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From: cja@lzwi.UUCP (C.E.JACKSON)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Sherlock Holmes
Message-ID: <128@lzwi.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-May-85 21:07:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: lzwi.128
Posted: Mon May  6 21:07:25 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 02:01:44 EDT
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>    I haven't been flamed in awhile, so here goes:  Why do you all have this
> fascination with Sherlock Holmes??  I can't imagine, unless you're fans of
> bad writing, incredibly bad dialogue, inhuman characters, and unbelievable
> plots.  Is it because you haven't read any of the Doyle stories since you
> were twelve and this is just nostalgia?  

I read Sherlock Holmes just the other day--which is to say that I read it when 
I was on the verge of 27...I found it quite enjoyable.
I like 19th Century English fiction, I like books I don't have to think about
very deeply, & in mysteries, I don't mind "stock" characters.
Nobody said ever said (I hope!) that every book one read had to be a piece
of literary art on the par with Jane Austen's.

>    Don't start telling me about "the first mysteries" or "the first detective
> stories" because Poe did those. 

No, you're right--there were other mystery writers...some before Poe even,
but Conan Doyle set the tone for the British ratiocination variety, which
many people enjoy. I far prefer it to the American "hard-boiled" variety.

>    I think you should all go and read some modern mysteries, or if you must
> live in the past some vintage Christies and Queens.

What, we SHOULDN'T read Conan Doyle? Smacks a tad of censorship.
Perhaps you just wish people wouldn't talk about him so much. Fine.
Which modern author do you like best? In what ways do you think modern
authors surpass Holmes or Christie or Queen (or Sayers or Marsh or Tey?)
What do you look for when you read a mystery? What do you object
to most in a mystery? How much are you willing to suspend disbelief in
when reading a mystery--that is, you don't buy the idea of recognizing
ashes--what will you allow?

> --Steve Blore, in-house detective, KAOS Radio, U of Denver

C. E. Jackson
...ihnp4!lznv!cja (for reasons too silly to explain,the address above 
[lzwi] is incorrect--don't use it)