tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post4107323188407933770..comments2024-03-17T06:01:06.495-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: The Ten Carrs of Christmas: Till Death Do Us Part (1944), by John Dickson CarrThe Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-29245340437399607472020-02-08T19:51:48.516-08:002020-02-08T19:51:48.516-08:00And I'll quote myself for your benefit:
"...And I'll quote myself for your benefit:<br /><br />"Carr really hated the Labour Party! I mean, he hated the Nazis too, I'm sure, but he expressed himself with great vehemence, over and over, about Labour."<br /><br />I'm sorry you seem to be rather lacking in reading comprehension skills, but I'm not doubting that Carr hates the Nazis. Carr wrote anti-Nazi propaganda plays, for example. He hated the Nazis and Labour both because he saw them as statist forces threatening individual liberty. Any impugning of Carr is in your own little snowflake mind. <br /><br />I'd rather have no blog readers at all than to depend on people like you, who have nothing to contribute except your one-track political commentary. I've seen your "blog" now so I see what I'm dealing with. Having seen it, I will say thank you for departing from this one. You won't be missed.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-7477382648573644502020-02-08T17:16:52.361-08:002020-02-08T17:16:52.361-08:00The Aldrich Report was all about making a better w...The Aldrich Report was all about making a better world after the war. The Labour party was all full of grand plans for after the war. Carr would certainly have been aware of this. This was all being discussed before the general election. Carr hated left wing Utopians as he would have seen them. Everyone is free to draw his own conclusions of course, but I hardly need education in Carr of English history for that matter from you. Whether you continue to read this blog or not is entirely your affair, of course. Have a great life.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-38551864829914161062020-02-01T18:34:51.187-08:002020-02-01T18:34:51.187-08:00I thought I saw you cite 1944 as the publication d...I thought I saw you cite 1944 as the publication date. Was that before or after the 1946 election? <br />This is an ugly omment from you, impugning Carr — he probably hated nazis but he really hated Labour — because you cannot admit you made a simple error. <br />Goodbye.Ken Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08207803092348071005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-48302429606299641522020-02-01T18:27:13.992-08:002020-02-01T18:27:13.992-08:00Carr really hated the Labour Party! I mean, he ha...Carr really hated the Labour Party! I mean, he hated the Nazis too, I'm sure, but he expressed himself with great vehemence, over and over, about Labour.<br /><br />https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education<br /><br />The 1942 Beveridge Report spelled out a system of social insurance, covering every citizen regardless of income. It offered nothing less than a cradle-to-grave welfare state.<br /><br />That was the great promise dangled before the British electorate in 1945. Though Churchill had presided over the planning for radical social reform, though he was a genuine hero of the masses - and though, ironically enough, the Tory manifesto pledges were not all that different from Labour's - the people did not trust him to deliver the brave new world of Beveridge.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-70916929354206640662020-02-01T17:32:18.170-08:002020-02-01T17:32:18.170-08:00I take “the nonsense of a better world” to be the ...I take “the nonsense of a better world” to be the Nazi's nonsense. That seems clear to me in the context of a book published during the war referring to Markham's wartime thoughts about losing England. Ken Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08207803092348071005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-32137316210921080592020-01-01T23:42:32.237-08:002020-01-01T23:42:32.237-08:00By the way, I like the term unknowable woman. We ...By the way, I like the term unknowable woman. We see Her a lot in Carr. Doug talks about the young Carr's fear of women in his early books, but I don't know that it ever faded. Maybe the male leads aren't afraid of women in later books, but they certainly are vexed by them!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-46356288131391332312020-01-01T23:40:19.039-08:002020-01-01T23:40:19.039-08:00Thanks so much for those comments, I really apprec...Thanks so much for those comments, I really appreciate because I feel like someone anyway is in sync with me here, lol. Carr remains one of my favorite mystery writers, but he does present for me some issues which become more problematic over time in his writing. Carr does have some interesting ideas about women (and sex) for the genre at the time, but I would say his standing as a "feminist" is problematical to say the least. I try to look at writers warts and all, even when they are famous and like 'em myself.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-30483727187520808062020-01-01T23:12:41.136-08:002020-01-01T23:12:41.136-08:00I love the story but I don't recall any charac...I love the story but I don't recall any character besides HM, the guy and the girl. Was Cynthia Drew the girl? Definitely need to reread!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-60818939809928371182020-01-01T00:24:32.416-08:002020-01-01T00:24:32.416-08:00I think the explanation of why Goblin Wood appears...I think the explanation of why Goblin Wood appears in this story lies in that story ‘The House in Goblin Wood’.. Cynthia Drew will hold your hand as you do ...Tony Medawarphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02384397026786493728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-48061118602305595052019-12-31T03:32:41.575-08:002019-12-31T03:32:41.575-08:00I'm a bit nervous to reread Til Death... whene...I'm a bit nervous to reread Til Death... whenever I read a Carr which falls down at the ending, or has some shoddy slapstick scenes, or is just unreadable, I always think "At least Til Death Do Us Part is still good."<br />Male anxiety is a good way of putting that plot/character archetype. I'd been calling it "the Unknowable Woman", having seen it from other writers too. As a woman who leads an extremely knowable, entirely non-mysterious life, it tends to fall a bit flat!<br />Of course the other book people have been championing recently, He Who Whispers, supposedly has a compelling female character at the centre - but she is yet another Unknowable Woman. I found that Til Death worked for me where Whispers didn't, despite Til Death having a male anxiety plot as well, with Cynthia as backup Unkowable Woman. It must be the rollercoaster pacing which swept me away.<br /><br />It seems like Carr comes in for a bit of a kicking in these but I think it's only right - there can be a tendency to raise up a favourite author and give them virtues they never really carried - claiming Carr as a feminist for example. I think it's better to face who that writer really was, and understand the work more fully as a way of enjoying it, rather than overlooking its flaws.Velleichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12613706772312509732noreply@blogger.com