Susan,
Re your message below:
> I am one of the newcomers to the list. My name
is
> Susan Evans Shaw and I am a reader of noir
and
> hard-boiled but not a writer of either form.
My
> thing is non-fiction with a particular interest
in
> matters historical. I trust that won't get me
thrown
> off the list before I start.
Welcome aboard. This is a great group. Disagreements can get
warm, but never hot, and never disrespectful. If you like a
free exchange of frank opinion and hard-fought debate with no
animosity, this is the place.
> Where's the joy in trashing Dorothy Sayers
and
> cosies? They may not be to everyone's taste,
but
> they have a right to existence. How many of
you
> hardboilers cut your writerly teeth on
Agatha
> Christie? As for Sayers, her style is
definitely
> dated, but they are well-written and researched
and
> more digestable than modern efforts by Martha
Grimes
> and Elizabeth George. What does Russell James
have
> to say about Sayers and cosies?
Russel James may trash cozies in general and D.L. Sayers in
particular, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the
prevailing opinion here.
I think the joy in trashing them stems from Raymond
Chandler's essay "The Simple Art of Murder," which was as
much a debunking of traditional mysteries as it was a
spirited defense of the literary worth of hard-boiled
mysteries. Since then, rightly or wrongly, there's been a
perceived tension between the two types.
My own opinion (and since it is MY opinion, there'll be
plenty here who dispute it) is that traditional mysteries (a
term I prefer to "cozy" which I find dismissive) are fine for
people who like them, and plenty are well-written.
I have to admit that Agatha Christie's particular charm has
always escaped me, but nobody stays that popular that long
without having something on the ball, even if I can't quite
discern it. Oddly, I find I rather like her dramas and
dramatic adaptations of her prose, while not liking the
novels and stories themselves all that much.
As for Dorothy L. Sayers, I've read all the Lord Peter books
and enjoyed them all. Like you, I think the writing and
characterization is quite good the plotting not quite up the
the writing and characters
(though GAUDY NIGHT has a very well worked out plot).
If I could only take Dashiell Hammett or Dorothy L. Sayers
with me to that proverbial desert island, though, Hammett
would win hands down.
JIM DOHERTY
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 13 Oct 2004 EDT