Fiona wrote:
the correct explanation, as presented by Avon, turns out to be actually quite simple.
This is of course one obvious way in which the plot differs from archetypal Poirot closed-system crime (say 'Murder on the Orient Express').
Finally, this theme is pointed up by two quotes,
My favourite quotation was:
AVON: Try greed. It's usually reliable.
Occam's Razor. When faced with a mystery, it's the simple explanation, the one that's staring you in the face, that usually does the trick; the convoluted one is likely to send you running around in circles and concocting danger where there is none.
Indeed. My Occam's Razor tells me that Nation was a sloppy hack writer thinking of his pay cheque... [smile]
Tavia
----- Original Message ----- From: Tavia tavia@btinternet.com
Fiona wrote:
the correct explanation, as presented by Avon, turns out to be actually quite simple.
<This is of course one obvious way in which the plot differs from archetypal Poirot closed-system crime (say 'Murder on the Orient Express').>
Thing is, Agatha Christie is actually not that great a writer, and as a result comes up with impossibly convoluted plots. In a way, Nation's "Occam's Razor" line seems to be almost a way of having a go at that-- a sort of way of saying "only idiots come up with solutions that complex..." :).
Occam's Razor. When faced with a mystery, it's the simple explanation, the one that's staring you in the face, that usually does the trick; the convoluted one is likely to send you running around in circles and concocting danger where there is none.
<Indeed. My Occam's Razor tells me that Nation was a sloppy hack writer thinking of his pay cheque... [smile]>
:), but mine says, why go to all the trouble of creating a programme, persuading the Beeb to let it fly, and employing one of the greatest television writers of the era as script editor, and then do a sloppy job on the stories?
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane No job, no pay cheque at http://nyder.r67.net
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Fiona wrote:
why go to all the trouble of creating a programme, persuading the Beeb to let it fly, and employing one of the greatest television writers of the era as script editor, and then do a sloppy job on the stories?
Because you've run out of time?
Una
----- Original Message ----- From: Una McCormack una@qresearch.org.uk
Fiona wrote:
why go to all the trouble of creating a programme, persuading the Beeb to let it fly, and employing one of the greatest television writers of the era as script editor, and then do a sloppy job
on
the stories?
Because you've run out of time?
Una, yer missin' the point :). You know as well as I do that the only story on which he did run out of time was (ironically) Time Squad. And remember, Chris Boucher was going over the stories-- are you going to go tell Chris he's sloppy :)?
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Six characters in search of an author at http://nyder.r67.net
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Fiona Moore -
Tavia -
Una McCormack