(no subject)

[flemmings]

It's not yet too hot to use the study and the study's computer, but I already have the hot weather Don'wannas. Me for the side bedroom's fan and yet more Agatha Christies. A chacun son goût: an invalid friend spends her days happily watching nature documentaries, whose fascination I cannot understand at all. She, par contre, said 'I read a mystery once and then couldn't understand why I'd done it.'

Though it's odd that reading about murder should have become such a commonplace and unremarkable pastime. 150 years ago the idea would have been considered batshit. When *did* that change anyway? Was it Holmes who made it respectable?

I will note that things keep turning up on the floor that should not, by any means short of an earthquake, have landed on the floor. I hope I haven't developed a poltergeist.

Comments

[naye]

Huh. That's a fascinating question. Holmes (and Edgar Allan Poe) were definitely big, but now I'm thinking about murder ballads and penny dreadfuls. They weren't exactly murder mysteries but they were definitely about enjoying a frisson at the whole murder thing? (Also people watched executions for fun. So. Maybe reading about them is the more respectable option?)

[flemmings]

Just, popular murder in the 19thC was very low class. Respectable women didn't go to watch executions or read penny dreadfuls. I'm guessing Conan Doyle and Chesterton made it middle class by introducing the intellectual aspect- it's not the crime itself we're interested in, oh no no no, it's how the detective solves the crime. And that paved the way for respectable women to write them.