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

[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.