Oooops. Sorry, I didn’t know I was supposed to be posting my blogs on the main page, but I will do so from now on.
So to continue the story (Gaudy Night), I have finally gotten through a long lull and finally hit some action. Once again this lull involved the “romance” between Miss Vane and Peter Wimsey. He has returned to Oxford and has agreed to assist Miss Vane with her case. They embark on a boat ride together (which is almost always portrayed as romantic), during which Miss Vane becomes flustered by Wimsey, becoming “conscious of his every movement, every page he turned, of every breath he drew,” and Wimsey reveals his “protective” feelings for her. Clearly, they both want a relationship together, so I don’t understand why Miss Vane won’t marry him like he repeatedly asks (but, at this rate, I think she will soon). This theme keeps coming up and it’s starting to get annoying and boring. Will they just marry already and get on with the mystery?? (Or could this perhaps be a mystery in itself?)
Perhaps this is a reason why authors create mysteries in academic settings. It allows for other stories to develop as opposed to solely adhering to a mystery. It allows for downtime and to engage in intellectual conversations, which this book often does, allowing the reader to catch up and learn interesting facts, as well as hold his/her suspense longer. However, at this point, I think the story should hurry up and end, because although I’m still following the story, it is losing my interest since the case never seems to get any further. This is definitely a solvable case.
But at least there was more action again to hold my interest a little bit longer, but of course, like previous times, the culprit wasn’t apprehended, but instead escaped in the nick of time, since she had locked the door from inside and was able to escape from the one window that happened to be unlocked. Still this “encounter” with the culprit shows promise since Wimsey has arrived and since Miss Vane and Wimsey were able to identify a possible person as the culprit—Miss DeVine, because black hair pins, of which only she wears, were left at the crime scene.
At this scene, this person was making more anonymous letters and creating more ways to spark more mayhem. The next letter was intended for Miss Vane, but it was never finished and the characters never explained what little the note said. What did the poltergeist want to say to Miss Vane? This is just another ploy to hold my interest, but it’s working.
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2 comments:
I like how you put another point of view on what an academic mystery could mean- now, not only may it revolve around the setting, but it could also be academic in how the reader learns new things.
Just a random observation that I've never pointed out, but is still in my mind: in one of your first posts, you talked about how the characters' names were very connotative and representative of their personalities, and whenever I read the name, "Mr. Wimsey", I always think of the word "whimsy". I don't know if that was done on purpose by the author, but I think it definitely describes him, since he is sort of the romantic, while Ms. Vane has been the opposite, up until this point.
I never realized this about his name before, but I definitely think that it's true. Wimsey is whimsy because continues to "love" Miss Vane, proposing to her every couple of months, and still receives nothing in return. Plus, he is fanciful in the sense that he is a "detective genius," which is a fanciful idea because people can't understand how he can solve cases so well.
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