Levenson, Thomas. Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the Worlds Greatest Scientist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Scientists who become detectives have been the stuff of fiction before CSI: launched it into great popularity. Even Sherlock Holmes was a capable amateur scientist, though his scientific inquiries were aimed at making him a better detective. Though the scientist as detective is a fairly popular form of crime literature, the truth of it in one case is stranger than fiction.
Isaac Newton, renowned in his own day as well as ours as one of the greatest physicists who ever lived, left his post at Cambridge University to take a more lucrative patronage job as Warden of the Mint. One of his ostensible duties as warden was to investigate and prosecute cases of counterfeiting. It would be something like appointing Stephen Hawking to direct the Secret Service.
Typically, holders of this position weren’t expected to do more than the minimum required, leaving most of the work to assistants. Newton took his post seriously and pursued crime fighting with the same discipline and analytical rigor he used as a scientist while also completely re-minting all of England’s silver coins.
Readers who are already familiar with Newton’s scientific life might find that Levenson devotes too much of the book to it. His alchemical studies are more important to his work as warden because, even though esoteric from a scientific view, it made him familiar with the material as methods used by the mint and counterfeiters.
Newton put away (or to death) many counterfeiters. Levenson focuses on one, William Chaloner. Chaloner was an extraordinarily successful counterfeiter at his peak and much more ambitious and smart than most of his fellows. Where Newton’s life before the mint gets too much attention, Chaloner’s life doesn’t get enough. Since he was famous mostly for his crimes and some details of a counterfeiter’s life are necessarily hidden, there is probably much less source material to use to reconstruct his life.
The book builds up a little slowly through Newton’s younger day and then seems to rush through his mastership of the mint and his battle of wits with Chaloner. In spite of this weakness, the book is an interesting look on a lesser know chapter of Newton’s life.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query detective. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query detective. Sort by date Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, April 17, 2016
The Real World of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Costello
Readers of Sherlock
Holmes stories may recall that the detective clipped
stories from newspapers
related to crimes,
or unusual stories in which Holmes detected the hint of a crime. Holmes’
creator, Arthur
Conan Doyle, did the same thing, and he had a collection of books related
to crime. This is just one aspect of himself that Doyle put into the fictional
detective.
Doyle’s interest in crime, and particularly in defending those he felt
were unjustly prosecuted, sometimes led him into investigating crimes. Peter
Costello describes some of these crimes and investigations in The Real World of Sherlock Holmes.
Perhaps the most celebrated case, and the case in which Doyle conducted
himself as a Holmes-like detective, was the case of George Edalji.
Edalji, a solicitor born to an Indian father
and English mother,
was convicted of a series of animal mutilations. Doyle believed the case
against him was week, based mainly on poison-pen letters accusing the young
man. As he began to investigate, he found sloppy investigative techniques,
openly racist
police leadership,
an incompetent counsel
contributed to the wrongful conviction. Doyle investigated further and even
collected evidence indicating that someone else was the culprit. Through his
investigation, along with pressure he brought through the media and influential
acquaintances, he won a pardon for Edalji.
When Doyle became so deeply involved in a case, he was usually
motivated to correct what he saw as a miscarriage of justice. He was not so
active in his investigation of other crimes. Doyle studied crimes he found
interesting. More often than not, these were inquiries at a distance as he read
books and newspaper accounts, and discussed crimes with other interested
people. He was even a member of “Our Society,” a secretive crime club that
discussed the details of crime and developments in criminology in its
after-dinner meetings. Some of the members were lawyers and forensic scientists
(still a new profession) who were actively involved in investigating or
prosecuting crimes.
Costello suggests that some of these crimes inspired Doyle’s stories.
It makes sense that they would. Doyle always made significant changes when he
adapted a true
crime to a fictional
story, so no Sherlock Holmes story could be described as a close, though
fictionalized, recreation of a true crime.
Doyle remained interested in crime throughout his life, but by the 1920s he was
focused on promoting spiritualism.
Even when he investigated a crime in this era, it was usually because of an
element of spiritualism touching the case. He encouraged the use of
clairvoyants and mediums by the police. When Agatha
Christie disappeared, his investigation consisted of a consultation with
medium Horace
Leaf. (Journalists, passing on clairvoyance to use more Holmes-like
detection, found Christie staying at a resort under an assumed name.)
If you’re interested in this book, you may also interested in
Costello, Peter. The Real World
of Sherlock Holmes: The True Crimes Investigated by Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Carrol &
Graf, 1991.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Spirit by Darwyn Cook
The Spirit. Written by Darwyn Cooke and Jeph Loeb and drawn by Darwyn Cooke. New York: DC Comics 2007.
This book collects the first six issues of DC’s new line of The Spirit with writing and penciling by Darwyn Cooke and the one-shot Batman/The Spirit written by Cooke and Jeph Loeb with pencils by Cooke. The Spirit was created Will Eisner and originally ran as newspaper insert in the 1930s and 1940s.
I think Cooke handles The Spirit well. To fans, the character is almost as iconic as the likes of Superman. However, Superman has been continually published since his creation with contributions for many writers and artists. The Spirit ceased publication over 50 years ago and has only appeared in reprints. This could pose a problem for some. Do you keep the character historical, do you modernize him, and how do you make it work?
Cooke handles it the way most comics with such long-lasting character do, he ignores it as much as possible. He has kept what is distinctive and great about The Spirit and his supporting cast and simply written and drawn very good new stories.
The Spirit stories are hardboiled detective tales with a touch of superhero adventure and a big dose of humor. The stories cover a wide emotional range, but the tendency is toward the lighthearted. This is in keeping with Eisner’s work and done well by Cooke, who seems to be involved in several detective-oriented comics projects.
Cooke’s drawing style differs from Eisner’s, though I suspect he could imitate Eisner well if he wanted to. Where the new Spirit resembles the old is in it use of design and layout. This is one of those things Eisner brought to The Spirit that made it great and that Cooke does very well. The layout and design element produces two things. First, it results in some stunning and interesting images. Second, and probably more important, it creates a strong integration of image, action and story. This is something all comics should do, but it is done especially in Eisner and Cooke’s Spirit tales. A great example is the first few pages of Batman/The Spirit. A visually interesting device smoothly transitions an opening dialogue to an action sequence. The action builds to an image that cleverly integrates elements from previous frames that is both a dynamic part of the action and static graphic that serves as something like title page. The effect is magnified because it is presented after the turn of a page.
The fans of the original Spirit stories will find much to enjoy in the new ones. For someone unfamiliar with The Spirit, but liking action-filled detective stories, you’ll find some of the finest here.
This book collects the first six issues of DC’s new line of The Spirit with writing and penciling by Darwyn Cooke and the one-shot Batman/The Spirit written by Cooke and Jeph Loeb with pencils by Cooke. The Spirit was created Will Eisner and originally ran as newspaper insert in the 1930s and 1940s.
I think Cooke handles The Spirit well. To fans, the character is almost as iconic as the likes of Superman. However, Superman has been continually published since his creation with contributions for many writers and artists. The Spirit ceased publication over 50 years ago and has only appeared in reprints. This could pose a problem for some. Do you keep the character historical, do you modernize him, and how do you make it work?
Cooke handles it the way most comics with such long-lasting character do, he ignores it as much as possible. He has kept what is distinctive and great about The Spirit and his supporting cast and simply written and drawn very good new stories.
The Spirit stories are hardboiled detective tales with a touch of superhero adventure and a big dose of humor. The stories cover a wide emotional range, but the tendency is toward the lighthearted. This is in keeping with Eisner’s work and done well by Cooke, who seems to be involved in several detective-oriented comics projects.
Cooke’s drawing style differs from Eisner’s, though I suspect he could imitate Eisner well if he wanted to. Where the new Spirit resembles the old is in it use of design and layout. This is one of those things Eisner brought to The Spirit that made it great and that Cooke does very well. The layout and design element produces two things. First, it results in some stunning and interesting images. Second, and probably more important, it creates a strong integration of image, action and story. This is something all comics should do, but it is done especially in Eisner and Cooke’s Spirit tales. A great example is the first few pages of Batman/The Spirit. A visually interesting device smoothly transitions an opening dialogue to an action sequence. The action builds to an image that cleverly integrates elements from previous frames that is both a dynamic part of the action and static graphic that serves as something like title page. The effect is magnified because it is presented after the turn of a page.
The fans of the original Spirit stories will find much to enjoy in the new ones. For someone unfamiliar with The Spirit, but liking action-filled detective stories, you’ll find some of the finest here.
Monday, July 7, 2014
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
Nicholas
Meyer plays The Game. He presents his novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, as a found manuscript of John Watson,
friend to and chronicler of the adventures of Sherlock
Holmes.
Arthur
Conan Doyle’s detective
inspired pastiches
and fan
fiction even during the time when he was writing the canon of Holmes
stories. Meyer even mentions Doyle in the book, though in keeping with The
Game, he alludes that he is something like a literary agent, helping Watson
place his recollections in magazines.
The occasion
of the reference to Doyle is his connection to both Watson and Doyle’s medical
studies in Vienna,
where most of the story is set. According to Meyer, neither the real life or
fictional version of Doyle met another famous physician who resided in Vienna.
That physician’s expertise in a certain specialty is the reason Watson and
Holmes visit the European
mainland.
After Watson
marries and moves out of the Baker Street apartment, Holmes is more tightly
gripped by his addiction
to cocaine,
the seven percent solution mentioned Doyle’s The Sign of Four and the title of Meyer’s book. Overcoming
addiction was beyond the expertise of Watson and his medical colleagues, but
the work of a Viennese physician gave him hope. Watson conspires with
Sherlock’s brother Mycroft,
and even enlists the aid of the old Holmes family math
tutor Moriarty,
to trick Holmes into going to Vienna to be placed in the care of Sigmund Freud.
The first
half of the book deals with Holmes’ addiction and his treatment in the home of
Freud. This is more interesting than some may think it sounds, and even in this
section Meyer maintains the feel of a Holmes story.
In the
second half, Freud’s consultation in the case of a silent patient prompts the
kind of detective story you expect to see Holmes in. Freud is along for the
ride and his insights prove useful to the detective. The physical side of the
adventure ramps us in this part, too. The climax (can you do a spoiler alert
for a 40-year-old book) is a saber duel between Holmes and the story’s villain
on the top of a speeding railcar.
Meyer sticks
close to the canon, though he does it by discrediting certain “disputed”
stories. The long-retired Watson, dictating this after the death of his friend,
admits to fabricating certain tales in order to protect Holmes’ life and reputation.
If you’re
interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Meyer,
Nicholas. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution:
Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. New York: E. P. Dutton,
1974.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
What I Read (End)
Date: November 27, 2008
Title: His Excellency
Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Thoughts: A readable and balanced biography of a great man.
Date: December 25, 2008
Title: The Spirit
Author: Darwyn Cooke
Thoughts: Great, fun detective stories.
Date: December 28, 2008
Title: Wisdom from the Batcave
Author: Cory A Friedman
Thoughts: A fun way to look at serious ethics.
Date: January 3, 2009
Title: Blink
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Thoughts: The good, the bad and the hope of snap judgments.
Date: January 5, 2009
Title: The Unfinished Game
Author: Keith Devlin
Thoughts: It’s comforting that someone as smart as Pascal had trouble grasping probabilities, though he was handicapped by having to invent the idea first.
Keith Devlin also coauthored The Numbers behind NUMB3RS.
Date: January 15, 2009
Title: The Water Room
Author: Christopher Fowler
Thoughts: An interesting and enjoyable detective story, but he main draw to me was the underground rivers of London.
Date: January 22, 2009
Title: The Joy of Supernatural Thinking
Author: Bill Bright
Thoughts: A very challenging book.
Date: January 31, 2009
Title: The Big Necessity
Author: Rose George
Thoughts: It’s amazing how many people could have better lives if they could just dispose of their shit, and how hard it seems to be to accomplish it.
Date: February 24, 2009
Title: Why Good Things Happen to Good People
Author: Stephen Post & Jill Neimark
Thoughts:
“The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will be watered himself” (Proverbs 11:25).
Date: March 1, 2009
Title: How to Write Mysteries
Author: Shannon OCork
Thoughts: Lots of good ideas. Now to put them to use.
Date: March 17, 2009
Title: The Emotional Energy Factor
Author: Mira Kirshenbaum
Thoughts: “Worry never comes up with good ideas. It never yields comfort. It never brings your ship to any safe harbor” (quote from the book).
Date: March 26, 2009
Title: Mastering Fiction Writing
Author: Kit Reed
Thoughts: “You’re going to have to write a lot of crap in your life before you write anything good, so you might as well get started” (quote from the book).
Books I Want to Write
Goal Setting that Works
A hardboiled, science fiction crime story
The Prodigal
Phin
Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10,
Part 11, Part 12
Title: His Excellency
Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Thoughts: A readable and balanced biography of a great man.
Date: December 25, 2008
Title: The Spirit
Author: Darwyn Cooke
Thoughts: Great, fun detective stories.
Date: December 28, 2008
Title: Wisdom from the Batcave
Author: Cory A Friedman
Thoughts: A fun way to look at serious ethics.
Date: January 3, 2009
Title: Blink
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Thoughts: The good, the bad and the hope of snap judgments.
Date: January 5, 2009
Title: The Unfinished Game
Author: Keith Devlin
Thoughts: It’s comforting that someone as smart as Pascal had trouble grasping probabilities, though he was handicapped by having to invent the idea first.
Keith Devlin also coauthored The Numbers behind NUMB3RS.
Date: January 15, 2009
Title: The Water Room
Author: Christopher Fowler
Thoughts: An interesting and enjoyable detective story, but he main draw to me was the underground rivers of London.
Date: January 22, 2009
Title: The Joy of Supernatural Thinking
Author: Bill Bright
Thoughts: A very challenging book.
Date: January 31, 2009
Title: The Big Necessity
Author: Rose George
Thoughts: It’s amazing how many people could have better lives if they could just dispose of their shit, and how hard it seems to be to accomplish it.
Date: February 24, 2009
Title: Why Good Things Happen to Good People
Author: Stephen Post & Jill Neimark
Thoughts:
“The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will be watered himself” (Proverbs 11:25).
Date: March 1, 2009
Title: How to Write Mysteries
Author: Shannon OCork
Thoughts: Lots of good ideas. Now to put them to use.
Date: March 17, 2009
Title: The Emotional Energy Factor
Author: Mira Kirshenbaum
Thoughts: “Worry never comes up with good ideas. It never yields comfort. It never brings your ship to any safe harbor” (quote from the book).
Date: March 26, 2009
Title: Mastering Fiction Writing
Author: Kit Reed
Thoughts: “You’re going to have to write a lot of crap in your life before you write anything good, so you might as well get started” (quote from the book).
Books I Want to Write
Goal Setting that Works
A hardboiled, science fiction crime story
The Prodigal
Phin
Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10,
Part 11, Part 12
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Case Closed (Vol. 2) by Gosho Ayoama
Gosho Ayoama. Case Closed. Vol. 2. 1994. San Francisco: VIZ, 2004.
Case Closed is a collection of short detective stories in comic form (manga). They were originally published in Japan under the title “Meitantei Conan” (Detective Conan). That is the straightforward part.
The hero is a teenager with a genius for solving crime, Jimmy Kudo. He stumbles onto something and a crime organization poisons him. Instead of killing him, the drug shrinks him down to the size of a first grader. He commits himself to finding the men who did it. To protect himself and his friends for the criminals who think he is dead, he takes on the name Conan Edogawa (from mystery authors Conan Doyle and Rumpo Edogawa) and takes up with his unsuspecting girlfriend, Rachel, and her father, mediocre private investigator Richard Moore. To get this back-story, you’ll need to read the first volume or see early episodes of the anime series that closely follows the manga.
Other than that, the stories are straightforward tales of ratiocination in the Western tradition started by Edgar Allen Poe and taken up so well by Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories. For someone interested in getting familiar with manga, Japanese comics, this may be a good place to start. The mystery story is familiar to Westerners and the art is in the manga style.
This particular volume has three stories. Gosho Ayoama’s method is to present a complete mystery story and occasionally include stories that touch on Jimmy’s broader quest to return to his normal size and bring his shrinkers to justice. You don’t have to be invested in the larger story to enjoy reading the individual mysteries.
Though Jimmy appears to be a young child, and has adventures with kids from his elementary school class, the stories are not for children. There is murder and other crimes, violence and gore, and children in imminent danger. Conan has a particular knack for provoking killers into coming after him.
Case Closed is a collection of short detective stories in comic form (manga). They were originally published in Japan under the title “Meitantei Conan” (Detective Conan). That is the straightforward part.
The hero is a teenager with a genius for solving crime, Jimmy Kudo. He stumbles onto something and a crime organization poisons him. Instead of killing him, the drug shrinks him down to the size of a first grader. He commits himself to finding the men who did it. To protect himself and his friends for the criminals who think he is dead, he takes on the name Conan Edogawa (from mystery authors Conan Doyle and Rumpo Edogawa) and takes up with his unsuspecting girlfriend, Rachel, and her father, mediocre private investigator Richard Moore. To get this back-story, you’ll need to read the first volume or see early episodes of the anime series that closely follows the manga.
Other than that, the stories are straightforward tales of ratiocination in the Western tradition started by Edgar Allen Poe and taken up so well by Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories. For someone interested in getting familiar with manga, Japanese comics, this may be a good place to start. The mystery story is familiar to Westerners and the art is in the manga style.
This particular volume has three stories. Gosho Ayoama’s method is to present a complete mystery story and occasionally include stories that touch on Jimmy’s broader quest to return to his normal size and bring his shrinkers to justice. You don’t have to be invested in the larger story to enjoy reading the individual mysteries.
Though Jimmy appears to be a young child, and has adventures with kids from his elementary school class, the stories are not for children. There is murder and other crimes, violence and gore, and children in imminent danger. Conan has a particular knack for provoking killers into coming after him.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
The Caped Crusade by Glen Weldon
Based on his self-description in The
Caped Crusade, Glen Weldon
and I are close in age. Unlike Weldon, the limited selection of broadcast television
channels in my rural community did not present 1960s Batman series. My childhood impressions of the Dark Knight came
almost exclusively from the comics.
My favorite version of Batman is the “World’s Greatest Detective” (when I came
across his team-up with a very old Sherlock
Holmes in Detective Comics 500, I had to have
it). I’m also fond of the adventure hero who hues close to his pulp
roots—basically the
Shadow or Doc
Savage in a bat suit (I also had to buy Batman
253, in which the awestruck superhero acknowledges the Shadow as an
inspiration).
I suppose that I staked out my position on Batman because that is
partly what Weldon’s book is about, the contradictions between Batman the
character and Batman the idea, and the tension between stories loved by
hardcore fans and stories appreciated by a wider audience who engage with
Batman in diverse ways.
Weldon illustrates this tension, and the character’s shift as the pull
is sometimes stronger in one direction or another, through the history
of the character. He sees a cycle in Batman’s depiction. He starts as a dark
loner. He becomes a father figure (most directly to Robin). He grows
into the patriarch of a family (Robin, Alfred,
Batgirl, and Huntress just
to start a list). Then a desire to revitalize the character, get back to roots,
or satisfy the core fandom returns him to the loner stage.
The hardcore fans Weldon writes of generally conceive Batman as
serious. They want a Batman who is realistic and gritty. In my experience as a
reader of comics, “serious,” “realistic” and “gritty” are often code words for
prurience, grotesquery and gore. I’m not interested in that in comics or any
other media.
These fans have a love-hate relationship with the Batman of other media
(they just hate the Adam West
version). The Tim
Burton films revitalized public interest in Batman when the comics were in
a serious sales slump. (The hardcore fans hate the Joel
Schumacher movies. I’m with them on that.) In the Chris Nolan
trilogy they finally got a Batman who is serious and has acceptance in the
wider culture.
That culture is much wider now than ever, especially due to the Internet.
Comics fandom
was once very insular, and in some ways it still is. In the Internet age, many
people are engaging the character and idea of Batman. Comic book fans,
cosplayers, fan
fiction writers, movie
buffs, fashionistas, retro TV watchers, hipsters and a host of others are interacting
with Batman’s stories, history, image and iconography. It is a world that some
of the old hardcore fans may find discomfiting, but it may be a place where
Batman can have lasting relevance.
Weldon plainly likes that prospect. In his view, the super-straight
Adam West Batman and the grounded, brooding Chris Nolan Batman can coexist.
They are both really Batman. People have always focused on the aspects of the
character that resonated with them. They have also imposed on him
interpretations that the writers and artists that created his stories never
imagined. We do this with every text, but few texts have the longevity of
Batman. That may be the Weldon’s other point. We can take any version of Batman
as seriously as we want, or we can simply enjoy the stories. He is a fictional
character after all.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in:
Weldon, Glen. The Caped Crusade:
Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. New York: Simon
& Schuster, 2016.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
Moore, Graham. The Sherlockian. New York: Twelve, 2010.
In The Sherlockian, Graham Moore tells two stories, both crime tales that are linked by a missing diary. In the modern story, a newly inducted member of the Baker Street Irregulars, a prominent group of Sherlock Holmes fan-scholars, sets out to solve a murder that occurs at a convention of the Irregulars. Seeking the solution to this mystery leads him to another, the attempt to find a lost diary of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Holmes.
The second story is historical. It features Doyle and his friend Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. Doyle similarly starts out to solve one mystery and gets draw into another. He sets out to discover who sent him a letter bomb that actually contains a letter, though Doyle narrowly escapes death from the bomb. It leads him into seeking the killer of young women who are joined by radical politics and an odd tattoo.
The first track reads as much like a suspense-thriller than a mystery, though the hero is decidedly nerdier than is typical of such stories, as you might expect of a guy who has had is head buried in books for years. The Doyle story begins as something similar to the stories the actual man wrote to showcase his famous character, the fictional detective
he killed to be rid of then brought back to life. It becomes more realistic at progress, or at least much messier.
Though mostly serious in tone, the book has humorous moments. The hero is a guy who has found a way to make a living from having read a ton of books. His chief credential as a detective is that he knows a lot about Sherlock Holmes. He’s not the only Sherlockian to involve himself in the case; he is simply more competent and lucky than the others.
The historical touches are interesting. The real Doyle consulted with Scotland Yard, with varying success, though the crime described in The Sherlockian is fictional. Some of his papers, including a diary, disappeared after his death and resurfaced more than 70 years later in the hands of a distant Doyle relative. A battle of words and lawyers ensued involving the would-be seller of these documents, the Doyle heirs, and a prominent Irregular. The Irregular died under suspicious circumstances and the case is still considered unsolved in spite of the efforts of police and many amateur detectives. These real events inspired the book, though the author clearly distinguishes in a short note the touch of history from the mass of fiction.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont
The Great Stink by Clare Clark
In The Sherlockian, Graham Moore tells two stories, both crime tales that are linked by a missing diary. In the modern story, a newly inducted member of the Baker Street Irregulars, a prominent group of Sherlock Holmes fan-scholars, sets out to solve a murder that occurs at a convention of the Irregulars. Seeking the solution to this mystery leads him to another, the attempt to find a lost diary of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Holmes.
The second story is historical. It features Doyle and his friend Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. Doyle similarly starts out to solve one mystery and gets draw into another. He sets out to discover who sent him a letter bomb that actually contains a letter, though Doyle narrowly escapes death from the bomb. It leads him into seeking the killer of young women who are joined by radical politics and an odd tattoo.
The first track reads as much like a suspense-thriller than a mystery, though the hero is decidedly nerdier than is typical of such stories, as you might expect of a guy who has had is head buried in books for years. The Doyle story begins as something similar to the stories the actual man wrote to showcase his famous character, the fictional detective
he killed to be rid of then brought back to life. It becomes more realistic at progress, or at least much messier.
Though mostly serious in tone, the book has humorous moments. The hero is a guy who has found a way to make a living from having read a ton of books. His chief credential as a detective is that he knows a lot about Sherlock Holmes. He’s not the only Sherlockian to involve himself in the case; he is simply more competent and lucky than the others.
The historical touches are interesting. The real Doyle consulted with Scotland Yard, with varying success, though the crime described in The Sherlockian is fictional. Some of his papers, including a diary, disappeared after his death and resurfaced more than 70 years later in the hands of a distant Doyle relative. A battle of words and lawyers ensued involving the would-be seller of these documents, the Doyle heirs, and a prominent Irregular. The Irregular died under suspicious circumstances and the case is still considered unsolved in spite of the efforts of police and many amateur detectives. These real events inspired the book, though the author clearly distinguishes in a short note the touch of history from the mass of fiction.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont
The Great Stink by Clare Clark
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Man Who Loved Books too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Bartlett, Allison Hoover. The Man Who Loved Books too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession. New York: Riverhead, 2009.
I like books. You probably do, too. People like books for different reason. I, and many people I know, love reading. Others enjoy and appreciate books as pieces of history, as art, for associations with their authors or previous owners, as objects with various qualities.
Some people own books because of what the books they own say about them. John Gilkey is such a person. The down side of books is they can be expensive, especially fine are rare books that might burnish the image of their owners. Gilkey had a unique way of overcoming this obstacle. He stole books.
Bartlett seems reluctant to focus on Gilkey. It’s partly because she is reluctant to seem to glorify a criminal or give an outlet to a criminal who is intent on burnishing his image. It’s also because the true story has other interesting participants, especially bookseller Ken Sander who has taken upon himself to track down book thieves. She also seeks to understand the kind of compulsion that goes into collecting, especially when that compulsion drives someone to crime.
It’s a little scary how easily Gilkey accomplished fraud and theft. He took the opportunity to steal a little information, and then picked up the phone to use it to steal books. What is scarier is his capacity for self-justification. Self-justification is a common human activity, but Gilkey has mastered it such a degree that he seems to have almost no conscience. It may be good fortune that his fixation is books and the easy criminal, but not violent, way of acquiring them.
The book is weakest in this last respect. Bartlett didn’t seem to understand the collector’s drive much better at the end of the book than at the beginning. I didn’t. The Man Who Loved Books too Much works as a story about interesting or unusual people.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Private Investigator’s Handbook by Chuck Chambers
I like books. You probably do, too. People like books for different reason. I, and many people I know, love reading. Others enjoy and appreciate books as pieces of history, as art, for associations with their authors or previous owners, as objects with various qualities.
Some people own books because of what the books they own say about them. John Gilkey is such a person. The down side of books is they can be expensive, especially fine are rare books that might burnish the image of their owners. Gilkey had a unique way of overcoming this obstacle. He stole books.
Bartlett seems reluctant to focus on Gilkey. It’s partly because she is reluctant to seem to glorify a criminal or give an outlet to a criminal who is intent on burnishing his image. It’s also because the true story has other interesting participants, especially bookseller Ken Sander who has taken upon himself to track down book thieves. She also seeks to understand the kind of compulsion that goes into collecting, especially when that compulsion drives someone to crime.
It’s a little scary how easily Gilkey accomplished fraud and theft. He took the opportunity to steal a little information, and then picked up the phone to use it to steal books. What is scarier is his capacity for self-justification. Self-justification is a common human activity, but Gilkey has mastered it such a degree that he seems to have almost no conscience. It may be good fortune that his fixation is books and the easy criminal, but not violent, way of acquiring them.
The book is weakest in this last respect. Bartlett didn’t seem to understand the collector’s drive much better at the end of the book than at the beginning. I didn’t. The Man Who Loved Books too Much works as a story about interesting or unusual people.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Private Investigator’s Handbook by Chuck Chambers
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Hammett, Dashiell. Red Harvest. 1929. New York: Vintage, 1992.
“I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.” These opening lines of Red Harvest are the first time the Continental Op will make a joke of Personville, and it’s the only funny one. The city is poison, run by criminals in every sector. They were brought in by the mining company to break the union, and now the head of the company is ready to be rid of them. The Continental Op is the man for the job.
He does it by turning the leaders of the various gangs, including the corrupt police department, against each other. Cozy relationships give way to war. Even the Continental Op becomes infected. He’s not above bending the rules, but he finds himself taking a bloodthirsty joy from the vengeful mayhem.
The lead character doesn’t have a name, but he is a prototypical hardboiled detective, written by an author who made the mold many others have used. He is tough, smart, aggressive, willing to do what it takes. He has a sense of justice, but doesn’t think it is always found in the justice system. In the Continental Op’s world of 1920’s California, police and court corruption are rampant. That goes double for Personville.
Violence and corruption are the theme of the book. It’s a story with roots deep in selfishness and pride. No one is above breaking the law to serve his or her own interests. The sins of one man beget a host of others. The sad conclusion is that a violence and deception is needed to break a violent and corrupt system, pushing into collapsing on itself.
Of course, no one picks up this book expecting a sweet romance of good overcoming evil. When, in closing, the Continental Op says Personville “was developing into a sweet-smelling thornless bed of roses,” one suspects he is speaking with the same dark, ironic humor with which he started the tale.
“I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.” These opening lines of Red Harvest are the first time the Continental Op will make a joke of Personville, and it’s the only funny one. The city is poison, run by criminals in every sector. They were brought in by the mining company to break the union, and now the head of the company is ready to be rid of them. The Continental Op is the man for the job.
He does it by turning the leaders of the various gangs, including the corrupt police department, against each other. Cozy relationships give way to war. Even the Continental Op becomes infected. He’s not above bending the rules, but he finds himself taking a bloodthirsty joy from the vengeful mayhem.
The lead character doesn’t have a name, but he is a prototypical hardboiled detective, written by an author who made the mold many others have used. He is tough, smart, aggressive, willing to do what it takes. He has a sense of justice, but doesn’t think it is always found in the justice system. In the Continental Op’s world of 1920’s California, police and court corruption are rampant. That goes double for Personville.
Violence and corruption are the theme of the book. It’s a story with roots deep in selfishness and pride. No one is above breaking the law to serve his or her own interests. The sins of one man beget a host of others. The sad conclusion is that a violence and deception is needed to break a violent and corrupt system, pushing into collapsing on itself.
Of course, no one picks up this book expecting a sweet romance of good overcoming evil. When, in closing, the Continental Op says Personville “was developing into a sweet-smelling thornless bed of roses,” one suspects he is speaking with the same dark, ironic humor with which he started the tale.
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Water Room by Christopher Fowler
Fowler, Christopher. The Water Room. 2004. New York: Bantam, 2008.
The Peculiar Crimes Unit handles cases that, because of political sensitivity, unlikelihood of success or just weirdness, have little appeal to the Metropolitan Police. The Water Room is part of a series of books about the PCU, so there is a lot of water under the bridge by the time it starts.
It is the water under London that plays a key role in the detective story, which is what attracted me to the book. A series of murders on a seemingly ordinary street attracts the attention of the PCU, which discovers a connection to the flooding Fleet, one of London’s several long buried rivers, the myths connected to it and the art it has inspired.
Toward the end of the book, the detectives that lead the PCU discuss how they became interested in crime. One of them mentions reading Agatha Christie and how complicated her stories were, with solutions depending on particulars, and occurring in a world of old-fashioned high society. The character thought real crimes were mostly by more common people for more common reasons and would be more solvable.
This reference to Christie did not make me think of the contrast between her books and Fowler’s, but the many points of comparison. The Water Room is very much in the mode of a cozy English mystery, except the setting is mostly lower middle-class and Hercule Poirot would never resort to entering a sewer.
I enjoy these kinds of stories, though, and Fowler does a good job of telling an interesting and original tale, even if it does fit a type. There are enough clues throughout the book, one very telling, for a reader guess the culprit and a multitude of red herring. There are secrets held to the last chapters, particularly related to motivation, but this is also typical of this kind of story and handled well by Fowler.
Though part of a series, one needn’t read the previous books to enjoy this one. There are enough allusions to the earlier books to explain the relationships between the recurring characters, but they don’t get in the way of the present adventure.
Order this book here.
If your interested in this book, you might also be interested in The Great Stink by Clare Clark.
The Peculiar Crimes Unit handles cases that, because of political sensitivity, unlikelihood of success or just weirdness, have little appeal to the Metropolitan Police. The Water Room is part of a series of books about the PCU, so there is a lot of water under the bridge by the time it starts.
It is the water under London that plays a key role in the detective story, which is what attracted me to the book. A series of murders on a seemingly ordinary street attracts the attention of the PCU, which discovers a connection to the flooding Fleet, one of London’s several long buried rivers, the myths connected to it and the art it has inspired.
Toward the end of the book, the detectives that lead the PCU discuss how they became interested in crime. One of them mentions reading Agatha Christie and how complicated her stories were, with solutions depending on particulars, and occurring in a world of old-fashioned high society. The character thought real crimes were mostly by more common people for more common reasons and would be more solvable.
This reference to Christie did not make me think of the contrast between her books and Fowler’s, but the many points of comparison. The Water Room is very much in the mode of a cozy English mystery, except the setting is mostly lower middle-class and Hercule Poirot would never resort to entering a sewer.
I enjoy these kinds of stories, though, and Fowler does a good job of telling an interesting and original tale, even if it does fit a type. There are enough clues throughout the book, one very telling, for a reader guess the culprit and a multitude of red herring. There are secrets held to the last chapters, particularly related to motivation, but this is also typical of this kind of story and handled well by Fowler.
Though part of a series, one needn’t read the previous books to enjoy this one. There are enough allusions to the earlier books to explain the relationships between the recurring characters, but they don’t get in the way of the present adventure.
Order this book here.
If your interested in this book, you might also be interested in The Great Stink by Clare Clark.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Thin Man (Film)
The Thin Man. Writ. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. Dir. W. S. Van Dyke. With William Powell and Myrna Loy. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1934.
This film is based on the excellent Dashiell Hammett book of the same title. It was so popular MGM made five sequels from 1936 to 1947: After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man. The writers changed, but most of the films were directed by W. S. Van Dyke and all of them starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as the charming couple, Nick and Nora Charles.
It is the charm of the Charles’ that makes the movies such a pleasure to watch. The characters have great chemistry Hammett’s book; Powell and Loy bring it to the screen. Part of their charm comes from their witty banter. I think part of it comes from the happy marriage of the couple. They delight in each other, tolerate each other’s weaknesses and gently push each other to be better. And though they fit traditional gender roles, as you would expect at the time the films were made, and it is clear that Nick is a professional detective and Nora an amateur, they seem more equal than most fictional couples in today’s films and television.
As a series, the films handle the couple in another unusual way. They age. They age naturally. In the first pair if films, as in the book, Nora is a young heiress and Nick older and worldlier. In the middle pair of films, they’re parents of a young son. By the last film, they’re an established couple and even Nora can’t follow the slang of the hipster characters.
The chemistry between Powell and Loy is great. Some other quality actors appear in the films as well, like Maureen O’Sullivan in The Thin Man. The sequels include performances from James Stewart and Keenan Wynn. Some uncredited (and not as great) appearances include Shemp Howard and a guy who I think might be Tor Johnson.
The crime solving in The Thin Man sticks close to the book, but adapted to work well on film. As crime stories, the sequels vary in quality, complexity and suspense. If you’re looking for a great mystery, you may want to look elsewhere. Crime solving is the backbone of the plots of these films, but the plots are largely an excuse to watch Nick and Nora do their thing.
(Thanks, Roger, for loaning me the box set of these films on DVD.)
This film is based on the excellent Dashiell Hammett book of the same title. It was so popular MGM made five sequels from 1936 to 1947: After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man. The writers changed, but most of the films were directed by W. S. Van Dyke and all of them starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as the charming couple, Nick and Nora Charles.
It is the charm of the Charles’ that makes the movies such a pleasure to watch. The characters have great chemistry Hammett’s book; Powell and Loy bring it to the screen. Part of their charm comes from their witty banter. I think part of it comes from the happy marriage of the couple. They delight in each other, tolerate each other’s weaknesses and gently push each other to be better. And though they fit traditional gender roles, as you would expect at the time the films were made, and it is clear that Nick is a professional detective and Nora an amateur, they seem more equal than most fictional couples in today’s films and television.
As a series, the films handle the couple in another unusual way. They age. They age naturally. In the first pair if films, as in the book, Nora is a young heiress and Nick older and worldlier. In the middle pair of films, they’re parents of a young son. By the last film, they’re an established couple and even Nora can’t follow the slang of the hipster characters.
The chemistry between Powell and Loy is great. Some other quality actors appear in the films as well, like Maureen O’Sullivan in The Thin Man. The sequels include performances from James Stewart and Keenan Wynn. Some uncredited (and not as great) appearances include Shemp Howard and a guy who I think might be Tor Johnson.
The crime solving in The Thin Man sticks close to the book, but adapted to work well on film. As crime stories, the sequels vary in quality, complexity and suspense. If you’re looking for a great mystery, you may want to look elsewhere. Crime solving is the backbone of the plots of these films, but the plots are largely an excuse to watch Nick and Nora do their thing.
(Thanks, Roger, for loaning me the box set of these films on DVD.)
Sunday, September 20, 2015
The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons
Novelist Henry James
seems like an unlikely partner to fictional detective
Sherlock
Holmes. Dan
Simmons pairs them in his novel The
Fifth Heart. James provides Holmes with access to the inner circle of
American politics,
where Holmes investigates the death of Clover Adams,
wife of historian
Henry Adams.
Together, they thwart an attempt to assassinate President Grover
Cleveland at the opening of the Chicago
Columbian Exhibition.
In some ways, Simmons draws from the weakest of genre writing, such as
the fortunate happenstance of James and Holmes meeting on the bank of the Seine, where the
story begins. Simmons writing in this style is not weak, though. He also writes
in more literary
style, though not a densely written as James’ novels, and uses the likes of
upper-class dinner parties to explore social customs and mores.
One of the ways Simmons creates a deep sense of the setting is by
constantly dropping names. Many of the characters in the book, or their real
counterparts, were famous or well-connected in their day and actually knew each
other, such as Adams, the Hays, James, and Samuel
Clemens. They also knew, or knew about, a lot of other famous or
well-connected people, so the discussion of all these names seems natural. I
started jotting down the names, and I recorded more than 100 (some are listed
below). Some were fictional (like Hercule
Poirot), but many were real people.
On the whole, the novel is a good adventure
full of interesting characters. Simmons goes a little deep into philosophy in a
consideration of what it means to be a real person, or the potential reality of
fictional people (Holmes suspects he may be fictional). The book can be enjoyed
without sweating that point.
In a sense, all the characters in the book are fictional, even if they
are based on real people. The Holmes of this novel describes the symptoms that
indicate he may be fiction, such as the fog he experiences between adventures,
and the James of this novel experiences the same thing. Of course, many of us
experience arriving home from work and having almost no recollection of
driving, so some fogginess may be a natural part of memories and the
way we form them (or don’t form them).
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Irene Adler [fictional]
Mycroft
Holmes [fictional character]
Sherlock
Holmes [fictional character]
Sebastian Moran
[fictional character]
James Nolan
Moriarty [fictional character]
Hercule
Poirot [fictional character]
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Interesting Stuff Jan. 5, 2010--Happy New Year
I wasn’t a humbug about Christmas, I was just busy. So were you.
12 Comics of Christmas
50 Best Comics Covers of 2009 (From Complex, where the language can be rough)
-Other cool covers from io9’s selection of the top 100 from the last decade:
--Catwoman 2 (I like the work of Darwyn Cooke)
--Detective Comics 745
--The Incredible Hulk 49 (Wild things)
--Spider-Man: Blue 2 (Tim Sale is very good, too)
7 Super-Sized (And Somewhat Insane) Soviet Projects
Fog-catching in a Peruvian slum
GE Gets $1.4B Contract for Wind Turbines
Government Comics Collection (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Headed to Space? Take the Elevator
Interesting Stuff Halloween 2009
Kids Should Play in the Dirt
Mickey Mouse gets his edge back
Sketchbook: Calvin & Hobbes Covered by Comic Book Artists & More Calvin & Hobbes Covered by Artists
Taylor Swift Tackles Bad Driving Habits
Team wins $900K in Space Elevator Games
12 Comics of Christmas
50 Best Comics Covers of 2009 (From Complex, where the language can be rough)
-Other cool covers from io9’s selection of the top 100 from the last decade:
--Catwoman 2 (I like the work of Darwyn Cooke)
--Detective Comics 745
--The Incredible Hulk 49 (Wild things)
--Spider-Man: Blue 2 (Tim Sale is very good, too)
7 Super-Sized (And Somewhat Insane) Soviet Projects
Fog-catching in a Peruvian slum
GE Gets $1.4B Contract for Wind Turbines
Government Comics Collection (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Headed to Space? Take the Elevator
Interesting Stuff Halloween 2009
Kids Should Play in the Dirt
Mickey Mouse gets his edge back
Sketchbook: Calvin & Hobbes Covered by Comic Book Artists & More Calvin & Hobbes Covered by Artists
Taylor Swift Tackles Bad Driving Habits
Team wins $900K in Space Elevator Games
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Fic by Anne Jamison
Have you
ever finished a book, or series, or experienced the cancellation of a television
show, and wanted more? Have you loved something you read or watched, but found
some aspects frustrating or missing? That feeling has motivated people to write
their own stories of characters or settings
originated by other authors. This is fanfiction,
or fanfic, or as English
professor Anne
Jamison puts it in the title of her book, simply Fic.
Fanfiction
has a long history.
Jamison starts her history with the first hugely popular, serial character in
English literature,
Sherlock
Holmes. Arthur
Conan Doyle’s stories inspired others to write their own tales of
ratiocination, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, featuring the consulting detective
and his physician companion, John Watson.
Those with means sometimes had their works printed and circulated among
friends. Other may have changed the names and sought to publish
their stories.
Sherlockian
fanfic introduces one the themes of the book, the relationship
between authors, and their works, readers and publishers. Jamison traces how
attitudes about these relationships have changed over time.
Another
thing that changed over time, with significant effects on fanfic, is technology.
The rise of television inspired fanfic based on media, rather than exclusively
on written sources, particularly the in relation to Star Trek. Access to mimeographs and
photocopiers allowed the community of fans to communicate, and distribute
fanfic, through ‘zines.
The medium
of choice for fanfic is now clearly the internet
because it allows for such inexpensive and easy distribution. As an example of
how the internet changed fanfic, Jamison turns to the example of Harry Potter,
whose ascendancy in popular culture corresponded with the development of the
internet as we know it. Twilight
fanfic, in contrast to many others, was born in the age of the internet, and
has been home to views that put it at odds with other fandoms, though
such conflicts have been common as fandoms have expanded.
If you are
unfamiliar with fanfic, you should probably be warned that a lot of it involves
romantic
and sexual pairings between characters who were not romantically involved in
the source material. There is a lot of sex. There is every
type of sexuality you can imagine, and possibly a few you’ve never heard of.
Fanfic communities have provided an outlet for people to explore alternatives
to the mainstream, often from the safety of some anonymity, especially in
relation to sexuality. Interestingly, fanfic has been less adventurous in other
areas, such as racial
and cultural diversity,
sticking close the relatively narrow diversity of the source media, though some
fanfic attempts to depict a more diverse world.
Though I
have only spoken of Jamison as the author of Fic, many contributed to the book. Most are writers with some
connection to fanfic, and a few are academics. I would describe the book as
semi-academic. It has the form of an academic book that describes the history
and various aspects of a topic (fanfic) through a collection of related works
by various authors. It is unlike typical academic books in that the style of
all the contributors is personal and informal. Like fanfic is to its sources,
Fic takes and academic form that is familiar and loved (at least by an
academic) and brings to it something else that is loved, and even
transformative.
If you’re
interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Pulp Art by Robert Lesser
Lesser, Robert. Pulp
Art: Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines. 1997. New York: Metro Books, 2009.
Pulp Art seems
more like a collection of essays about the art
of pulp
magazine covers than a full book. Each
chapter-essay focuses on a particular genre.
Similarly, author Robert Lesser comes across as a
knowledgeable enthusiast more than an academic or a professional writer. At times he is almost a florid as the
magazines that are his topic.
What will draw someone to this coffee-table book is not the
history, though that is interesting. The
attraction is the large reproductions of pulp magazine cover art.
The art in this book is a little strange. Part of the strangeness comes from its
quality. Many of these artists were much
more skilled and creative than they needed to be.
The other element of strangeness is that such well-crafted
art had such unabashedly commercial intent.
The covers were intended to sell magazines.
Oh, how they sold magazines.
Pulps were fundamentally adventure stories. They covered several genres, detective,
fantasy, science fiction, western, horror, even romance, but the intent of all
was to give the reader a thrilling escape.
“Spicy” (i.e. sexy) stories did very well to, and they had
correspondingly suggestive covers.
In some ways, the best thing about pulp art is the implied
story. Storytelling in art goes back to
the earliest art. The pulp covers had to
imply a story that suggested the kind of adventure, danger, and weirdness within. They often drew their subject from one of the
stories in the issue, but sometimes a great painting was the inspiration for a
story. The art was not always strictly representational,
it sometimes approached the subject in an abstract way. Energy and dynamism come through the
paintings, and even the artists with the most static style infused their image with
a sense of the exotic and otherworldly.
Pulps are collected now more for their covers than for the
stories they contain. Lesser devotes a
chapter to pulp collecting. The
collector, or potential collector, might be the main audience for the book.
Lesser includes brief biographies of the artists he
discusses. Many of them had success
outside of pulps, and many fine artists resorted to pulps to pay the
bills. Lesser includes several pieces by
other who were pulp artists or had connections to them with their recollections
of the pulp era and its art.
Google
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Writing: Steal Characters
A lot of writing revolves around characters. For some writers, characters are central, and they’re drives, decisions, history, and idiosyncrasies move the story. A popular series character can be the jackpot for a writer, especially a genre writer.
Great characters are all around. How do you find them? Do as your predecessors in inventing great characters. Steal them.
I’m not suggesting that you actually steal characters. Nor am I suggesting that the writers I’ll be discussing stole their characters. It’s a matter of looking around in literature and life for real and fictional people then reworking them, consciously and unconsciously, into your own character.
Let me draw an illustration. Let’s take a popular character and see how other popular characters are in some way a reworking of it. These connections are my invention. I have not idea what the creators of these characters were thinking. I doubt most of them were thinking along these lines.
Let’s start with the Lone Ranger. Created by George W. Trendle (written by Fran Striker) in 1933 for the radio, the Lone Ranger saw success in several media, especially television. Before looking at the masked strangers successors, look at his predecessors. There were white-hatted cowboy heroes before the ranger. His contribution was the secret identity and the avoidance of lethal force. These heroes were white knights transformed for the gunpowder age. You might see those chevaliers as vaguely Christianized versions of mythological questers like Odysseus and Hercules.
Now imagine that the Lone Ranger is an antihero, his bullets are deadly lead and he uses a lot of them. You might picture something like Jonah Hex. John Albano and Tony DeZuniga created Hex in 1971. He is a scarred frontiersman who roams the West, not necessarily protecting the innocent, but collecting bounties or dealing deadly justice.
Maybe you like that the Lone Ranger avoids deadly force. Let’s keep that, but make him a pulp-era vigilante. That is what Trendle and Striker did in when they created the Green Hornet for the radio in 1936. They even made the Hornet a distant relative, though not a descendant, and imitator of the Ranger. The Hornet is darker, though. Instead of riding a white horse, he drives the Black Beauty. He sometimes pretends to be a criminal, but it is mainly to allow him to infiltrate gangs and break them apart from the inside. In spite of this, he avoids killing just as his predecessor did (I guess Seth Rogan didn’t notice that).
What if the Lone Ranger was a costumed superhero? He might be Batman, created by Bob Kane in 1939. Bruce Wayne’s identity isn’t hidden from the audience, but his costumed crusade against crime could have been modeled on the horseman. Batman writer Bill Finger gave Batman a code of ethics that would have made the Ranger proud. Not only did Batman eschew deadly force, he rarely used a gun at all. In appearance, at least, Batman resembles Zorro more than the Lone Ranger. (Batman comics tie him to Zorro, too. Several authors have depicted it as the move the Waynes had just seen when Bruce’s parents were killed by a criminal). Zorro himself might be taken as a Latin American spin on the Ranger, except he was created 14 years earlier by Johnston McCulley.
Not all of these ostensible progeny are as good as Batman. Put the Ranger in a talking car and you might end up with something like Knight Rider. Put Jonah Hex on a motorcycle in a futuristic megacity and you might get Judge Dredd. (The Judge Dredd comics weren’t bad, just not my cup of tea. The Sylvester Stallone movie was bad.)
The Lone Ranger is an archetypal hero, which is how we can so easily draw connections between him and characters that came before and after. It doesn’t denigrate Trendle and Striker to say they drew on archetypes, or even specific characters or people, in creating his own character. It’s a compliment that they created a character that was so popular, enduring, and inspiring to other writers.
Think of your own twist on the Lone Ranger archetype. You might have other characters you love that you could call on. Take your favorite romance heroine and put her in a completely different setting (Charlaine Harris put Sookie Stackhouse in a Louisiana full of vampires). You could put a detective in the far future (Isaac Asimov did in Caves of Steel). Bring a dragon into the atomic age (yeah, Godzilla). You could make a dragon a slave to the boilermakers in a steampunk fantasy—hey, maybe I’ll do that.
Great characters are all around. How do you find them? Do as your predecessors in inventing great characters. Steal them.
I’m not suggesting that you actually steal characters. Nor am I suggesting that the writers I’ll be discussing stole their characters. It’s a matter of looking around in literature and life for real and fictional people then reworking them, consciously and unconsciously, into your own character.
Let me draw an illustration. Let’s take a popular character and see how other popular characters are in some way a reworking of it. These connections are my invention. I have not idea what the creators of these characters were thinking. I doubt most of them were thinking along these lines.
Let’s start with the Lone Ranger. Created by George W. Trendle (written by Fran Striker) in 1933 for the radio, the Lone Ranger saw success in several media, especially television. Before looking at the masked strangers successors, look at his predecessors. There were white-hatted cowboy heroes before the ranger. His contribution was the secret identity and the avoidance of lethal force. These heroes were white knights transformed for the gunpowder age. You might see those chevaliers as vaguely Christianized versions of mythological questers like Odysseus and Hercules.
Now imagine that the Lone Ranger is an antihero, his bullets are deadly lead and he uses a lot of them. You might picture something like Jonah Hex. John Albano and Tony DeZuniga created Hex in 1971. He is a scarred frontiersman who roams the West, not necessarily protecting the innocent, but collecting bounties or dealing deadly justice.
Maybe you like that the Lone Ranger avoids deadly force. Let’s keep that, but make him a pulp-era vigilante. That is what Trendle and Striker did in when they created the Green Hornet for the radio in 1936. They even made the Hornet a distant relative, though not a descendant, and imitator of the Ranger. The Hornet is darker, though. Instead of riding a white horse, he drives the Black Beauty. He sometimes pretends to be a criminal, but it is mainly to allow him to infiltrate gangs and break them apart from the inside. In spite of this, he avoids killing just as his predecessor did (I guess Seth Rogan didn’t notice that).
What if the Lone Ranger was a costumed superhero? He might be Batman, created by Bob Kane in 1939. Bruce Wayne’s identity isn’t hidden from the audience, but his costumed crusade against crime could have been modeled on the horseman. Batman writer Bill Finger gave Batman a code of ethics that would have made the Ranger proud. Not only did Batman eschew deadly force, he rarely used a gun at all. In appearance, at least, Batman resembles Zorro more than the Lone Ranger. (Batman comics tie him to Zorro, too. Several authors have depicted it as the move the Waynes had just seen when Bruce’s parents were killed by a criminal). Zorro himself might be taken as a Latin American spin on the Ranger, except he was created 14 years earlier by Johnston McCulley.
Not all of these ostensible progeny are as good as Batman. Put the Ranger in a talking car and you might end up with something like Knight Rider. Put Jonah Hex on a motorcycle in a futuristic megacity and you might get Judge Dredd. (The Judge Dredd comics weren’t bad, just not my cup of tea. The Sylvester Stallone movie was bad.)
The Lone Ranger is an archetypal hero, which is how we can so easily draw connections between him and characters that came before and after. It doesn’t denigrate Trendle and Striker to say they drew on archetypes, or even specific characters or people, in creating his own character. It’s a compliment that they created a character that was so popular, enduring, and inspiring to other writers.
Think of your own twist on the Lone Ranger archetype. You might have other characters you love that you could call on. Take your favorite romance heroine and put her in a completely different setting (Charlaine Harris put Sookie Stackhouse in a Louisiana full of vampires). You could put a detective in the far future (Isaac Asimov did in Caves of Steel). Bring a dragon into the atomic age (yeah, Godzilla). You could make a dragon a slave to the boilermakers in a steampunk fantasy—hey, maybe I’ll do that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)