Tag: murder must advertise

Episode 24: Murder Must Advertise, part 3

~ Sharon

In which Charis and Sharon recap the-mystery-thus-far as it appears at approximately the halfway point of the book. We also get (pretty much immediately) sidetracked by a discussion of blackmail in Victorian and Golden Age detective fiction, discuss the character of Dian de Momerie, spend time teasing out the importance of sincerity and honesty in Lord Peter’s romantic life and in Sayers’ own writing, and more.

This episode touches on the howdunnit of the Victor Dean murder but does not give away the whodunnit or the rest of the mystery plot.

Shownotes:

  • In our conversation about the attitude of Victorian and Golden Age detectives toward blackmailers, we discuss Holmes’ characterization of the titular blackmailer in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”: “Do you feel a creeping, shrinking sensation, Watson, when you stand before the serpents in the Zoo and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces? Well, that’s how Milverton impresses me. I’ve had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow.” We also bring up “The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker,” a Lord Peter short story found in the LORD PETER VIEWS THE BODY collection, wherein Sir Impey Biggs states he’d refuse to represent a blackmailer in the court of law.
  • We refer back to Charis’ framing of “the mystery of the mystery” and “the mystery of the plot,” which we discuss at more length in episode 22.
  • Sharon briefly namechecks “paranoid reading” and directs anyone seeking further information to D.A. Miller’s THE NOVEL AND THE POLICE and Eve Sedgwick’s “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading, or, You’re So Paranoid You Probably Think This Chapter Is About You”.
  • In Sharon’s sidebar about writers unafraid of showing their protagonists in a real/human light, she brings up Evie Dunmore’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN historical romances.
  • Charis brings up THE QUEEN’S THIEF series by Megan Whalen Turner in our discussion of authors who masterfully shift narrative points of view mid-scene.

Episode 23: Murder Must Advertise, part 2

~ Charis Ellison

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.

Episode 22: Murder Must Advertise, part 1

~ Charis Ellison

In which Charis and Sharon begin our conversation on MURDER MUST ADVERTISE and introduce the mysterious goings-on at Pym’s Publicity that summon one Death Bredon to investigate. We cover the difference between the “mystery of the mystery” and the “mystery of the text,” Dorothy L. Sayers’ own work at an advertising agency, her views on mass consumption and the tricky ethics of the advertising trade, and more.

This episode touches on events and revelations from the beginning of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE to approximately halfway through the fourth chapter, and does not give away the whodunnit.

Shownotes:

  • The excerpts Sharon pulls from Sayers’ letters to her publisher regarding writing MURDER MUST ADVERTISE and to her parents about her job at Benson’s ad agency come from The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899 to 1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist (edited by Barbara Reynolds). Regarding MMA, the full quote from her letter to Victor Gollancz, her publisher, reads as follows from a letter she sent him in September 1932: “The new book is nearly done. I hate it because it isn’t the one I wanted to write, but I had to shove it in because I couldn’t get the technical dope on The Nine Tailors in time. still, you never know what the public will fancy, do you? It will tell people a little bit about hte technical side of advertising, which most people are inquisitive about, and it deals with the dope-traffic, which is fashionable at the moment, but I don’t feel that this part is very convincing, as I can’t say I ‘know dope.’ Not one of my best efforts. The Nine Tailors will be a labour of love—and probably a flop!”
  • We briefly mention the TV shows Mad Men and Leverage
  • Note that Sharon initially correctly notes the dates Sayers worked at Benson’s ad agency (1922-1931) and then immediately misspeaks twice and says she left in 1929.
  • The essay on “The Other Six Deadly Sins” that Sharon brings up in our conversation about Sayers’ disapproval of mass consumption and advertising as a means to create a public appetite for goods that people do not need was initially delivered in 1941 and then published in her Creed or Chaos? collection in 1949. Sharon cites from the essay as it appears in the more widely available collection Letters to a Diminished Church.
  • We bring up Amanda Mull’s essay “Your Sweaters Are Garbage” (The Atlantic, October 2023) in our conversation about fast fashion. For further reading/listening on this topic, we recommend the Culture Study podcast episode “Why Do Clothes Suck Now” as well as Aja Barber’s book Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism. Charis refers as well to “the Vimes boot theory” which is taken from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and proudly has its own Wikipedia page.
  • When Sharon mentions Ursula K. LeGuin’s injunction that we must imagine our way out of capitalism, she is referring to LeGuin’s remarks in her acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.” You can find video of the full speech and transcript here.