wimseys + ponds = awesome, y/y?
Jul. 12th, 2010 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holliSo, in addition to a whole season of Doctor Who (about which I have MANY THINGS to say, oh yes), I've been reading a bunch of Dorothy Sayers detective novels. I suspect I'm reading them in entirely the wrong order: I started with Have His Carcase, moved on to Busman's Honeymoon, *then* read Gaudy Night and just this weekend read Unnatural Death, and I still have all the rest of the series to go. But I really, really like Harriet-- Gaudy Night is my favorite so far-- and I'm a little worried that I'm not going to like the books without her nearly as much.
I've found myself totally fascinated by all the details of life in the 30's-- the big tangle of class and power and feminism and education and culture that Harriet is wading through. I'm not sure if that's what I'm *supposed* to be reading for, but it's a big draw nonetheless. The casual racism and anti-Semitism are off-putting, but I wouldn't read books this old if I wasn't prepared to deal with it; I find I can still enjoy the story without pretending the bigotry isn't there. I was totally, totally fascinated by the details of life at Oxford, the same way I might be fascinated by the details of life in Middle-Earth or Gallifrey. Again, I'm not sure that's what I'm supposed to be doing, but I find I read historical fiction the same way I read SF-- as a trip to a world not my own.
I have to say, now I REALLY want to see the Doctor and the Ponds have an adventure with Peter and Harriet, something set after both Busman's Honeymoon and The Big Bang. Possibly some very, very odd murders have been happening, and some very, very odd investigators turn up to solve them, much to Peter and Harriet's bewilderment. I would dearly love to hear what a convincingly Sayers-y writer would have to say about Amy, Rory, and Eleven. I very much doubt that I could be that writer, since I'm pretty sure that at least a third of all the jokes and references have been passing clean over my head in the books I've read so far. Half, for Gaudy Night. This would be a job for someone really, really British.
I've found myself totally fascinated by all the details of life in the 30's-- the big tangle of class and power and feminism and education and culture that Harriet is wading through. I'm not sure if that's what I'm *supposed* to be reading for, but it's a big draw nonetheless. The casual racism and anti-Semitism are off-putting, but I wouldn't read books this old if I wasn't prepared to deal with it; I find I can still enjoy the story without pretending the bigotry isn't there. I was totally, totally fascinated by the details of life at Oxford, the same way I might be fascinated by the details of life in Middle-Earth or Gallifrey. Again, I'm not sure that's what I'm supposed to be doing, but I find I read historical fiction the same way I read SF-- as a trip to a world not my own.
I have to say, now I REALLY want to see the Doctor and the Ponds have an adventure with Peter and Harriet, something set after both Busman's Honeymoon and The Big Bang. Possibly some very, very odd murders have been happening, and some very, very odd investigators turn up to solve them, much to Peter and Harriet's bewilderment. I would dearly love to hear what a convincingly Sayers-y writer would have to say about Amy, Rory, and Eleven. I very much doubt that I could be that writer, since I'm pretty sure that at least a third of all the jokes and references have been passing clean over my head in the books I've read so far. Half, for Gaudy Night. This would be a job for someone really, really British.
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Date: 2010-07-13 03:34 am (UTC)