Forensics and the art of detection.
One of the most abused word in common English, I think, is GREAT. People readily associate it with anything and everything. Take the case of novels or books. Today's writers and novelists churn out crap which eventually tops the bestselling list. The detective stories have now become so predictable that a simple story line with a clear open and shut case perhaps might look a highly accomplished work. The spy thrillers from Shidney Sheldon or the "Da Vinci code" by Dan Brown are at best, average reads. A few years back, I happened to lay my hands on a book by an ex-Mossad guy who quit the organization in disgust, at my Brother-in-Law's place. And this guy goes through how the operation is executed, what kind of planning goes into it, and how there is nothing called a "hunch" in times when the heat is on unlike the most detective or spy thrillers by Sheldon, Ludlum etc. Infact, Dan Brown for all his extensive research has shelved out a piece of crap. There are so many loopholes in the entire plot that it would make Sherlock Holmes chuckle. Coming on to Sherlock Holmes, well thats the GREAT one. Perhaps the ONLY great one. Edgar Allan Poe, Poirot (Christie) are a very distant second. Reading Holmes anytime does not cease to gorgonize me. Now that's detection as the piece of art. What we have now is forensics and a very ordinary chase with lots of acton thrown in. Detection has gone out of the window. And its a pity. It really is.
Do tell me what your favorite pieces of fiction are. Any genre.
Do tell me what your favorite pieces of fiction are. Any genre.
posted by F-ftOS at 1:51 PM
3 Comments:
Oh thank God!
I thought I was the only person in the world who thinks that The DaVinci Code is not cat's meow!
Fiction, you say, but not necessarily a novel? OK. Pick up Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. I'll take most anything in there, though "The Library of Babel" is my favorite.
On other things, I will take Henry James for novels and E. A. Robinson for poetry. For something more current, Eco.
And I have steadfastly refused to read any Dan Brown, especially since my wife got Angels and Demons as an audio book and played some of it while I was in the car. She talked about anti-matter, at which point I said something anout CERN and magnetic containment devices, and she was stunned that I, who had not read the novel, could know these things. Sadly, apparently Brown mystifies many people in like fashion.
Andrew : Thanks. I will try to get my hands on the books you have mentioned. BTW have you read "The shadow of the Sun" by Ryszard Kapuscinski? I think he is a Polish writer.
Annush : What are your favorite ones?
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