cimorene: Two women in 1920s hair at a crowded party laughing in delight (:D)
[personal profile] cimorene
I found this hilarious statement in one of the prefaces to R. Austin Freeman's Thorndyke mysteries:

In appearance he is handsome and of an imposing presence, with a symmetrical face of the classical type and a Grecian nose. And here I may remark that his distinguished appearance is not merely a concession to my personal taste but is also a protest against the monsters of ugliness whom some detective writers have evolved.

These are quite opposed to natural truth. In real life a first-class man of any kind usually tends to be a good-looking man.


Amazing. This is the guy responsible for the CSI subgenre of detective fiction: all his stories revolve around science, logic, trace analysis, etc. He's even got other forewords where he humbly explains that he made sure everything that happens is physically possible and all the clues are laid before the reader in the spirit of fairness!

He just thinks it's a scientific truth that the Ancient Greeks were right and people who are truly great at anything at all will just naturally happen to be beautiful. I guess there you have the state of Popular Science, late Victorian edition (his writing is Edwardian and ends around 1940, but this means, of course, that Freeman's worldview was mostly shaped by a late Victorian upbringing).

(no subject)

Date: 20 Aug 2023 11:50 am (UTC)
princessofgeeks: (Default)
From: [personal profile] princessofgeeks
YIKES.

I would have hated to be his kid.

(no subject)

Date: 20 Aug 2023 04:09 pm (UTC)
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
From: [personal profile] twistedchick
Does he also think that a first-class man went to the right schools and had the right parents? I would also wonder about his definition of good-looking; tastes change over time.

(no subject)

Date: 20 Aug 2023 06:20 pm (UTC)
flemmings: (Default)
From: [personal profile] flemmings

Well, he taught me that quicklime preserves bodies rather than eating them, which I suppose is a useful thing to know.

(no subject)

Date: 20 Aug 2023 07:43 pm (UTC)
jennaria: Soubi from Loveless, with his hair back, wearing glasses (sexy librarian)
From: [personal profile] jennaria
Oh, Victorian British men. You gotta love that mash-up of Science and Stereotype, and the frantic attempts to explain why Stereotype is so Scientific, because otherwise that might imply that they're not the height of human culture and reason and all the things they've been smugly telling themselves they are to excuse certain behavior.

(no subject)

Date: 21 Aug 2023 05:15 am (UTC)
vass: Small turtle with green leaf in its mouth (Default)
From: [personal profile] vass
Good to know. :(

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