![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sayers, feminists, and Holmes, oh my
Mar. 26th, 2010 03:14 pmOne of the last things I did before leaving New York City and my college was return a bunch of library books. This grand undertaking involved three trips, several giant cloth shopping bags, and the assistance of my twin to achieve. I was most saddened by the necessity of returning a collection Dorothy L. Sayers essays, titled Unpopular Opinions. I'd only managed to work my way through two of the essays – "Aristotle on Detective Fiction," which rather awesomely uses Aristotle's Poetics to analyze the detective genre; I discuss the other essay further below.
Sayers is best known for her Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels from the 1920s and 1930s, which is how I was introduced to her work. In fact, it was the reason I even found Unpopular Opinions in the first place – I was having a crisis of faith, academia-style, and the best remedy I could imagine was a prompt application of Sayers' Gaudy Night.
It worked like a charm, with the bonus discovery of an entire two shelves of books that included Sayers' essays, plays, criticism, and collected letters. (I spent several hours sitting at a carrel doing good-parts-version re-reads of Strong Poison and Have His Carcase, and paging through her letters. Homework, what homework...) Anyway, I checked out Gaudy Night for a full re-read, and Unpopular Opinions for kicks. To give you an idea of why I mourned its loss, here's the book's opening:
Who doesn't want to read a book starting off like that? In all seriousness, I adore Sayers' brain. She combines the intellectualism of an Oxford graduate with a refreshingly grounded, humanistic outlook on life, and a talent for effective and witty debate that she no doubt sharpened on friends like C.S. Lewis. The results make for great writing.
Anyway, I was reminded of the book for two reasons, the confluence of which led to my tracking down and buying a used copy of this (sadly out-of-print) book from a British vendor. 14-45 days shipping time, baby! But it's in great condition. :D?
( Reason The First: my friend makes one little comment about feminism, and this is what happens )
( Reason The Second: all roads lead to Holmes )
All right, that's enough of that. See what my brain does? One tiny comment in someone's comments and one current fictional obsession, and I end up writing all this and linking all over the interwebs. And I'm restraining myself here. *shakes head*
Sayers is best known for her Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels from the 1920s and 1930s, which is how I was introduced to her work. In fact, it was the reason I even found Unpopular Opinions in the first place – I was having a crisis of faith, academia-style, and the best remedy I could imagine was a prompt application of Sayers' Gaudy Night.
It worked like a charm, with the bonus discovery of an entire two shelves of books that included Sayers' essays, plays, criticism, and collected letters. (I spent several hours sitting at a carrel doing good-parts-version re-reads of Strong Poison and Have His Carcase, and paging through her letters. Homework, what homework...) Anyway, I checked out Gaudy Night for a full re-read, and Unpopular Opinions for kicks. To give you an idea of why I mourned its loss, here's the book's opening:
"I have called this collection of fugitive pieces "Unpopular Opinions", partly, to be sure, because to warn a person off a book is the surest way of getting him to read it, but chiefly because I have evidence that all the opinions expressed have in fact caused a certain amount of annoyance one way and the other."
Who doesn't want to read a book starting off like that? In all seriousness, I adore Sayers' brain. She combines the intellectualism of an Oxford graduate with a refreshingly grounded, humanistic outlook on life, and a talent for effective and witty debate that she no doubt sharpened on friends like C.S. Lewis. The results make for great writing.
Anyway, I was reminded of the book for two reasons, the confluence of which led to my tracking down and buying a used copy of this (sadly out-of-print) book from a British vendor. 14-45 days shipping time, baby! But it's in great condition. :D?
( Reason The First: my friend makes one little comment about feminism, and this is what happens )
( Reason The Second: all roads lead to Holmes )
All right, that's enough of that. See what my brain does? One tiny comment in someone's comments and one current fictional obsession, and I end up writing all this and linking all over the interwebs. And I'm restraining myself here. *shakes head*