tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post8864539457409615465..comments2024-03-27T11:26:20.466-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: Deadly Diversions from Detection Medley (1939), edited by John Rhode: "Blue Lias," by Ianthe JerroldThe Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-88939939744525709362015-03-19T00:21:54.207-07:002015-03-19T00:21:54.207-07:00Ah, yes. I recall Julia Jones mentioning that ins...Ah, yes. I recall Julia Jones mentioning that institution in her piece on that a novel in Mysteries Unlocked,The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-7905939681679908032015-03-19T00:20:39.251-07:002015-03-19T00:20:39.251-07:00It's a fascinating world indeed!It's a fascinating world indeed!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-63822350005196510592015-03-18T03:10:25.429-07:002015-03-18T03:10:25.429-07:00The Society for the Preservation of the London Sky...The Society for the Preservation of the London Skyline, invented by Margery Allingham for The China Governess (which kicks off with an attack on a flat in a very new tower block), now exists. (And we never needed it more.)Lucy R. Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08632983296994349550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-73654736156284263912015-03-16T09:47:57.760-07:002015-03-16T09:47:57.760-07:00I love the social history aspect as well. I love t...I love the social history aspect as well. I love the fact that the people in these stories are just like us in some ways, and so very different to us in other ways. And they inhabit societies that sometimes seem uncannily similar to our own, and sometimes seem totally foreign. In some ways it was a better world, in other ways perhaps not.dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-85090489268587978752015-03-15T15:02:27.127-07:002015-03-15T15:02:27.127-07:00One more reply, on the social history aspect to de...One more reply, on the social history aspect to detective fiction (and series television). That's one of my great interests in Golden Age mystery, the social detail. I'm even getting interested in the Rendells from the 1980s and 1990s, for example, as this period begins to recede into "history."The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-58346101456201949562015-03-15T14:50:39.230-07:002015-03-15T14:50:39.230-07:00Incidentally, interesting how this discussion came...Incidentally, interesting how this discussion came up on the heels of the discussion in the prior Thomas H. Cook post about destruction of old buildings.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-65765262816298862972015-03-15T14:48:49.449-07:002015-03-15T14:48:49.449-07:00I think a lot of classical detective fiction, espe...I think a lot of classical detective fiction, especially the British, tends to be "conservative" in a sense of wanting to conserve past traditions, and reverence for landscape, institution and place is a part of that. In PD James often you have these conflicts centering on disputes over some old structure. The murder victim wants to upset tradition by making drastic changes.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-52478438349291331082015-03-15T12:30:51.678-07:002015-03-15T12:30:51.678-07:00[ " The conflict between developers and prese...[ " The conflict between developers and preservationists is a perennial theme in classic mystery fiction, and usually, in my reading experience, authors seem to come down on the side of the preservationists. " ]<br /><br /> Woo. Until reading your observation I hadn't noticed this, but I think you're right. If I'm recalling correctly the first Detective Adam Dalgliesh I read had had him mourning the destruction of a 'wasteland' scheduled for development. I stumbled upon the novel -- title escapes me -- and for some reason, took it home from the library. This must have been about the time I began reading detective fiction, which I'd not done previously. P.D. James was a large reason I kept reading, no doubt. Now that you've mentioned this I can think of quite a few others too, such as Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Is this because these sorts of criminal justice types, representing so often as "the gentleman detective" are inherently conservative -- on the positive side of conversatism, meaning holding up traditional values of honesty, loyalty and restoring the balance? And over development of our public and natural spaces is an unnatural balance?<br /><br />I had, of course, like any well-read person, known Sherlock and such classics. But this is when I began turning to this kind of fiction as my recreational reading, as more and more the 'mainstream' novel and sf/f paled in interest. I still adore the classics, and I still find many detective and mystery novels / series entertaining. But generally the place the novel held for social interest and entertainment has been taken over by television series of certain sorts. Go figger.<br />Foxessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754083123669916994noreply@blogger.com