tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post8329178536470478453..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: Successful Men Read!The Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-79134739947578601182012-06-26T12:05:06.734-07:002012-06-26T12:05:06.734-07:00Noah,
Yes, it's an interesting dissenting vie...Noah,<br /><br />Yes, it's an interesting dissenting view of an author whose works many Golden Age mystery fans, such as P. D. James, consider to be at the high end of intellectual mystery literature. LEavis certainly wasn't having it!<br /><br />I enjoyed looking at your website, though I can see we have a number of points of disagreement. Oddly enough, I enjoy both Humdrums and Gladys Mitchell! At least a good deal of the earlier Gladys Mitchell. I've become pretty catholic in my tastes.<br /><br />The Cask in my view actually isn't the best Crofts, though it is a landmark. By Crofts' own admission, it's too long for one thing. <br /><br /><br />Yet I actually find some of his timetable mysteries (and Sayers' Five Red Herrings) kind of fascinating in their determined devotion to these mathematical/logical matters, but on the whole I prefer science. I really enjoy the science in Street, Connington and their mentor R. Austin Freeman.<br /><br />It's interesting that you like Gardner and not "Humdrums" because Gardner in some ways seems an American Humdrum to me (with court procedure replacing classic Humdrum elements). Reading his novels feels like reading screenplays, they are mostly dialogue, with snippets of description (from what I have read). The interest seems to me to be entirely in the puzzle situation. From me, this isn't a criticism, by the way!<br /><br />Neer,<br /><br />Yes, I think at many times mystery readers feel called upon to explain why they are spending so much time reading Gardner and Christie, Chandler and Hammett (from the past) and Larsson and Nesbo (today) rather than "great novelists." Ian Rankin complains so much about crime writers like say, oh, him, not being considered for the Booker, it seems to bother him greatly.<br /><br />Of course headway has been made in pushing Hammett, Chandler, Simenon into a higher circle of lit, but there's still a resistance. Academia has become much more embracing of popular culture all round, but the literary prize groups seem very resistant.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-76209791771244330962012-06-26T08:37:58.146-07:002012-06-26T08:37:58.146-07:00The famous literary critic Mrs. Q. E. (Queenie) Le...The famous literary critic Mrs. Q. E. (Queenie) Leavis, on the topic of the works of Dorothy L. Sayers: "And in the matter of ideas, subject, them, problems raised, she similarly performs the best-seller's function of giving the impression of intellectual activity to readers who would very much dislike that kind of exercise if it were actually presented to them; but of course it is all shadow-boxing." I've always loved that quotation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-60258655400552386682012-06-25T18:58:34.213-07:002012-06-25T18:58:34.213-07:00Interesting ad. Sometimes, I think, reading does f...Interesting ad. Sometimes, I think, reading does feel like an indulgence.neerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986509319841061021noreply@blogger.com