The only mysteries I've read are the ones I picked up at my grandmother's house after running out of other books (since she uses the spare bedroom mainly to store books when she's done reading them). I doubt I could tell you any of their names.
This is a time of celebration, so sit still and be quiet.
Snyder ,'Chosen'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Jessica - Aug 19, 2010 3:39:17 pm PDT #12038 of 28342
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
-t - Aug 19, 2010 3:42:27 pm PDT #12039 of 28342
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Does Oedipus Rex count? I would think so.
Volans - Aug 19, 2010 4:46:19 pm PDT #12040 of 28342
move out and draw fire
No Christie?! No Conan Doyle?! No P.D. James, for goodness sake?!
Not even Nancy Drew.
Amy - Aug 19, 2010 4:47:21 pm PDT #12041 of 28342
Because books.
That baffles me, Raq. I mean, a PhD in ENGLISH! Wow.
I love mysteries.
Dana - Aug 19, 2010 4:51:17 pm PDT #12042 of 28342
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Huh, Nancy Drew might have been the first mysteries I read. And Hardy Boys. And Trixie Belden.
Amy - Aug 19, 2010 4:52:36 pm PDT #12043 of 28342
Because books.
I skipped Trixie Belden because my mom had her Cherry Ames books.
Jesse - Aug 19, 2010 5:05:09 pm PDT #12044 of 28342
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
I imagine there are mystery families and not-mystery families, in addition to people.
DavidS - Aug 19, 2010 5:37:45 pm PDT #12045 of 28342
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
That baffles me, Raq. I mean, a PhD in ENGLISH! Wow.
Mysteries aren't really on the curriculum. I mean, I had a B.A. in English and never read a mystery until I was well out of college. (Well, excepting Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators and some other juveniles.) I read other things for light reading. Some people don't do light reading at all. I've never read anything by Agatha Christie.
I didn't really read mysteries until I started studying Film Noir then I went back to Woolrich, Chandler, Thompson, Hammett and Willeford.
Amy - Aug 19, 2010 5:40:26 pm PDT #12046 of 28342
Because books.
I didn't mean they'd be on the curriculum. I meant that most people who do a PhD in English simply read a lot, and it surprises me she'd never read any mysteries at all.
I don't think all mysteries are light reading, either, though. I wouldn't say that of Elizabeth George's or most of Minette Walters, for sure.
DavidS - Aug 19, 2010 5:52:20 pm PDT #12047 of 28342
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I wouldn't say that of Elizabeth George's or most of Minette Walters, for sure.
NSM on the curriculum either. I mean, I certainly knew both academics and literary types who read and enjoyed mysteries - both cozy and hardboiled. It was actually much more acceptable than science fiction, and fantasy was beyond the pale. Shit, you should've seen the sneer I got from the department head when I mentioned (the rather erudite - that is, makes regular jokes based on lost Latin texts) James Branch Cabell (a fantasy writer - friend of Faulkner's too).
But it's not hard at all to me to imagine somebody getting a Ph.D. in literature without having ever read a mystery. That's not what they read (generally) or why they read.
They don't value popular literature -- in English departments anyway. There are other cultural studies approaches (like, deconstruction) which are no doubt poking around in Harry Potter, as previous academics dug into Buffy or Madonna or Pee Wee's Playhouse. But that's not the English Department.