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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2009 20:41:12 GMT
Damn it, I like her books, for gentle civilized literary entertainment.
And when I read the Miss Marple books, it is like being in a photo essay by Spindrift, Tillystar or PatrickLondon, among others.
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Post by imec on Aug 29, 2009 20:45:54 GMT
I LOVE the Poirot books.
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Post by lola on Sept 3, 2009 17:54:36 GMT
My only trouble with Agatha Cristie is finding one I haven't read yet. (though not crazy about the Tuppence and Tommy ones.)
She's about as psychological as I like to get. (ie not much)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 18:03:54 GMT
I love the way that Miss Marple decrees that people are "wicked."
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 3, 2009 18:14:57 GMT
I can't even read her when desperate for something to read.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 18:21:47 GMT
That's all right. You are our very own Miss Marple.
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Post by bazfaz on Sept 3, 2009 20:25:39 GMT
There is this to be said about Agathe Christie: she is better than Jeffrey Archer.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 3, 2009 21:02:23 GMT
That's all right. You are our very own Miss Marple. Hmmm . You're French, so are you or ? (and don't worry -- I haven't forgotten that I promised not to tell how you really look) There is this to be said about Agathe Christie: she is better than Jeffrey Archer. That's the last word in damning with faint praise.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 21:10:05 GMT
Why the photos of the Belgian guy?
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Post by patricklondon on Sept 3, 2009 21:13:39 GMT
OOH bixa!
The number of times Hercules Leek had to tell people he was Belgian.....
Thanks for the compliment, kerouac, but I don't think I could write a detective story. It would all be too obvious (as Mrs. C's villains often tended to be).
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 3, 2009 21:15:41 GMT
He's Belgian?
Who knew?
Oh, that's right -- you fuddy-duds who read Agatha Christie.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2009 21:20:30 GMT
You must have never got beyond page 4.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 3, 2009 21:26:06 GMT
I don't think I ever read one with Hercule Poirot. I read a couple of the other books -- must have been Miss Marple ones -- and knowing as I did how many far superior books and series were out there, decided I didn't need to read more Christie.
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Post by nic on Sept 3, 2009 22:34:06 GMT
M. Christie is duller than dull. I have three of her books, and have seen most of the BBC productions with David Suchet. There's a surprising lack of urgency, and the dialogue is rather stilted.
I'd rather read Doyle & Highsmith. For something comparable, nothing tops the exchange between Nero Wolfe & Archie Goodwin. I'd rather spend one day in the brownstone at 454 W. 35th St., than an entire week with Hercule Poirot.
And of course, Hammett, Chandler, Woolrich, & Thompson all cringe at the idea of murder as an intellectual exercise.
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is also far more entertaining than anything M. Christie wrote.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2009 5:01:29 GMT
I think there is a cultural difference at play here, just like in European cinema or television series. A great amount of action is not required. That is intolerable to North Americans.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 4, 2009 5:31:48 GMT
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Post by bjd on Sept 4, 2009 8:50:42 GMT
I occasionally take an Agatha Christie book from the library because they are so old-fashioned. I can't say I especially liked the Miss Marple ones though. I wouldn't watch any of those on TV because I find the actors never look the way I imagined the characters. Hercule Poirot is supposed to be bald and have a big moustache, not look like Peter Ustinov or whoever the other guy above is.
I sometimes reread the old Maigret books by Simenon for the same reason, although that's more for the atmosphere of old Paris.
I admit I found the Number One Detective Agency books deadly boring and can't understand why they have become so popular.
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Post by bazfaz on Sept 4, 2009 9:00:55 GMT
Bjd, I agree with you about the Number One Ladies etc. They succeeded, I suspect, because they make an African country sound normal, just a bit culturally different and therefore interesting. I am at present reading another McCall Smith novel, set in Edinburgh with the central character the philosopher Isabel. It is purely by chance that I have two boring books on the go at once. I think the most interesting thing about the McCall Smith book is the jacket author photo showing a portly figure in a kilt.
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Post by nic on Sept 4, 2009 10:19:08 GMT
I don't think he's quite aware of how little "action" there is, say, The Lady From Shanghai compared to Death on the Nile. The difference in bonafide action is trivial. The real difference is between character and procedure. Of all the bodies in all the cases Poirot has ever solved, none of them are actually interesting people. They got dead-ed so Poirot could show off how gosh darn intelligent he was; in other words, a procedural. Have your graph and stopwatch handy, folks. It's the typical slap on Norte Americanos: If there's an airplane in the first shot, it must blow up by the third; otherwise, you've lost the fidgety, ADHD audience.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2009 11:27:06 GMT
Just so long as you admit it!
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 4, 2009 16:06:31 GMT
I occasionally take an Agatha Christie book from the library because they are so old-fashioned... I admit I found the Number One Detective Agency books deadly boring and can't understand why they have become so popular. Bjd, I agree with you about the Number One Ladies etc. They succeeded, I suspect, because they make an African country sound normal, just a bit culturally different and therefore interesting. Let me join you two in your sentiments about MCall Smith and the #1 Ladies etc. I completely understand the desire for escapist reading, but that excessively cozy simplicity is neither believable nor interesting. That's pretty much my problem with Agatha Christie, too, that and the fact that her plot device of concealing crucial information in order to spring it on the reader at the end to show her cleverness is annoying and formulaically stupid.
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Post by lola on Sept 4, 2009 17:35:08 GMT
I know for sure that I'M not ready for grownup books.
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Post by lola on Sept 4, 2009 17:38:55 GMT
If growing up means I must be Reading psychological mysteries, I don't wanna grow up, don't wanna grow up. Don't wanna grow uh-up, not me.
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Post by bazfaz on Sept 4, 2009 20:55:22 GMT
But I'm sure you are beyond enjoying Jeffrey Archer.
I have only read his first novel: Not a Penny more, Not a Penny Less. The first couple of chapters were well written. And then... the great plot kicked in. What I found extraordinary is that the denouement at the end depended entirely on a chance encounter on a train between two strangers. No chance meeting, no ending.
I met Jeffrey Archer at a party in London. This was years ago, when he was for some extraordinary reason Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. He arrived with his minder, a large man who followed him round the room about 1 metre behind him. We chatted briefly and then he went round, 'working the room' as the phrase is.
I mention this only because on the way out he detoured back to me and remembered our chat So, a better politician than writer.
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Post by lola on Sept 5, 2009 0:35:44 GMT
Bixa, I agree with your criticisms of Christie, but still enjoy them. Once a year maybe I'll wander over to that section of the library and try to find one I don't remember having read. I like Dorothy M. Sayers, too, while I'm confessing things.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 2:03:15 GMT
Well, it was mean-spirited of me to say I didn't like Agatha Christie in a happy pro-Christie thread. There is no doubt in my mind but that vengeance will be wreaked by a mild-mannered Marple lover somewhere down the line, though.
I'm pretty sure I've read everything Dorothy Sayers wrote. Well, not her scholarly stuff. Since we're baring all, I will admit (ohtheshame) that I read one of Janet Evanovitch's romance novels.
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Post by lola on Sept 5, 2009 3:41:15 GMT
I like to hear honest opinions.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2009 5:01:42 GMT
Here's a lovely cup of tea for you, bixa. Now drink up before it gets cold.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 5:06:12 GMT
;D
Where'd you get my picture?!
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Post by bjd on Sept 5, 2009 8:43:23 GMT
Lola, no need to "confess" to liking Dorothy Sayers. I like her too.
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