I'm speaking, for the most part, about so-called escapist
entertainment. The world of escapism has become much larger
for producers in the last thirty years than it was in the
previous thirty. When Doyle and Christie and Edgar Wallace
were writing, they expected to be writing for an English
public who were familiar with English conventions. They did
not expect their little works to become world popular.
Likewise, Poe, who invented all these genres and a few
others, was writing for a 19th Century American audience. Few
writers of popular fiction take the chance of un-identifying
a character by setting them up as something with which any
reader might refuse to identify. It's just good business.
Chesterton was successful because he was always on the
Catholic Book List as "acceptable" reading entertainment.
Millions of Catholics in the US & Britain followed that
list. Millions more people, however, did not follow it and
some Catholics were especially attracted to books on the
"other" list, book that were forbidden for Catholics to read.
Robert Travers' Anatomy of a Murder proved this to
publishers. A of a M was banned by the Church in 1957 and
became the biggest best seller of the year. "We" may be
discerning reader, able to analyze and examine the bigger
picture behind stories designed for entertainment. But the
people who make these books and films the huge successes they
become tend not to think beyond their own sloping roofs. If
you want to sell millions of copies, it's better to let the
reader fill in the more controversial aspects of a
protagonist's life.
Patrick King
--- JIM DOHERTY <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Patrick,
>
> Again, I won't go into your long response point
by
> point, but your original assertion was that
religios
> beliefs were all but absolutely verboten
in
> publishing
> (and, by inference, in all popular
entertainment)
> until recently, and you spcifically refer to
several
> famous mystery writers below:
>
> "Neither Chesterton nor Kemelman were anywhere
near
> as
> successful as Earl Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen,
or
> Agatha Christie, who mention religion only
in
> passing."
>
> to bolster thant point. I'm not sure what you
mean
> by
> "only in passing," but to take each writer in
turn:
>
> One of Gardner's early Perry Mason books was
THE
> CASE
> OF THE STUTTERING BISHOP, in which the
central
> figure
> is an Anglican clergyman. True, Mason's own
beliefs
> don't come to the forefront here, and this
might
> only
> pass muster, by your lights, as a
"passing
> reference,"
> but, again, that's only off the top of my head,
and
> I'd be surprised if there aren't other
religious
> references throughout Gardner's sizable
ouvre.
>
> The two cousins who collaborated as Ellery
Queen
> made,
> I grant you, only inferential references to
their
> own
> Jewish faith, but religiosity pervades their
books
> to
> a large degree.
>
> SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER
> ALERT
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The central situation in THE CHINESE ORANGE
MYSTERY
> is
> that everything in a crime scene has been
reversed
> or
> turned upside-down. This turns out to have been
a
> ploy to conceal the fact that the murder victiom
is
> a
> Anglican clergyman.
>
> Again, I grant you, something that might be
regarded
> as only a passing reference, but the whole
novel
> hinges on that religious symbol.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER
END
>
> Regligiosity also pervades such early work as
THE
> EGYPTIAN CROSS MYSTERY and THE CAT OF MANY
TAILS.
> TEN
> DAYS' WONDER is built around a series of ten
crimes
> each meant to represent one of the Ten
Commandments,
> in much the same way that the murders in
SE7EN
> represented the Seven Deadly Sins. AND ON
THE
> EIGHTH
> DAY is about Ellery's investigation of a crime in
a
> peaceful desert religious cult.
>
> I'm not as familiar with Agatha Christie's work as
I
> am with Gardner's or Queen's, but I do know that
the
> first Miss Marple novel, MURDER AT THE VICARAGE,
is
> about a murder at, well, a vicarage, and that
the
> narrator who acts as Miss Marple's "Watson" is
the
> local Anglican vicar, who is presented as
an
> intelligent, and sincerely religious helpmate to
the
> main sleuth.
>
> Even Conan Doyle, who you mention earlier, let
some
> religious comments in. You presume, for
example,
> that
> Holmes must be Anglican, but I think an
argument
> could
> be made, given his French background (and given
the
> religion Conan Doyle was raised in) that he
was
> Cathlic, although likely not a practicing one.
It
> is
> known that he undertook at least two
investigations
> for His Holiness, the Pope, the affair of
the
> Vatican
> cameos, and the disappearance of Cardinal
Tosca.
>
> Religion and religious beliefs may not have been
as
> central to the work of the writers you cite as
it
> was
> for Chesterton, Kemelman, Holton, and others,
but
> there doesn't seem to have been a conscious
effort
> to
> avoid it in the hope that no one would be
offended,
> and I'm not really sure what causes you to draw
that
> conclusion.
>
> Looking outside of mystery fiction, again,
consider
> that the O'Haras in GONE WITH THE WIND are
all
> practicing Catholics and one of Scarlett's
sisters
> becomes a nun. Consider that Gregory Peck's
movie
> debut was as a Catholic missionary in China in
a
> film
> adaptation of a best-selling novel, A.J
Cronin's
> KEYS
> OF THE KINGDOM. Consider how many Oscars have
been
> given to performers playing Catholic priests or
nuns
> going back nearly 70 years. I honestly don't
see
> any
> evidence that publishers, or their counterparts
in
> other media, were making a fetish of avoiding
any
> mention of specific religious belief systems
in
> order
> not to offend anyone.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
>
>
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