--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDU00002 Date: 09/24/96 From: IRV KOCH Time: 01:27pm \/To: DOROTHY REYNOLDS (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: Question -=> Quoting Fn:irv Koch@1:109/629.0 to All <=- FK> Who, in your opinions, is/are the best mystery writer who lives in FK> the SE (as defined by Mystery Writers of America's SE Chapter: FK> TN, GA, NC, SC, MS, AL, LA, and maybe Arkansas ... I forget the exact FK> boundries but know that FL, VA, and KY aren't in it. dr> In my humble opinion, James Lee Burke is the very best. Writes dr> about LA. His books are very lyrical. Almost like poetry. As I dr> remarked here once, you can smell the flowers, the bayous, taste dr> the food and hear the Cajun lilt and visualize the scenery. dr> And there's action with lots of surprises. Keeps you guessing Oops. LA ...ouiana is not in the MWA SE Chapter after all. It's in SW along with TX. Arkansaw is. FL is not. Sorry to all the Burke fans. Someone want to try again. His being in Montana would not have been good either. What's going to happen, is that some time before the end of Nov, or early Dec, at latest, there will be a meeting of whoever I can round up to be on the Central Committee, initially, for the new Southern/Atlanta Mystery Conference. They will get to decide the Guest of Honor. It needs to be someone popular and also more or less affordable. The later pretty much dictates that they live East of the Mississippi River. HOWEVER, if there are a couple hundred people already begging to pay membership, before we even set the price ... there is a great deal more leeway. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Ice Fire 703-354-4176 (1:109/629) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDV00000 Date: 09/25/96 From: MAUREEN GOLDMAN Time: 09:04am \/To: DENNIS MENARD (Read 3 times) Subj: Birthday On (22 Sep 96) Dennis Menard wrote to Maureen Goldman... MG> But, sure, the ongoing Holmes stories in newspapers did wonders > for the genre. Don't know the date for THE MOONSTONE; it's on > my shelves somewhere, dauntingly thick. DM> Having just finished "The Moonstone" in time for holidays, the DM> publishing date is 1868. Did you enjoy it? ... Today I am feeling ept, ane, and sipid. --- PPoint 2.00 * Origin: Point of No Deposit, No Return (1:153/404.11) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00000 Date: 09/24/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 01:15am \/To: REBEKAH DICKERSON (Read 3 times) Subj: Good Author -=>While in the White Hart, Rebekah Dickerson explained to Fred Runk that<=- RD> Right now I'm reading Dorothy Sayers:Unnatural Death.I just got RD> back from the UBS and it was the only author (from my suggestions list) RD> I could find at quick glance.If I ever get enough money to pay off the Don't think I remember that one...Is it a Lord Peter mystery? ... A tree that cannot bend will break in the wind. -Lao-Tze- ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00001 Date: 09/26/96 From: JAN MURPHY Time: 07:50am \/To: DAVID CHESSLER (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: LIVING FOREVER > Recognize that all authors make > "continuity" errors. Simenon couldn't even keep Maigret's > first name straight (though he used it very rarely). Simenon may have goofed, true, but it's important to recognize that in some cases, when the characters' first names change, it is not an error. Over a long life, people can acquire multiple first names. My brother, for instance, was named 'John'. Then at one point, when he was regularly hanging out with a friend named John, and our brother also had a best friend name John, he switched to his middle name, 'Steve'. But in addition to this, somewhere along the line he had acquired a nickname of 'Dick' -- why I don't know, since nobody in our family was named Richard. (This was before the name acquired its current connotations.) There's an American example for you; the situation can be even 'worse' if other cultures are involved. Russian names, for instance -- names can have variants that don't look at all alike to the non-Russian speaker. Heck, even in Ngaio Marsh, some readers might not recognize 'Rory' as a diminutive of 'Roderick', since neither name is very common in this country. And if an author plays with this kind of variation over the course of a long series, it's easy for the reader to miss the explanations (if any) of how the character came to acquire all these names. And if it's a cultural thing, like the Russian names, it won't be explained at all, since the author will assume that all his/her readers know it already. Do you happen to recall what names Simenon used over the years? I can't recall which one they settled on for the TV series. --- Opus-CBCS 1.73a * Origin: Sci-Fido II, World's Oldest SF BBS, Berkeley, CA (1:161/84.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00002 Date: 09/27/96 From: JAMES MCNEILL Time: 12:37am \/To: DAVID CHESSLER (Read 3 times) Subj: LIVING FOREVER DC> > I've seen errors that I just laughed at and then went on. Doyle star DC> > two of the Sherlock Holmes stories with the same 2 or 3 aragraphs. DC> > When I read the second one, it sounded very familiar. DC> So why did the error on the gun bother you so much? This is a DC> much more serious error. Recognize that all authors make DC> "continuity" errors. Simenon couldn't even keep Maigret's first DC> name straight (though he used it very rarely). Mostly because I'm familiar with Browning's. I would think a detective would be, also, particularly if he carried one. At any rate, the error destroyed the illusion of the story for me. * OLX 2.2 * james.mcneill@privy.com --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: The Privy Ledged BBS, Kearns, Utah (801) 966-6270 (1:311/5.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00003 Date: 09/27/96 From: REBEKAH DICKERSON Time: 04:47pm \/To: FRED RUNK (Read 3 times) Subj: GOOD AUTHOR FR>Don't think I remember that one...Is it a Lord Peter mystery? Yes.It's pretty good so far.I'm having a little trouble keeping the names straight,mainly because there not really common names,but I still like the book. Bec --- QScan/PCB v1.19b / 01-0450 * Origin: THE FAMILY SMORGASBOARD Pleasant Grove, Alabama (1:3602/77) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00004 Date: 09/27/96 From: SAM WARING Time: 08:40pm \/To: FRED RUNK (Read 4 times) Subj: Good Author On 24 Sep 96 Fred Runk said this about that to Rebekah Dickerson: RD>> Right now I'm reading Dorothy Sayers:Unnatural Death. FR> Don't think I remember that one...Is it a Lord Peter mystery? It is; about number five. Elderly woman murdered because of a quirk in the new Wills Act 1925, having to do with really distant heirs being excluded from inheritance. ... Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a tagline out of my hat! --- PPoint 2.00 * Origin: Shallow end of the gene pool (1:382/48.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00005 Date: 09/28/96 From: DAVID CHESSLER Time: 02:27am \/To: JAMES MCNEILL (Read 4 times) Subj: LIVING FOREVER On 27 Sep 96, 12:37am, James Mcneill wrote to David Chessler on the subject of "LIVING FOREVER": > Mostly because I'm familiar with Browning's. I would think a detective > would be, also, particularly if he carried one. At any rate, the error > destroyed the illusion of the story for me. In one of his books, (Clear and Present Danger, I think), Tom Clancy has a US Special forces team running around South America. He has them not wear camoflage uniforms, because the local armies down there don't wear cammies. He has them wear what are apparently old US "Fatigue" uniforms. He calls the color of these uniforms "khaki." "Khaki," from the Hindi word for dust, refers to a light tan, sometimes called beige or suntan (or in the old Army, "pink"). He meant the dark, somewhat brownish green called "Olive Drab," so that the old fatigue uniforms were called ODs. Clancy is supposedly known for his meticulous research in military affairs, and this was in the paperback, not the first edition. So much for the erudition of his readers, too. There's another error in the book involving the use of Gatoraide in water purified with Iodine, but I've checked, and apparently the military isn't taught about the problem and its solution. I just read a mystery by Susan Isaacs. In this one, the husband of the narrator supposedly started an evening business selling computers in peoples homes, with instruction, and ultimately expanded it to a computer-based research business. Fine. Except the chronology works out that he had to have been doing it about 1973-1975. There were no personal computers that early. Indeed, the first Altairs came out about 1975, and the first Apples, not till 1977. There was a desk-model IBM in the 70s, before the PC, but it was never sold to individuals, but only to businesses by IBM's sales force. In other words, the chronology is clearly wrong. I suspect that nearly every book I read has some errors of this nature. I probably spot them in one book in five, and usually just write a note in the margin and move on. Sometimes they are errors of continuity, such as the author forgetting the weapon a character is using. More often it's something that suggests I have more detailed knowledge of something than the author. But I often find this in technical books, in my fields of expertise, as well, so I've learned to live with it. -- ___ __ david.chessler@mix.cpcug.org david.chessler@neteast.com d_)--/d chessler@capaccess.org chessler@trinitydc.edu ... E-mail: ->132 1:109/1111 david.chessler@mix.cpcug.org * Evaluation copy of Silver Xpress. Day # 0 * Silver Xpress V4.3 --- Synchronet+SBBSecho v1.23 * Origin: << Crystal Aerie >> (703) 415-0134 (1:109/1111) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00006 Date: 09/28/96 From: DAVID CHESSLER Time: 02:27am \/To: JAN MURPHY (Read 4 times) Subj: LIVING FOREVER On 26 Sep 96, 07:50am, Jan Murphy wrote to David Chessler on the subject of "LIVING FOREVER": >> Recognize that all authors make >> "continuity" errors. Simenon couldn't even keep Maigret's >> first name straight (though he used it very rarely). > > Simenon may have goofed, true, but it's important to recognize that in > some cases, when the characters' first names change, it is not an > error. Not often in fiction. He's Jules in some books and something else with a J in others. > There's an American example for you; the situation can be even 'worse' > if other cultures are involved. Russian names, for instance -- names > can have variants that don't look at all alike to the non-Russian > speaker. Heck, even in Ngaio Marsh, some readers might not recognize That's because they are nicknames. Dick isn't obvious as a nickname for Richard, nor Bill for William, nor Bob for Robert, nor even Harry for Henry. It can be similar for women's nicknames. Peggy is Margaret, as is Gretchen (little Gret). > Do you happen to recall what names Simenon used over the years? I > can't recall which one they settled on for the TV series. See above. I never followed the TV series. I think "Jules" is the official one (see The Mystery Lover's Companion, p. 299, by Art Bourgeau; or Madame Maiget's Recipes, p. 1, by Robert J. Courtine). Mme. Maigret is, apparently, Louise (Courtine, pp. 2, 3) I can't find my source for the other name, which apparently appeared in one or two early books. I checked Murder Ink by Dilys Winn, and there's nothing there. It's something I've known for years, so it's probably in an older book of criticism. -- ___ __ david.chessler@mix.cpcug.org david.chessler@neteast.com d_)--/d chessler@capaccess.org chessler@trinitydc.edu ... E-mail: ->132 1:109/1111 david.chessler@mix.cpcug.org * Evaluation copy of Silver Xpress. Day # 1 * Silver Xpress V4.3 --- Synchronet+SBBSecho v1.23 * Origin: << Crystal Aerie >> (703) 415-0134 (1:109/1111) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DDW00007 Date: 09/28/96 From: HELEN FLEISCHER Time: 11:12am \/To: JAN MURPHY (Read 4 times) Subj: LIVING FOREVER Butting in... JM> > Recognize that all authors make JM> > "continuity" errors. Simenon couldn't even keep Maigret's JM> > first name straight (though he used it very rarely). JM> Simenon may have goofed, true, but it's important to recognize that JM> in some cases, when the characters' first names change, it is not an JM> error. With Simenon, there is the added factor of translation and multiple publishers. Some translators may have tried to anglicize the name. JM> Do you happen to recall what names Simenon used over the years? I JM> can't recall which one they settled on for the TV series. Jules, as I recall. What I can't recall is Mme. Maigret's name. ... When right, be logical. When wrong, be-fuddle. * Q-Blue 1.0 * Helen Fleischer is helen@mbbs.com in Fairland, MD --- GEcho/2-PCB/2 * Origin: * MetroNet * Columbia, MD * (410) 720-5506 * (1:261/1137)