there will be a fish

One 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:

"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*

All y'all should check out cidercupcakes's Home Team: The 2009 Matches. Like, now. Each awesome female character nominated has their own thread, and people vote by commenting agreement. There are characters from everywhere -- TV, film, comics, and literature.

The post is kind of cool. It could just be a dry nom post, but instead has turned into a pithy lovefest. No one's doing any epic pimping, but each nomination generally has a short, to-the-point reason to vote for the character, which makes it fun to read through even if you don't feel like voting. Everyone is being very positive, nominating and replying to threads with enthusiasm about awesome women.

It's a lovely sight. Warms the cockles of my heart, it does. :D

I nominated: Dana Whitaker (Sports Night), Natalie Hurley (Sports Night), and Lacey Thornfield (Middleman). I couldn't believe no one had put any Sports Night women on the list yet. They could use some votes!

And there are still more women who could stand to be nominated! I may get around to doing the following later, but feel free to beat me to it. :) ( In no particular order: )

My voting process was a little haphazard and impulsive, but I can't vote for everyone. So ( I voted for: )

So go forth! Vote and nominate! Revel in the fact that there are so many awesome fictional women!