Just finished The Hound of the Baskervilles, and I learned a few things:
- The Baskervilles are a family, not a British mountain range (near the d'Urbervilles), as I heretofore believed.
- Watson is Holmes' BITCH.
- PLOT SPOILER: Applying phosphorus make-up to a dog's eyes and mouth was a realistic plot contrivance in 19aught1. Considering Scooby Doo, I guess it still might be.
'Course with a twist like that, the plot was spoiled from the get-go.
On the other hand, truly transcendental bog imagery. Boggerific.
posted by Jean Luc Petard at
3:42 PM
2 Comments:
People always forgive the plot contrivances of the authors they like. For example, in King Lear, a child hides from its father by applying some dirt to their face. Kids are always dirty, but I rarely find myself confused as to my son's identity based on his mud-smeared countenance.
Also, Charles Dickens wrote one book in his life. The working title for "Oliver Twist" was actually "Nicholas Knickleby," because even Dickens couldn't tell them apart.
Also, think of any movie you've ever seen with a scientist friend. I saw "Rush Hour" or some similar dreck with one, and when bullets shot into a car trunk full of C4 caused it to explode, said person noted, "Um, C4's a stable compound." I wanted to stably com-pound them on their head, because the point of that movie was that black people and Asians can fight crime together. It was like "Crash" that way, in that it sort of dealt with racism, but not well, and wasn't a very good movie, but people loved it.
Oh, and also, the movie "Crash" was one giant series of plot contrivances that everyone forgave and applauded for being "so brave."
By
paperback reader, at 5:09 PM
A dog wearing phosphorus make-up makes an appearance as a plot contrivance in the very funny To Say Nothing of the Dog. On account of wanting to beat Holmes into a bloody pulp for his arrogant attitude in whichever story I first read, I never read The H of the B, and therefore, lacking this critical bit of a literary education, was unable to appreciate the allusion at the time. Now, I can appreciate it without having to endure Homes.
By
Dr Yakalumpf, PhD, at 2:24 PM
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