Friday, July 21, 2017

Mystery of the Day: Where did the last five years go?

Wow ... I had forgotten that I had started this blog.  That is really sad, isn't it?  Maybe the first mystery I should be solving is where I put my brain/memory.  I remember creating the blog right after I earned my masters.  My thesis concentrated on mysteries, namely what Agatha Christie had accomplished by using her own formula, and of course I called it the Christie Formula.  I will someday post it here perhaps.  If I remember.

On the subject of formulas, I did have a post nearly ready to go back in 2012, but apparently my brain did a runner right before I could finish and hit the publish button.  I was enjoying a Nancy Drew revival of sorts and started wondering what the blazes is so attractive about Nancy.  Maybe it's her spunk and her ability to remember.  Here is what I was getting up to:


I am reading through the list of Nancy Drew Mysteries and I am currently on novel number four, The Mystery at Lilac Inn.  When I was of the age to enjoy the Nancy Drew Mysteries, I didn't.  I thought she was a little ostentatious with her prissy clothes and her fancy car.  Now, it is a complete joy to read her cases.  She is stubborn and clever and determined--all the things I want to be here in my middle ages.

I've been thinking a lot about the actual ND mysteries and how they are written, so I'm dissecting them as a writer (so if you are reading this as a huge fan of Nancy, please don't be dismayed by my comments.  I'm looking at the stories in a technical way.  Okay? Okay).  I ask the question: What qualities do they possess that have kept them on the library/bookstore shelves for so long?

Though I love the character of Nancy Drew, I don't know that she is the force behind the success of the collection.  Even with all her quirky bull-headedness, when it comes to main characters, I find her a little like a cardboard cut-out.  I know.  I'm not a middle-grade girl reading these stories in the 40s and 50s.  My experience is more mature and varied.  I do know a well-rounded character when I meet one, though, and I don't consider Nancy Drew one of them.

If the main character isn't the mainstay, then one can surmise that the rest of the characters (Carson Drew, Nancy's dad, and Hannah Gruen, Nancy's housekeeper/surrogate mother for example) aren't going to be either.  The characters are static, remaining mostly unchanged throughout the story and the series making me conclude that they can't be what makes the collection a success.

What of dialogue or narrative?  The dialogue is plentiful and moves the story along, helping to unravel the mystery, but not doing much to reveal character.  And narrative, like dialogue, seems only to exist to promote the story.  Granted, moving the story along is not a bad thing, except that the reader doesn't get meaty characters.  

What is it that makes these stories so likable?  The answer is in the formula.

Some genres have traditionally followed a formula.  The mystery genre is guilty of this, as are the romance and western genres.  Following a formula doesn't necessarily mean that the story is presented in steps, but follows a certain set of rules.  The Nancy Drew Mysteries adhere to the first rule of mystery-writing:  The plot is everything.  Characters, setting, sub-plots, dialogue, narrative are all slaves to the plot.

A reader of mysteries demands that this rule be in place in every mystery, whether she knows it or not.  We come for the crime, we come for the challenge of solving the crime, we come for the resolution.  We want to go hand in hand with the detective (professional or amateur) to the solution of the puzzle.  Nancy Drew fulfills this desire.  She gives us a great plot and doesn't get in the way of it ... she just solves it (Okay, I am distracted at times by her fabulous clothes and accessories--I won't lie.  But that is another post.).  This happens in my fav, too, the iconic Scooby-Doo.  Same formula each time, but the mystery is whodunit and why.  We want to see who is hiding behind the mask and why they are committing the crime.

Back to the future now.  But isn't that kind of like life?  The desire to see behind the mask or know the reason why is in all of us.

So, now that I've found this spot again, I'll be coming back to talk about mysteries--books, shows, projects, products--whatever that is a mystery.  That is unless I forget.