11–20 of 46 posts
> The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd breaks that one decisively, no? I find it interesting that Agatha's first classic was already turning the genre on its head.
Pretty sure she broke this one too:
> The detective must not himself commit the crime.
... but I'll refrain from mentioning where.
I took the title from https://thrillingdetective.com/2019/01/10/father-knoxs-decal..., which that one points to, and which is closer to the original source.
Just a note about rule #5… in an effort to not use an offensive term for asian immigrants the author has possibly inverted the meaning of the rule: 5. No racial stereotypes. – to a 21st century reader implies that an author will not use racial stereotypes, that the characters can be their own individuals regardless of their race. In the original it means that there will be no asian immigrants in the story, and Knox f…
Just a note about rule #5… in an effort to not use an offensive term for asian immigrants the author has possibly inverted the meaning of the rule: 5. No racial stereotypes. – to a 21st century reader implies that an author will not use racial stereotypes, that the characters can be their own individuals regardless of their race. In the original it means that there will be no asian immigrants in the story, and Knox f…
I also clicked through to read the original, had a different interpretation of the use of that rule. It seems to me directed at focusing attention on competition within a social class rather than outside it. These stories are about members of the same group competing, not about in vs out-group competition. i.e. imagine a school mystery: "the case of the stolen grade book" with culprit "random stranger who walked onto…
Okay, but it doesn't seem obvious to me why "detective story" necessarily implies "story about competition within a social class". If I read a blog post titled "20 rules for making pasta-based dishes", and one of the rules was "don't ever use cheese", I'm not going to argue that there aren't a wide variety of good dishes you could make without cheese, but I'd definitely walk away with the assumption that the author has some sort of bias if they think it's a universal rule.
The rule "no racial stereotypes" was, in the original > No Chinaman must figure in the story. (The "No Chinaman rule" was a reaction to, and criticism of, racial cliches prevalent in 1920s English writing. Knox explained, "I see no reason in the nature of things why a Chinaman should spoil a detective story. But as a matter of fact, if you are turning over the pages of an unknown romance in a bookstore, and come acro…
http://catholicbible.online/knox?bible_part_no=1&book_no=1&c...
The rule "no racial stereotypes" was, in the original > No Chinaman must figure in the story. (The "No Chinaman rule" was a reaction to, and criticism of, racial cliches prevalent in 1920s English writing. Knox explained, "I see no reason in the nature of things why a Chinaman should spoil a detective story. But as a matter of fact, if you are turning over the pages of an unknown romance in a bookstore, and come acro…
The better solution is obviously to include whatever characters you want but write them well. However, since the authors of that time seemingly couldn't write Chinese characters well, leaving Chinese people out entirely makes for better literature.
The rule "no racial stereotypes" was, in the original > No Chinaman must figure in the story. (The "No Chinaman rule" was a reaction to, and criticism of, racial cliches prevalent in 1920s English writing. Knox explained, "I see no reason in the nature of things why a Chinaman should spoil a detective story. But as a matter of fact, if you are turning over the pages of an unknown romance in a bookstore, and come acro…
He’s obviously never seen “Chan Is Missing,” one of the greatest noir movies ever: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Is_Missing .
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also clicked through to read the original, had a different interpretation of the use of that rule. It seems to me directed at focusing attention on competition within a social class rather than outside it. These stories are about members of the same group competing, not about in vs out-group competition. i.e. imagine a school mystery: "the case of the stolen grade book" with culprit "random stranger who walked onto…
> It seems to me directed at focusing attention on competition within a social class rather than outside it > These stories are about members of the same group competing, not about in vs out-group competition. Okay, but it doesn't seem obvious to me why "detective story" necessarily implies "story about competition within a social class". If I read a blog post titled "20 rules for making pasta-based dishes", and one…
To me a modern equivalent would be if Spielberg decided to make a reality show to try to do a good version of it: at the end of the day the genre is just shitty and unsalvageable for more reasons than one.
Also it is hard to figure out if the original source was prejudiced against Chinese people or not from this alone. This is a discussion about good and bad writing, not about race directly.
Just a note about rule #5… in an effort to not use an offensive term for asian immigrants the author has possibly inverted the meaning of the rule: 5. No racial stereotypes. – to a 21st century reader implies that an author will not use racial stereotypes, that the characters can be their own individuals regardless of their race. In the original it means that there will be no asian immigrants in the story, and Knox f…
>No Chinaman must figure in the story. Why this should be so I do not know, unless we can find a reason for it in our western habit of assuming that the Celestial is over-equipped in the matter of brains, and under-equipped in the matter of morals. I only offer it as a fact of observation that, if you are turning over the pages of a book and come across some mention of 'the slit-like eyes of Chin Loo', you had best put it down at once; it is bad. The only exception which occurs to my mind--there are probably others--is Lord Ernest Hamilton's Four Tragedies of Memworth.
It's the western habit of assuming asians are intelligent but immoral that ultimately spoils the story, not the presence of asian immgirants themselves.