… or is it whimsy? That’s right, I was reading Dorothy Sayers again. Good writer, if you can get past the racial/religious insensitivity; it’s fascinating to contemplate just how much of a transformation point World War II was to our society. All sorts of perfectly-natural-seeming attitudes and prejudices abruptly… stopped being so, or at the least took what would prove to be fatal strikes…
Where was I? Right. Meryl Yourish has found what just might be PETA’s least effective publicity stunt. No, really: when your enemy actually disdains a chance to do you dirt, well, all I can say is “ouch”.
Seeing that this thread could be legitimately said to be about English mystery fiction, changes in societal attitudes and/or Ad Campaigns Gone Humorously Wrong, I suppose that it could be said to be more or less an open thread anyway.
PETA jumps the shark
I’ve been thinking for a few years now that PETA was losing relevance, and grandstanding in an attempt to compensate – but this is just silly.
Moe, I’ve thought about reading some Sayers (following a plug by Connie Willis in _To Say Nothing Of The Dog_) but don’t know where to start – say I want to read one volume now but reserve the option of reading a bunch relatively unspoiled? Or just one?
There’s only one storyline that you wouldn’t want to read out of order (the Harriet Vane romance) and it really affects only four of the books — Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night, and Busman’s Honeymoon, which should be read in that order.
Any of the rest can be read singly; while there are references to things that happened in earlier books, they’re never really important. The first chronologically is Whose Body, but it’s probably the weakest, although not by all that much, so you might start elsewhere.I’m fond of Murder Must Advertise, but they’re all pretty good.
Pretty much what LizardBreath said; the short stories are a bit different in tone than the novels, though. Early writer versus more mature writer – or at least, that’s how it feels.
Cool, thanks. Really someone should just sell the canon for say $20 on some post-space-age book format. The current New Yorker (which is chock-full of incredible writing) got me hankering to read some Wodehouse – but not 92 volumes.
Ah, narrowing down Wodehouse to the important bits is fairly easy: first, anything with Jeeves and Bertie; then the Psmith books; The Golf Omnibus; The World of Mr. Mulliner; and any of the Drones Club stories. There’s good stuff outside of those categories, but there’s no need to worry about it until you’ve read everything I’ve mentioned.
Some would include the Blandings Castle books, but they never did much for me.
Ok, while you’re being so helpful, if I walk into a Borders will I pick up the correct Jeeves/Bertie book to start with?
This is actually a sore spot — reading them in the right order would make them more entertaining, and no one ever carries enough of them so that you can figure out which comes first. I read them all out of order, and long enough ago that I have the titles all muddled.
The Wikipedia entry for Wodehouse has what looks like a chronological listing of the books — I’d buy them off Amazon in that order. If Wodehouse doesn’t leave you absolutely cold (which he does some people who are not otherwise recognizable as fiends in human shape) you should enjoy this a great deal — he’s about the funniest person on the planet.