Sexism Is Announced

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I visited two used book stores. The first was a small shop in a strip mall. A sign on the door thanked customers for voting them their favorite bookstore in a recent poll. Inside, the shop was packed with books. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases leant the shop a claustrophobic atmosphere, and divided the rental space into rooms. 

A kindly old gentleman greeted me at the door. He welcomed me, and asked if I was looking for anything in particular. When I said I was just browsing, he went on to explain how he had organized his store. Off to one side was Women's Literature. This included Romance and Mysteries. "Mysteries?" I asked.

"Only women read--and with a few exceptions, write--mysteries," he replied. Just as the bookshelves differentiated his shop into little rooms containing different genres, he went on to explain that Men didn't write mysteries, they wrote Suspense Thrillers. Again, he asked for a specific author so he could lead me to the section in which he had placed that author's books. When I deferred a second time, he left me to my own devices. 

Intriguingly, Nonfiction, History, and Classical Literature were all in the Men's half of the store.

I wasn't all that impressed with his selection, or the prices of his well-used paperbacks, so I was all-too-happy to leave after a quick tour of the shop.

The second shop was larger, and part of a chain. The selection was vast, and represented a large number of authors. Salespeople were available, but no one tried to lead me to a specific area. Like the first shop, the prices were a little higher than I prefer to pay for used books, but overall the quality of the books was better. My browsing eventually led me to the Clearance area, where I picked up several Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, as well as a Miss Marple novel by Agatha Christie.

At the register, the young counter assistant scanned the old comics and books I had selected. He commented on none of them until he saw the Miss Marple novel. "Ooh, Agatha Christie," he enthused. "She's my favorite author!" He claimed that the novel I had selected, A Murder is Announced was his personal favorite novel. He went on to tell me how Christie occasionally lost him, when she was inundating him with characters at the beginning of a story, but she always made up for it with the quality of her storytelling.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was reading Women's Literature. But then, so am I, apparently.

Dragon Dave

Strong Women, Humor & Homosexuality in the Library

Warning: This article contains spoilers!

Recently, I watched a TV adaptation of the Agatha Christie story "The Body in the Library." This production featured Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, and the vivacious Joanne Lumley as her friend Dolly Bantry. I've loved Geraldine McEwan's work ever since I saw her playing Lucia in a London Weekend Television production of "Mapp And Lucia," and also as reclusive Miss Farnaby in the Fantasy Sitcom "Mulberry." In many ways, she seemed a perfect fit for the character of Miss Marple, but I always had trouble seeing her as that character. Ms McEwan must have agreed, for she left the series after playing the character for a mere two years. 

One thing I noted in the TV story was how many strong female character there were. Of course there's Miss Marple, who dresses in dowdy clothes and mumbles strange phrases that no one understands. As she seems so odd, few people initially respect her. But in the end, she solves the murder, and proves all the male police wrong, so there! Then there's her friend Dolly Bantry, who is thrilled to have found a corpse in her library. How delicious: a body found in her own library! A murder for her friend to solve! 

Hercule Poirot's library
 in Torquay, England

She empowers Miss Marple, taking her out to a seaside resort, and putting her up in the hotel where the dead woman worked, in order to tag along, and assist her friend, the great but quiet detective, in every possible way. We view Dolly as extraordinarily strong, because her husband retreats from the world when a body of a beautiful young woman, and all that implies, is found in his house.

There's the dead woman, who was so extraordinarily successful in playing up to an elderly man that he decided to adopt her, and leave her a fortune in his will. And there are the two villains, who turn out to be two women, who have fallen in love with each other. They kill the money-hungry young woman, and attempt to kill the rich old man, in the hopes of getting their hands on the money. Really, all the key characters are female in the production, with the exception of the police, who are all male.

For their adaptation, the production decided to do something modern and daring. They updated Christie's story to make the two villains female, and unite them in a homosexual love affair. I can't say this is really a huge change, when you consider how the Hercule Poirot stories starring David Suchet were adapted for TV. I suppose it did portray these two women as stronger, as they indulged in a love affair, despite how society of that time would view such a relationship. It also highlighted their intellect, in that they committed such an intricately planned crime, which called for great ingenuity, and a lot of work, to pull off.

Ultimately, the production left me dissatisfied, however. Although they left the revelation until the end, the homosexual angle struck an inauthentic note, and seemed out of character with Christie's writings. The production also stressed sexuality in other ways, most explicitly in the character of a male dancer at the hotel, who also had sex with any female guest willing to give him money. He seemed unapologetic in this regard, as if flaunting his liaisons as a virtue. Overall, the adaptation reminded me of a big screen movie, edited for pace and filled with humor. It unreeled too quickly for a mystery, and kept me laughing constantly. 

Sadly, Geraldine McEwan has left this mortal plane, so I cannot ask her why she left the series, and such a popular character, after a mere two years. But the changes to this Christie story, and the ample humor, left me feeling as if the production were more spoof than serious. After all, if you don't really love and respect the original material, you're likely to take far greater liberties with it, such exploiting the story's humorous potential, playing up the sexuality, and changing the identity of the murderers. 

I wonder if Ms McEwan had similar doubts about the character she portrayed, and how those productions were updated for modern sensibilities. While I cannot judge a series based upon one story, I must say that this production of "The Body in the Library" left me cold. 

And that's a horrible thing to say, especially in regard to writer Agatha Christie, her great detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, and in association such a wonderful thing as a library.

Dragon Dave