the Rhubarb meme
Dec. 9th, 2020 01:59 pmSo ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jesse_the_k picked three of my interests:
Dorothy L. Sayers.
Great things about Dorothy L. Sayers:
She was very intelligient as well hard-working, gifted, and clever and she created one of my favorite fictional characters, Lord Peter Wimsey & his world.
But I don't think I would've liked her (and I know she would've had no use for me). If we're talking Great Detective Novelists who Make Poor Life Choices, I am much more of an Agatha Christie than a Dorothy L. Sayers. I find the business of the Detection Club and the 'rules' for writing detective fiction a bit silly. I think she took herself far too seriously. And the whole business of having an illegitimate child who you never recognise publically your whole life rubs me the wrong way, especially when you're known as a feminist and exault these women-only worlds (like in Gaudy Night, the women's college). I mean, it's not my business, but abortion or keeping the child and raising it (I realise this would have killed any thoughts of a career) or to eventually when you are established and financially solvent to recognise him. It strikes me as horribly cruel and hypocritical to go about things the way she did. But it isn't my business nor do I have all the details.
By comparison, I can COMPLETELY understand disappearing for 9 days and checking myself into a spa under my husband's mistresses name and pretending (or being!) in a fugue state. THAT I could have easily done this morning on the way home from the shops :)
Gervase Fen He is a fictional detective who is an Oxford professor written by Edmund Crispin. He is kind of silly and says things like 'Oh my fur and whiskers!' Think of any slightly silly Oxford professor side character in an episode of Lewis. He's sort of bland but the plots are rather interesting and it's a good thing to put on the background while I'm cooking, cleaning, or doing other household tasks. All the novels are available on the Youtube and done by excellent narrators like Stephen Thorne (who is top shelf). The most known novel is The Moving Toyshop. In my mind, he looks like Peter Davidson, who played Campion on TV a long time ago.
Any British detective I don't like. There are some who are just too bland (and the plots too bland) to catch my interest. Among the four Queens of Crime, [Christie, Sayers, Marsh, and Allingham] the last is my least favorite. I've tried to read Campion, but it always comes down to why should I read Campion when Lord Peter is in the world (or Bertie Wooster for that matter). I need a strong plot and/or a strong detective. I love Christiana Brand's plots even though her Inspector Cockrill is forgettable. Inspector Littlejohn (by George Bellairs) slaps a hysterical witness (that's a no). Inspector Ghoti (by H. R. F. Keating) is sort of silly. I love Miss Marple but I can't think of another female detective I like. :( Sadness. Edited to add that I thought of two female detectives: Perveen Mistry by Sujata Massey and Su Lin by Ovidia Yu.
jesse_the_k picked three of my interests:Dorothy L. Sayers.
Great things about Dorothy L. Sayers:
She was very intelligient as well hard-working, gifted, and clever and she created one of my favorite fictional characters, Lord Peter Wimsey & his world.
But I don't think I would've liked her (and I know she would've had no use for me). If we're talking Great Detective Novelists who Make Poor Life Choices, I am much more of an Agatha Christie than a Dorothy L. Sayers. I find the business of the Detection Club and the 'rules' for writing detective fiction a bit silly. I think she took herself far too seriously. And the whole business of having an illegitimate child who you never recognise publically your whole life rubs me the wrong way, especially when you're known as a feminist and exault these women-only worlds (like in Gaudy Night, the women's college). I mean, it's not my business, but abortion or keeping the child and raising it (I realise this would have killed any thoughts of a career) or to eventually when you are established and financially solvent to recognise him. It strikes me as horribly cruel and hypocritical to go about things the way she did. But it isn't my business nor do I have all the details.
By comparison, I can COMPLETELY understand disappearing for 9 days and checking myself into a spa under my husband's mistresses name and pretending (or being!) in a fugue state. THAT I could have easily done this morning on the way home from the shops :)
Gervase Fen He is a fictional detective who is an Oxford professor written by Edmund Crispin. He is kind of silly and says things like 'Oh my fur and whiskers!' Think of any slightly silly Oxford professor side character in an episode of Lewis. He's sort of bland but the plots are rather interesting and it's a good thing to put on the background while I'm cooking, cleaning, or doing other household tasks. All the novels are available on the Youtube and done by excellent narrators like Stephen Thorne (who is top shelf). The most known novel is The Moving Toyshop. In my mind, he looks like Peter Davidson, who played Campion on TV a long time ago.
Any British detective I don't like. There are some who are just too bland (and the plots too bland) to catch my interest. Among the four Queens of Crime, [Christie, Sayers, Marsh, and Allingham] the last is my least favorite. I've tried to read Campion, but it always comes down to why should I read Campion when Lord Peter is in the world (or Bertie Wooster for that matter). I need a strong plot and/or a strong detective. I love Christiana Brand's plots even though her Inspector Cockrill is forgettable. Inspector Littlejohn (by George Bellairs) slaps a hysterical witness (that's a no). Inspector Ghoti (by H. R. F. Keating) is sort of silly. I love Miss Marple but I can't think of another female detective I like. :( Sadness. Edited to add that I thought of two female detectives: Perveen Mistry by Sujata Massey and Su Lin by Ovidia Yu.