In which Charis and Sharon continue our conversation on MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, beginning with a discussion of literary Modernism and why Sharon views this as the most Modernist of the Wimsey novels. We also run through the copy department staff and their merits as coworkers, summarize the Great Nutrax Row, get a welcome dose of domestic bliss and a glimpse of marital equality during a visit to the Parkers, and touch briefly on Peter’s antics moonlighting as a masked harlequin.
This episode touches on events and revelations through the eleventh chapter, and does not give away the whodunnit.
Shownotes:
- Sharon refers back to our second episode on Whose Body, which also discusses literary Modernism. She mentions THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford, and ULYSSES by James Joyce–particularly the episode ‘Aeolus’, which Sharon connects with the end of chapter five in MURDER MUST ADVERTISE. Sharon references THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY (Paul Fussell), an influential book of literary criticism. Fussell’s thesis is that the trauma of WWI necessitated the changes in poetic language and narrative representation that gave rise to Modernist forms.
- In discussing the plethora of minor characters, Sharon refers to Alex Woloch’s THE ONE VS. THE MANY: MINOR CHARACTERS AND THE SPACE OF THE PROTAGONIST IN THE NOVEL
- Charis paraphrases chapter three of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, the exact quote being “…if, by the most farfetched stretch of ingenuity, an indecent meaning could be read into a headline, that was the meaning that the great British Public would infallibly read into it…”
- The lamp that brought the quote to mind:
- “This is the most Bruce Wayne–” Bruce Wayne is, of course, the billionaire playboy behind the mask of Batman.
- “What in the Sexton Blake is that, Peter?” Sexton Blake was a popular pulp detective fiction character during the era of Dorothy L. Sayers, and a particular favorite of Peter’s young friend Ginger Joe.
