values dissonance

[deird1]

It can be rather strange reading books from the 30s.

I'm currently re-reading an Agatha Christie book. So far, Poirot's opinions on the suspects have included:

1) Huge amounts of interest in the murder - not suspicious, because the suspect is a servant, and obsession with death is typical of her class.

2) Offering 50 pounds to buy something that's only worth 20 - highly suspicious, because the suspect is Jewish, and should therefore be good at bargaining.

3) Murder attempts before they were certain that the victim would actually have the huge amounts of money they were being killed for - definitely indicates a female murderer, as women always jump to conclusions.


All of these opinions are being presented as perfectly unremarkable...

Comments

[cereta]

I've been a Christie fan since I was 7, and yeah, it's...a thing. The casual classism, xenophobia (some of which she mocks and some of which she sadly buys into), and such is often really jarring.

[mercredigirl]

Are you reading Peril at End House or something?

I just - yeah, Christie rubs me the wrong way most of the time, despite my enjoying the plots.

[deird1]

Yep, that's the one.

It's rather jarring - I love her books, but every so often I'll hit something that makes me do a doubletake...

[smurasaki]

I may be misremembering, but it always seemed to me that the Poirot stories suffered from that more than her others.

Though this does remind me of my attempt to track down and read the detective stories mentioned in her Partners in Crime. The ones I was able to interlibrary loan suffered horribly from Holy Values Dissonance Batman! To the point that things like, oh, the murderer's motive and the behavior of half the cast made no sense at all to a modern person. It was bizarre. The past really is a foreign country.

[vass]

Yeah, all of Christie suffers from that, but Poirot is more annoying that way, at least to me. I remember the time he figured out that the murderer was a young woman, because she wore ugly clothes, and no young woman could do that unless there was a nefarious motive.

[urania_calliope]

I've only ever read two of her books and "Murder on the Orient Express" is the one I actually remember. My mother loves Agatha Christie so I feel like I should try reading them again so we'd have something to talk about but I found that book so dull. You think these are books I'm just not going to be able to appreciate or are some of her other books 'better' than that one.

[deird1]

Hmm... it kinda depends on what you're looking for.

The thing with Agatha Christie is, she basically has four completely different types of book:
1) Poirot
2) Miss Marple
3) Tommy and Tuppence
4) Random people

They don't just star different characters - they're completely different kinds of story.

Poirot is methodical, and stories about him tend to involve elaborate clues and detailed plotlines. (And no, Orient Express isn't the best. If you want to try a better Poirot book, I'd go with ABC Murders or Three Act Tragedy.) He also has this irritating tendency to work out the solution and then smugly keep it to himself.

Miss Marple is more about character types: what kind of person is most likely to commit the crime, and why. She's very into common-sense. I'd suggest Murder At The Vicarage or 4.50 From Paddington if you want to try some of her books.

Tommy and Tuppence are ridiculously silly, and much more likely to do the Nancy Drew thing of suspecting the wrong person until they finally get captured and the villain laughs evilly and reveals all.

And the other books are more thrillers than murder mysteries, usually. (Although Sparkling Cyanide is a typical murder mystery, and, IMO, one of her better ones.)


Actually, if you want to get a good idea of if you'd like her other books, I'd suggest checking out the short stories. There are collections of short stories featuring Poirot and Miss Marple (separately), and also a whole bunch featuring other random people. You should give them a go.

[(Anonymous)]

Haha, at first I thought you were buying into those being actually legitimate clues. Of course, by the time I got to number three it made more sense than that...