robert

Essay 4 frist summited on June 24, 2009

In my opinion, detective fiction is best told in print. Although film detective stories give the viewer a chance to see the action in a faster pace, print give the reader can take their time a understand what is going on. It’s easy to get lost in a detective story that has a number of small but critical details. When it’s made into a movie, if you miss something you can’t easily go back and find it, but in print you can.

When a detective story is made into a movie, both moviegoers and readers alike will get the chance to see the story in a whole new light. It’s highly likely that there will be a new way to tell the story that will be a faster paced than the novel. So there’s no guarantee that the movie version of the detective story will follow the book. //Devil In A Blue Dress// is a great example of how the movie and print version have completely different plotlines. In the novel, the focus was on the woman, but in the movie, the focus was diverted to the pictures that caused all the problems.

Casting and censorship is another issue that film has the print avoids. I have to admit that the casting for //The Maltese Falcon// was great, although Bogart looks nothing like the description of Spade. Yet I was disappointed with choice for O’Shaughnessy. Astor just did give me the feeling of a seductive femme fatal. Although //The Maltese Falcon// followed the novel very closely, due to censorship some key parts were missing, like the sex scene between Spade and O’Shaughnessy and the homosexuality of Wilmer. Such small details make the novel more vivid then the movie.

Despite the negative aspects that I’ve mentioned, I believe that movies are a format for detective stories that should be respected. Yet most of the time, movies are place above books, because movies already have characters and places established, thus relieving the average person from the burden of thinking too much. An advantage that books have is how it’s more personal, you can connect with the character because you get inside their heads. This is why print is better for detective stories than movies.

Essay 3 first summited on June 21, 2009 D etective fiction started out with classic characters such as Dupin and Holmes. However, the introduction of characters such as Spade and Marlowe has brought a hard-boiled sleuth to detective fiction game. This new type of storytelling became a grittier. The two different styles have their own respective strengths and weaknesses. 

The classic works have a place dear to my hearts because it’s the first style of detective fiction ever written. The main hero of this style is a consummate professional, dedicated to the pursuit of the truth above all else. The strength to this kind of style is a dedication to duty and detail that no real detective could even follow. It shows a kind of detective who is willing to work with a partner, or at least a modest fan, who joins the detective on his adventures, recording his exploits, confirming any observations he makes, and be amazed at the detective’s skills. The weakness to this style is that the detective has little, to no, interpersonal skills regarding regular people. His devotion to professionalism is so high, that he can only be civil, at best, with members of the police or the client. Another problem is that he can become so focused on the case; he studies every minor detail which may actually be not needed to solve the case.

The hard-boiled detective fiction was introduced fairly recently, and gained popularity with pulp magazines and detectives such as Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. This style introduces a detective who, is as dedicated to case as his classic counterpart, uses more street smarts, gut feeling, and knowledgeable about how the world works. The strength is a more down to earth style. It shows a detective that prefers to work alone, preferring to not have to worry about risking the life of a partner or simply not wanting a partner at all. The weakness to this kind of style is that the detective is sometimes seen as being as bad as the criminals he’s trying to pursue. Although he appears to have an unwavering ethical code towards his client(s), he sometimes bends society’s code of ethics to achieve the results he desires to obtain.

There isn’t one thing about classic or hard-boiled that can make them seem excellent or terrible to most readers. The points I mentioned earlier can appeal to different readers in varying way at anytime. I may want to be amazed at Holmes observational skills, or I may want to Spade insult someone to get info. The trick is to take these points and use them to make the story more enjoyable to read. Whether you preference is classic or hard-boiled, one thing is constant, the detective is trying to solve the crime in the best way possible he knows. What is enjoyable about both styles is that sometimes, the detective doesn’t always catch the guilty party. The reader then rereads the entire book to see what he and the detective missed. 

Essay 2 first summited on June 10, 2009

The female sleuth brings an interesting process to the detective game. They use a mixture of both the classic and hard-boiled styles.

Female sleuths bring more humility to solving crimes, like hard-boiled. They are for more compassionate to the victims and care more about the why instead of the how. In //A Jury of Her Peers//, Mrs. Peters & Mrs. Hale actually are more compassionate to the murder, Mrs. Wright, because they wonder why she killed her husband. They discover that Mrs. Wright was abused by her husband and that he killed her pet bird.

Mrs. Marple uses her experiences and observations to solve crimes just like Dupin and Holmes. Her nursing experience allowed notice certain details that the others missed.

Female sleuths, however, do not have the admirers their male counterparts. They constantly have to prove their skills to people. They are underestimated by many of the male characters, being dismissed as silly and overly emotional

Essay 1 first summited on June 3, 2009  Edger Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is defiantly a fine example of detective fiction. With its cunning deceptions and in depth analysis, Poe wrote a masterpiece. Yet, “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is not with out faults. Poe is a master wordsmith. Poe describes the bodies with vivid details, “… where lay the corpse of the old lady, with her throat so entirely cut that, upon an attempt to raise her, the head fell off”(Classic Mystery Stories, p.9). This use of graphic langue helps draw the reader into wanting to find out who’d do such violence. Dupin’s deductive skills of keen observation and deduction are obviously what inspired Doyle when he wrote Sherlock Holmes. Dupin, like Holmes, tries to let the narrator and reader solve the crime then pulls out a small detail that only he saw and explains how everything ties together. This makes the reader admire Dupin. Poe’s need to show his vast knowledge hinders the story. The beginning of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is, at times, painfully slow. Poe takes the first four pages to analysis. He discusses the difference between analysis and general observation, using the game of chess as an example. The next four pages describe how the narrator and Dupin meet. I am use to “modern” detective fiction were the crime is committed and described in the first couple of pages. Poe is an amazing writer and deserves more credit then he’s received. He gave birth to many writing styles that are common in today’s world. So although he’s wordy and long-winded, like Shakespeare, Poe is a master and the father of detective fiction.