CJC@psuvm.BITNET (09/07/85)
> > _Murder in the Collective_, by Barbara Wilson > > Published 1984 > > > > For anyone who is seeking an intelligently-written, > > humorous, interesting story, try this book. It has elements of > > a murder mystery and yet manages to be up to date and not > > terribly melodramatic (it's a first book). Murder in the > > Collective is about the members of Best Printing, a left-leaning > ... > > This is an example of what I meant about violence as our form of > entertainment. I don't believe in censorship, but as long as > people are entertained by violence, and as long as people allow themselves > to be suckeered into enterainment based on violent suspense, crime will > continue to occur at high rates. Why does there have to be a murder > in the plot for someone to read about feminism, politics and friendships? I think you've picked the wrong target: the great majority of "murder mysteries" that I've read contain very little violence. They are a subset of mystery stories in general, which are an intellectual puzzle-solving entertainment - the murder just raises the level of interest (rather like playing cards for high stakes, not pennies). The murder occurs "off-stage" or even before the book begins, the detective is called in, and the rest of the book is a gradual display and arrangement of clues. Reading a mystery is rather like a game of trying to anticipate the author, to guess the guilty party before the author reveals the answer. I'll grant that some stories which are sometimes sold as "murder mysteries" do contain a great lot of violence, but these are really some other genre - like detective stories - and no real Christie-loving mystery fan would accept them as the real thing. Certainly the essential elements of a mystery center on the puzzle solving, not the crime. I apologize for saying the obvious to the majority of readers who know all about mystery stories, but I think the person to whom I'm replying is not at all familiar with the genre. --Carolyn J. Clark Bitnet: CJC at PSUVM UUCP : {allegra, akgua, ihnp4}!psuvax!CJC@PSUVM.BITNET
friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (09/30/85)
In article <2210CJC@psuvm> CJC@psuvm.BITNET writes: > > I'll grant that some stories which are sometimes sold as "murder >mysteries" do contain a great lot of violence, but these are really >some other genre - like detective stories - and no real Christie-loving >mystery fan would accept them as the real thing. Certainly the essential >elements of a mystery center on the puzzle solving, not the crime. > I agree completely with your conclusion! However, I do not think that Agatha Chrisite is the best example. She *cheats* and gives her detectives clues that she does *not* give to the readers. I think a better example is Dorothy Sayers since she always includes *all* the clues, plus a lot of random, meaningless stuff(just like in real life). I was *really* embaressed when I got to the end of "Have His Carcass" and found out the solution to the mystery, with my background I should have seen it easily. And just to be sure I went back through the book and confirmed that all the clues were in fact there! They were. -- Sarima (Stanley Friesen) UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen ARPA: ttidca!psivax!friesen@rand-unix.arpa