RARA-AVIS: Re: Holmes and Charlie Chan

From: Ray Skirsky ( rskirsky@qualcomm.com)
Date: 02 May 2002


At 08:34 AM 5/2/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>thanks jess,
>
>you know, all this talk about holmes is making me
>wanna read him again. as a child i read several
>of the stories. that was a LONG time ago. i don't
>remember much of them, but i remember they were fun.
>
>in the mystery category, i read a bunch of the hardy
>boys. and although my grandmother had perry mason
>on the tv, it was not my cup of tea. i did watch
>a bunch of the old charlie chan movies. i watched
>them with my aunt. they were great. kind of a chinese
>spin on holmes.

I recently rewatched a Charlie Chan movie (CC and the Scarlet Clue, or something like that), and it was full of demeaning ethnic stereotypes of both orientals and blacks. It definitely had passed it's time. But I did love these movies as a child. And I'd still like to get a copy of "Charlie Chan in Egypt", to see how it holds up--it was my favorite as a kid.

Last year I reread the original Biggers novels and they did not strike me as offensive; for the time they came out they were positively enlightened. Charlie isn't hardboiled, he's more in the intuitive genius school of detective.

As regards Holmes, didn't one of the stories end with the line: "And I have my cocaine."?

Ray

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