Opinion of Agatha Christie
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  Opinion of Agatha Christie
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Author Topic: Opinion of Agatha Christie  (Read 729 times)
Sol
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« on: October 09, 2014, 08:23:05 PM »

I have pretty mixed feelings about her, to say the least. Her politics are repugnant in every single possible way, and they drip into her books unpleasantly, but her mysteries are easily among the greatest.
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2014, 08:37:51 PM »

I read "And Then There Were None" in 7th grade and liked it. Otherwise, I haven't read anything by her.
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Deus Naturae
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« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2014, 08:44:25 PM »
« Edited: October 09, 2014, 08:51:53 PM by Deus Naturae »

What exactly were her political views? There's stuff in her books that would be considered incredibly racist and anti-Semitic today, but that isn't really indicative of any specific political outlook.
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politicus
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« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2014, 08:50:30 PM »

What exactly were her political views? There's stuff in her books in would be considered incredibly racist and anti-Semitic today, but that isn't really indicative of any specific political outlook.

From a list of political/religious views of famous people:

Conservative of the Old Order

"Depending on who you ask, Christie either had no “coherent political position,” was “actually fairly liberal,” or her novels are thinly veiled propaganda for Burkean conservatism. I’m partial to that last view, but feel free to argue with me in the comments.

Johann Hari argues in this essay that Christie believed morality should be enforced on an individual level, not mandated by the state. She preferred the old order and was suspicious of change on a grand level as that related to a Nazi takeover of Europe or feminism. In the 1960s, when asked her views on women in the workplace, she said,

[It is] the foolishness of women in relinquishing their position of privilege obtained after many centuries of civilization. Primitive women toil incessantly. We seem determined to return to that state voluntarily.

As that quote betrays, her old order was based on class divisions of which she was the benefactor. It also informed the racism and antisemitism that make some of her passages unpalatable today.

Her worldview was from another time and place, one that no longer gets invited to the main stage of the political arena. So even though her books have long outlasted Christie herself, her world order is long gone."
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Paul Kemp
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« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2014, 08:55:16 PM »

I read "And Then There Were None" in 7th grade and liked it. Otherwise, I haven't read anything by her.

I'm disappointed that you have given into the PC Police by not using the original title.
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World politics is up Schmitt creek
Nathan
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« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2014, 09:09:08 PM »

I prefer Dorothy L. Sayers.
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politicus
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« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2014, 09:21:22 PM »


She does hold up better when you mature. I liked Christie when I was a teenager, but her ultra flat persons and the primitive dialogue drags it all down +  the plots are very mechanical, very cleverly designed, but like a well oiled machine. Whereas Sawyers is still a delight, if I am in the right mood.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #7 on: October 13, 2014, 01:02:47 PM »

I like Christie. I remember there are some politically unpleasant things in the earlier novels but I can't help being a little charmed by the old school-conservatism. I think accusing her of racism is a tad anachronistic and not something I'd hold against the books.
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CrabCake
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« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2014, 01:28:35 PM »

The trouble with Christie is that because she originated many of the now-hackneyed tropes of crime writing that her work seems like cliche.
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angus
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« Reply #9 on: October 13, 2014, 07:21:25 PM »

I like Christie. I remember there are some politically unpleasant things in the earlier novels but I can't help being a little charmed by the old school-conservatism. I think accusing her of racism is a tad anachronistic and not something I'd hold against the books.

Well said, young man.  I agree with your comments and have nothing to add.
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Sol
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« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2014, 09:47:12 AM »

I like Christie. I remember there are some politically unpleasant things in the earlier novels but I can't help being a little charmed by the old school-conservatism. I think accusing her of racism is a tad anachronistic and not something I'd hold against the books.

She was also quite anti-semitic; I remember reading The Mystery of the Blue Train and being struck by how discriminatory her descriptions were.
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Lincoln Republican
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« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2014, 05:01:48 PM »

I love her mysteries, as well as many other mystery stories.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2014, 12:38:44 PM »

I did a search and got some examples. Thing is, most of them are pretty benign. As in, yes, they're orientalist and in the modern era we would criticize it of course. But most of it isn't hateful. Even today, I'd think of someone saying this as naive rather than evil. But I may have missed the worst examples. 
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Cassius
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« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2014, 02:08:00 PM »

Great author, great woman.
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2014, 04:58:24 PM »

I read "And Then There Were None" in 7th grade and liked it. Otherwise, I haven't read anything by her.

I'm disappointed that you have given into the PC Police by not using the original title.
I forgot that it was ever titled anything else, which shows how much I really remembered the book.
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