poisoning your fantasy
It occurred to me today, since I have three weeks of school left and not much to do over the summer besides have surgery, write fic, and roller-skate: in all the recent run of Big Bang challenges, there does not seem to be a Classic Detectives Big Bang. And that is just a shame.
On the one hand, I will have plenty of time to run this over the summer, and mystery novels are a fandom-- if you can call them all a fandom-- ideally suited to long fic. On the other hand, I have never moderated anything (is there anyone around who would want to co-mod such a thing?) and my attention-seeking self worries shamefully that a sudden profusion of other casefic would distract attention from my own current project should I ever finish it. And then there would be the issue of what books and characters would be eligible, which is what I actually want to post about.
There are some people who really obviously count as classic detectives-- Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Alan Grant, Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Nero Wolfe, Gervase Fen, Father Brown, the Charleses; Albert Campion is a bit trickier, because he went right on trucking through the Cold War until the early 70s, which personally I would not consider ~classic~ mystery territory. I'm also very partial to the Beresfords and Philip Trent. And what about non-recurring detective characters like Rachel Innes, or Miss Pym, or Bill Beverly and Tony Gillingham? Should they count? What about works written out of period but meant to fit in the genre, like Thrones, Dominations or The Awdrey-Gore Legacy? Would noir characters like Sam Spade qualify, or is that too different a genre?
Basically, what canons and characters would you folks like to see included/excluded in such a challenge? I'm making this up on the fly, so I'm sure I'm forgetting people. The only candidate I absolutely refuse to include is Sherlock Holmes, because he has such a solid fandom of his own already.
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In relevant news, TCM showed All Through the Night the other day, which is one of my favorite Bogart movies. I have no idea if it's actually any good; I have no reliable judgment about movies at all. But I love it regardless, because it's about a tough big-time gangster whose mother nags him into investigating the Suspicious Death of his favorite cheesecake baker, and he ends up uncovering this giant Nazi conspiracy in New York. So at the end poor Bogey becomes a national hero completely by accident and is incredibly bitter about it, and then his mother shoves through the swarm of reporters to inform him that the milkman has mysteriously vanished, and isn't he going to do something about it?
I would watch an awful lot of movies about this guy, is what I'm saying here. And his mother.
ETA: My mom (yes, I link my mom to my LJ sometimes, she is perfectly fine with fandom as long as they are fandoms she likes) has suggested Alleyn, Lynley and Morse. Also Cadfael, Rumpole, and Maigret, but I think those books are more recent? Maybe I should just save the effort and do a Mystery! ficathon instead?
Anyway, wishfulaces has suggested Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. And I have forgotten Amelia Peabody, which is just shameful.
On the one hand, I will have plenty of time to run this over the summer, and mystery novels are a fandom-- if you can call them all a fandom-- ideally suited to long fic. On the other hand, I have never moderated anything (is there anyone around who would want to co-mod such a thing?) and my attention-seeking self worries shamefully that a sudden profusion of other casefic would distract attention from my own current project should I ever finish it. And then there would be the issue of what books and characters would be eligible, which is what I actually want to post about.
There are some people who really obviously count as classic detectives-- Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Alan Grant, Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Nero Wolfe, Gervase Fen, Father Brown, the Charleses; Albert Campion is a bit trickier, because he went right on trucking through the Cold War until the early 70s, which personally I would not consider ~classic~ mystery territory. I'm also very partial to the Beresfords and Philip Trent. And what about non-recurring detective characters like Rachel Innes, or Miss Pym, or Bill Beverly and Tony Gillingham? Should they count? What about works written out of period but meant to fit in the genre, like Thrones, Dominations or The Awdrey-Gore Legacy? Would noir characters like Sam Spade qualify, or is that too different a genre?
Basically, what canons and characters would you folks like to see included/excluded in such a challenge? I'm making this up on the fly, so I'm sure I'm forgetting people. The only candidate I absolutely refuse to include is Sherlock Holmes, because he has such a solid fandom of his own already.
----------
In relevant news, TCM showed All Through the Night the other day, which is one of my favorite Bogart movies. I have no idea if it's actually any good; I have no reliable judgment about movies at all. But I love it regardless, because it's about a tough big-time gangster whose mother nags him into investigating the Suspicious Death of his favorite cheesecake baker, and he ends up uncovering this giant Nazi conspiracy in New York. So at the end poor Bogey becomes a national hero completely by accident and is incredibly bitter about it, and then his mother shoves through the swarm of reporters to inform him that the milkman has mysteriously vanished, and isn't he going to do something about it?
I would watch an awful lot of movies about this guy, is what I'm saying here. And his mother.
ETA: My mom (yes, I link my mom to my LJ sometimes, she is perfectly fine with fandom as long as they are fandoms she likes) has suggested Alleyn, Lynley and Morse. Also Cadfael, Rumpole, and Maigret, but I think those books are more recent? Maybe I should just save the effort and do a Mystery! ficathon instead?
Anyway, wishfulaces has suggested Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. And I have forgotten Amelia Peabody, which is just shameful.