  The typical
academic view, stated rather uncompromisingly,  is that Golden Age writers were
reactionary conservatives doing their bit to cement bourgeois hegemony over the
ignorant masses by peddling classist, sexist and racist stereotypes.  Of course
there is classism, racism and sexism in these books, but I personally take
pretty strong issue with the traditional view; I think the real picture is much
more complex than often is allowed.  There have been some notable revisionist
works, however.

Meredith I think Nick Fuller mentioned Victims or Villains, which is a pretty
good study of anti-Semitism.  You might also want to look up a recent book
called Lesser Breeds.  It's not limited to detective fiction, but does address
it.

Curt

--- In GAdetection@yahoogroups.com, "Tony Medawar" <tonymedawar@...> wrote:
>
> Meredith
>
> I was wrong to generalise.  There are a fair number of theses on racism in
crime fiction (www.theses.com and http://ethos.bl.uk) should have details but -
while others may know different - I don't think a comprehensive survey of all of
the isms has been done.
>
> Tony
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tony Medawar
> To: GAdetection@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 8:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [GAdetection] theory?
>
>
>
> I'd check the numeous theses that have been written on this subject already.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Meredith Whitford
> To: GAdetection@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 11:13 AM
> Subject: [GAdetection] theory?
>
> I'm hoping someone can help me out. I have to write up a 'mock' thesis
proposal -- I'll be doing my Master's thesis next year, so have some time to
work on it, but meanwhile I have to mention theoretical groundings. My thesis
will be on the snobbery, racism, anti-Semitism and class assumptionsn -- any
"isms", really -- in GA.
>
> I'm at a bit of a loss, cos I'm not doing the usual 'literary' studies of GA,
so all the usual theories of writing don't quite apply. Certainly I'll be
considering the politics and socioeconomics of the 20s and 30s, and possible
causes of the ignorance that allowed racism, etc, to flourish.
>
> But I can't really think of what I need to say. Any ideas?
>
> Best,
> Meredith
>
> Director
> Between Us Manuscript Assessment Service
> www.betweenusmanuscripts.com
> Author of Treason, winner of the 2003 Eppie Award for Historical Fiction,
> available by order from bookshops and from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and
www.bewrite.net
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Mike Detlefsen wrote:


> "Are you exaggerating for effect, or are you proposing that science fiction
> writers made a conscious decision to do this?"
>

I don't really know what I was trying to say - it was late when I wrote it
and it shows. Still, I think that sci-fi because of its lesser popularity
and greater insularity (whether it's vuluntary or not) tends to be more
experimental and challenging than mystery currently is. Maybe I'm a "genre
warrior" but I think there is a problem when genre fiction appeals to people
outside the fandom - it may be because it's really good, but it's more
likely to be the result of giving up on the genre's foundations. Not sure
all this makes sense, but that's how I feel about it.

Friendly,
Xavier

P.S.: Are you related to that Michael Detlefsen?
http://philosophy.nd.edu/people/all/profiles/detlefsen-michael/


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 7/3/2010 3:40:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
GAdetection@yahoogroups.com writes:
> Re: What's behind rise in U.S. crime fiction imports
>     Posted by: "Mike Detlefsen" detmik64@... jmiked@...
>     Date: Fri Jul 2, 2010 3:26 pm ((PDT))
>
>
> On 2 Jul 2010, at 16:11 , Xavier Lechard wrote:
>
> >The only way to save it
> >might be to go the way of science-fiction, that is, ceasing to try to
> appeal
> >to the general public and retreat into a self-built ghetto. .
>
> Are you exaggerating for effect, or are you proposing that science fiction
> writers made a conscious decision to do this?
>
>
I might point out that sales in science fiction are down too. We've been
discussing just that in some of my Sci-Fi groups. What's selling now is
Fantasy- Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. The theory is that people are looking for
escapism also they're disappointed that science hasn't delivered on all it
promised in science fiction. Remember "2001: A Space Odysessy"? That date has
come & gone & we're nowhere near having what was shown in just that movie. We
were all supposed to have flying cars now. Because of the failure of such
predictions, the mundanes ( general population) have retreated into fantasies
about wizards or vampires. That's where the best-sellers are.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

As Taylor401306 mentions the success of Harry Potter and Twilight, it
occurs to me that one of the most distinctive features of modern-day
genre fiction is the need of identification - readers no longer want
bigger-than-life heroes to admire; they want vulnerable, "real" human
beings whom they can pity and "relate" to. Harry Potter may be a
magician but he is first and foremost a teenager whose various
personal and family issues are the core of the books; conversely I
guess most Twilight readers couldn't care less that some characters
happen to be vampires or werewolves; they are into that teenage
impossible love thing. This phenomenon might even account for the
continued popularity of reality television - after all, if what you're
seeking for is people like you experiencing the same problems that you
do, then there's nothing like the real thing. In any case, such a
context makes the commercial viability of any kind of imaginative,
non-character-driven fiction (and GA is just that) highly problematic
to say the least.

Friendly,
Xavier

>> My thesis will be on the snobbery, racism, anti-Semitism and class
assumptionsn -- any "isms", really -- in GA.>>

Our moderator will be able to tell you more, but there have been several
discussions of the subject in the not too far distant past which I expect
you can access somewhere or other.

I just ran across a description of a Jew in a Dr Thorndike story, The
Anthropologist at Large--not exactly anti, but very much stereotyping:

a typical Hebrew of the blonde type--good-looking, faultlessly dressed [a
bit of class prejudice in there?]...

  "He is a Jew, and he has that passion for things that are rich and
costly that has distinguished our race from the time of...Solomon
onwards."  [Jew speaking of his brother]

Carola
                http://CarolaDunn.WEEBLY.com    Facebook
Daisy Dalrymple mysteries-England 1920s-hc,pb,audio,LP, now in UK
Latest: SHEER FOLLY + BLACK SHIP in pb.
June: A COLOURFUL DEATH--2nd Cornish mystery
    Regency  ebooks: www.RegencyReads.com

>>Lately there has been a fair bit of comment on publishers' rising
interest in imported or translated novels and I have been taking notes.
Thus my latest Cunning Plan is to adopt a thick foreign accent and
change my name to one with no vowels whatsoever and plenty of zeds 8-}>>

Mary, I hope you're going to let us know what it is when you've invented
it ;-)

>>translating a book can add tens
of thousands to production costs."  It'll be interesting to see what
authors say about that level of remuneration!>>

Not necessarily, I'd have to say. Lots of my Regencies were translated
into lots of languages (inc. Hebrew!), though neither the originals nor
the translations ever made me much money. Nor did the German translations
of the first 9 or so Daisy books. I doubt the Regency publishers, at
least, expected to make tens of thousands of dollars, so paying that much
for translation wouldn't be worth it.

Carola
                http://CarolaDunn.WEEBLY.com    Facebook
Daisy Dalrymple mysteries-England 1920s-hc,pb,audio,LP, now in UK
Latest: SHEER FOLLY + BLACK SHIP in pb.
June: A COLOURFUL DEATH--2nd Cornish mystery
    Regency  ebooks: www.RegencyReads.com

http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/crime/dougs-digs-when-carruthers-laughed-and-oth\
er-stories/

See also:

http://gadetection.pbworks.com/When%20Carruthers%20Laughed

http://gadetection.pbworks.com/Sapper

Sam, they've certainly moved away from what I like!  I think this trend really
got going with Ross Macdonald and the move to embrace his detective novels as
True Literature.  Maybe the Chandler route was a dead end (Macdonald certainly
came to think so), but at least Chandler was fun.  I got tired of the same
dysfunctional family psychological sagas over and over in the Macdonalds.

The article notes that a Turkish crime writer has been heavily influenced by
Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith.  I find that interesting, since
Highsmith is customarily seen as the antithesis of Christie!

The author approvingly notes that imported crime fiction "blurs the line between
genre and literary fiction."  Also that they deal more with "political and
social issues."  The suggestion seems to be that the reason for the rise in
imports is that this is what Americans are looking for in their crime fiction. 
I would have thought they were getting this already.

Curt

--- In GAdetection@yahoogroups.com, "S. T. Karnick" <stkarnick@...> wrote:
>
> I've written a piece about the rise in U.S. crime fiction imports, which
> centers on what the form, in all its wonderful variety, has depended on for
> its success over the decades. Article here:
> http://stkarnick.com/culture/2010/07/02/u-s-publishers-head-overseas-for-new
> -crime-novels/. Best, Sam Karnick
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Xavier,

I think surely even some of the ongoing popularity of Christie, Sayers and
Allingham is due to the vicarious identification with the genteel detectives and
their romantic partners.  Granted they are posh toffs, but compare them to
earlier Great Detective like Holmes and Thorndyke and Father Brown--they are
more relatable.  They seem similar in appeal to the Georgette Heyer regency
romances and even Jane Austen, who seems bigger than ever.  I'm not surprised
someone started a detective series with Jane Austen herself!

I'm reading Sapper and I can certainly see how a book like this would have
appealed to kids in the 1920s and 1930s.  And part of the appeal, besides the
plot-driven thrills, would have been the Bulldog Drummond character.  Granted,
his inner emotional life is not very complex (hm, does he even have one?), but I
can see kids of a certain class identifying with him.  It's rather like the
schoolboy fiction genre elevated a notch.

Of course, Poirot and Miss Marple are rather more unusual figures compared to
the above, but Christie always is a force unto herself.  I suppose the "Marple"
adapters' decision to give her a past sex life (such an absurdity, the character
is obliterated as it exists in the novels if she is not a virgin) reflects what
you say: a desire to make her someone that can be related to.  I notice a common
theme among younger viewers in criticizing the Joan Hickson Marples is that they
find Hickson "remote."  They liked who first successor better, apparently in
part because she was sympathetic to "modern" ways, as evidenced by her having
had a past affair with a married man.  Even the newer Miss Marple still comes
off more like a modern grandmother than a believable historical figure.

Curt

--- In GAdetection@yahoogroups.com, Xavier Lechard <lechardxavier@...> wrote:
>
> As Taylor401306 mentions the success of Harry Potter and Twilight, it
> occurs to me that one of the most distinctive features of modern-day
> genre fiction is the need of identification - readers no longer want
> bigger-than-life heroes to admire; they want vulnerable, "real" human
> beings whom they can pity and "relate" to. Harry Potter may be a
> magician but he is first and foremost a teenager whose various
> personal and family issues are the core of the books; conversely I
> guess most Twilight readers couldn't care less that some characters
> happen to be vampires or werewolves; they are into that teenage
> impossible love thing. This phenomenon might even account for the
> continued popularity of reality television - after all, if what you're
> seeking for is people like you experiencing the same problems that you
> do, then there's nothing like the real thing. In any case, such a
> context makes the commercial viability of any kind of imaginative,
> non-character-driven fiction (and GA is just that) highly problematic
> to say the least.
>
> Friendly,
> Xavier
>

Last week's issue (23 June) of the TLS included a long (nearly 3000 words)
review of "Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Works" - fifty-six paperback
volumes, 10,988 pages, price £399, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 
The reviewer, who found the publication neither scholarly nor complete, uses
much of his generous allotment of space to a discussion of  the origins and
powerful subtext of "The Adventure of the Creeping Man". The review is available
on-line, at least in the UK, at:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/articl\
e7154446.ece

This week's issue (30 June) continues the Doyle connection with an advertisement
for Sotheby's forthcoming sale of one of the only two known inscribed copies of
1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual: estimate £250,000 to £400,000.  The TLS also has
a passing reminder  to Faber Finds, a series of reprints from faber & faber 
["Bringing Great Writing Back Into Print"].  Mystery authors on the list now
include Cyril Hare (13 books: his 10 detective novels, one children's book and
his collected short stories), C H B Kitchin (five novels, including Crime at
Christmas and Death of my Aunt - but not Death of His Uncle). and Colin Watson
(all the Flaxborough novels and Snobbery with Violence).  Other more recent
writers include Lionel Davidson, Celia Dale and Stephen Chance.

Is there some way of printing the whole article, I can't seem to get past page
one!

Curt

--- In GAdetection@yahoogroups.com, "lux2lane" <mwtstorey@...> wrote:
>
>
> Last week's issue (23 June) of the TLS included a long (nearly 3000 words)
review of "Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Works" - fifty-six paperback
volumes, 10,988 pages, price £399, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 
The reviewer, who found the publication neither scholarly nor complete, uses
much of his generous allotment of space to a discussion of  the origins and
powerful subtext of "The Adventure of the Creeping Man". The review is available
on-line, at least in the UK, at:
>
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/articl\
e7154446.ece
>
> This week's issue (30 June) continues the Doyle connection with an
advertisement for Sotheby's forthcoming sale of one of the only two known
inscribed copies of 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual: estimate £250,000 to
£400,000.  The TLS also has a passing reminder  to Faber Finds, a series of
reprints from faber & faber  ["Bringing Great Writing Back Into Print"]. 
Mystery authors on the list now include Cyril Hare (13 books: his 10 detective
novels, one children's book and his collected short stories), C H B Kitchin
(five novels, including Crime at Christmas and Death of my Aunt - but not Death
of His Uncle). and Colin Watson (all the Flaxborough novels and Snobbery with
Violence).  Other more recent writers include Lionel Davidson, Celia Dale and
Stephen Chance.
>

Hi Mary,

Obviously the trick is to offer a manuscript full of meaningless
gibberish under a foreign name, then pose as a translator from the
Slobovian who can turn it into a brilliant and searing criticism of the
modern malaise, or whatever the current buzzwords are. Then submit your
latest novel. You get a fixed fee for 'translating' no matter what, and
if it actually sells then you can pick up some royalties too.

Jon.

On 03/07/10 07:45, Mary Reed wrote:
>
> GADers!
> There was an article in today's WSJ ** on such novels and I noticed a
> revealing tidbit. The writer stated "...translating a book can add tens
> of thousands to production costs." It'll be interesting to see what
> authors say about that level of remuneration!
>
> ** Fiction's Global Crime Wave
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Curt,

What does that Turkish author write? Puzzle mysteries with extremely unlikeable
characters? :)

Jeff


--
Jeffrey Marks
www.jeffreymarks.com
Check out my website for news about my books and marketing tips of the month
Atomic Renaissance: Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s/1950s
Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of the Screwball Mystery
Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography -- 2009 Anthony winner

There's also a Jewish financier in The Secret of Chimneys (the book and not the
abomination of a movie recently shown here.)

The discussion about the book vs. the movie at my house was rather comical.

My partner asked "Who killed the maid in the book?"

Me: "There was no maid."

"Then who was killed?"

"Giuseppe."

"There's no Giuseppe in the movie. Who was he?"

"The blackmailer."

"There's no blackmail in the movie. Who did it in the book?"

"X" (for sake of a spoiler)

"There's no X in the movie. I don't think he did it."

It went on from there, including a discussion of how Treadwell had changed sex,
but it was by far one of the worst, up there with the lesbian nuns in my book.

Jeff


--
Jeffrey Marks
www.jeffreymarks.com
Check out my website for news about my books and marketing tips of the month
Atomic Renaissance: Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s/1950s
Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of the Screwball Mystery
Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography -- 2009 Anthony winner

In a message dated 7/4/2010 3:34:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
GAdetection@yahoogroups.com writes:
> Of course, Poirot and Miss Marple are rather more unusual figures
> compared to the above, but Christie always is a force unto herself.  I suppose
the
> "Marple" adapters' decision to give her a past sex life (such an
> absurdity, the character is obliterated as it exists in the novels if she is
not a
> virgin) reflects what you say: a desire to make her someone that can be
> related to.
If I remember correctly, they didn't give Miss Marple a sex life- what they
said was that she had been in love with a young man who died in WW1. The
implication may be that she had a sex life but it's possible she was saving
herself till after the war & marriage. It depends on how much chastity you
think "MISS' Marple could have had.


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.Thanks for the various suggestions. I've got Watson and Symons (what a bore
Symons is) and various other general works. They all seem to take the
reactionary, snobbish, racist, insular attitudes of the genre as givens -- no
one I've found so far really goes into 'why'. I'm waiting on the "Victims or
Villaims" book which is the sort of thing I'm after. 2 relevant theses in the BL
aren't digitised yet, but should be by the time I'm right into heavy research.
Will have to use the uni  library for www.theses.com, in the hope it's got a
subscription. My credit card is already groaning from orders from online
bookshops.

I'm getting into some children's books of the 20s -- charming stuff, poems about
"The Naughty N*****" etc. Useful as background. Does anyone else remember the
ancient "Coles Funny Picture Books" of the ?20s, which were riddled with racism,
sadism, sexism -- for children? Even when I found an old collection when I was a
child I thought I'd never seen anything so unfunny.

The political side of the GA I can handle, having done a lot of research into
the adorable Mitford family and Mosley's BUF etc etc, anti-Semitism etc.

Most of the scholarship on race in crime fiction is on recent works.

I'll keep on digging, and being glad of any suggestions.

Meredith
(PS -- SO cold here in Adelaide at present.)

Director
Between Us Manuscript Assessment Service
www.betweenusmanuscripts.com
Author of Treason, winner of the 2003 Eppie Award for Historical Fiction,
available by order from bookshops and from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and
www.bewrite.net



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://stkarnick.com/culture/2010/07/03/tcm-thrillers-july-5-11/

Greetings, Gad-abouts!

Despite some personal ups 'n' downs, the July edition is now ready for reading,
with reviews of books by James McGee. Edward Marston, Jane Finnis, Peter Lovesey
and Mergery Allingham. Of course, the free competition has been set!
I've also given in to social networking and formed a Facebook page for the site!

Seems a shame that the current popularity of foreign mystery translations has
not made it easier for Paul Halter's novels to find a U.S. publisher, but I
believe that John Pubmire could address this subject better than I can.

Re:  Recent Miss Marple TV adaptations---I find them more enjoyable (or less
objectionable) if I pretend that they really aren't Christie/Marple stories at
all.  They're just mysteries and I try to enjoy them as such.  Sometimes they
work for me, sometimes they don't.  If I want a more faithfull Marple--I just go
back to the Hickson's.

Bob