No Christie?! No Conan Doyle?! No P.D. James, for goodness sake?!
Not even Nancy Drew.
Jayne: You wanna go, little man? Wash: Only if it's someplace with candlelight.
'Objects In Space'
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."
Volans - Aug 19, 2010 4:46:19 pm PDT #12040 of 28342
move out and draw fire
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.
Amy - Aug 19, 2010 5:57:31 pm PDT #12048 of 28342
Because books.
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.
I think you're generalizing. I know (not personally) PhD candidates and professors who read and write romance. Just because your study or work is Chaucer or whatever doesn't mean you might not like some Nora Roberts (or P.D. James) in your downtime.
And most women of a certain age have read at least one or two Nancy Drew books growing up.
megan walker - Aug 19, 2010 6:23:00 pm PDT #12049 of 28342
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
That is in no way surprising to me. I love Agatha Christie and collected the entire set of 80+ faux-leather volumes via a monthly book club starting in high school. But, besides ACD, I'm not a mystery reader.
And, for most of my PhD years, I didn't read anything that wasn't somehow related to my work. Most doctorates I know actually just don't read that way.