Light and Darkness in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Light and shadows are often used in fiction to contrast and/or represent certain ideas.  In the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles, light is associated with the truth while darkness is tied to lies or the unknown.

After Watson and Henry have discovered that the mysterious L.L. is just a woman that Sir Charles Baskerville was going to meet on the night of his death, Henry asks Watson, ". . . what do you make of this new light?"  Watson replies, "It seems to have left the darkness blacker than before."  Instead of revealing the identity of someone directly involved with the murder, it only serves to introduce new elements to the situation, making it more confusing.

When Sherlock is discussing how they have no actual evidence against Stapleton, he says, "If he were acting through a human agent we could get some evidence, but if we were to drag this great dog to the light of day it would not help us in putting a rope round the neck of its master."  The titular hound is associated with the darkness of night, and Holmes and Watson know its description cannot entirely be based in fact, as it is too big and hellish to be a real dog; in this quote, Sherlock discusses pulling the hound away from the lies and shadows and revealing it for what it is in the clear light of day where it can be seen for what it is.

After the fog has begun rolling towards Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade while they wait for Henry and the hound to appear, there is this sentence: "The stars shone cold and bright, while a half-moon bathed the whole scene in a soft, uncertain light."  The half-moon provides only part of the light that it could, and so it is not as bright as it could be, making it an "uncertain light"; the truth will not be completely visible to them, especially with the fog, which makes their perception of their surroundings "uncertain".

Finally, there is some description from Watson about searching for the convict by following the light of his candle: "There is nothing so deceptive as a light upon a pitch-dark night . . . But at last we could see whence it came, and then we knew that we were indeed very close."  This quote is possibly referring to the idea of there being an element of truth amongst lies and how this makes such a case more difficult to solve until you get closer to the truth.  In The Hound of the Baskervilles and also in the episode "The Reichenbach Fall", there is some deception going on which has elements of truth but is otherwise composed of lies, and this helps make the deceit believable but also harder to disprove.  In The Hound of the Baskervilles, there is a hound killing people out on the moor, but it isn't supernatural, and it is enabled by a human owner as opposed to working alone or being controlled by a demon or the devil.  In "The Reichenbach Fall", Moriarty's attempt to make Sherlock out to be a fraud involves truthful facts from Sherlock's life, provided by Mycroft Holmes, and outright lies.  

Settings of a detective genre

     As I write my final post, I wanted to talk a little about the settings in a detective genre, and how important it  is to the story. Overall, setting is a very important part to any good story or book. But I think in particular, setting is even more important in a good detective novel. Detective genre's usually begins with a murder, and that's what hooks your interest of reading the book. The beginning is so important for a detective story, and the setting is what gives it that extra spark. If the story begins with a person being murdered in broad daylight, and his body is found in a river." Its not a very interesting story. Famous detective novels begins with setting the stage. It usually portraits a dark and gloomy night. The rain is falling and there is fog everywhere. Instantly, the reader experiences this chilling feeling, that someone is about to die. Later on, the killing would happen in a dark alley with no one around, or a room that's filled with spider webs and dust. These gruesome characteristics are usually what grabs the readers attention. Of course, a murder scene is always related to gruesome settings. It just wouldn't be right if its not. So I think that 'Setting' is such a big factor in detective novels. You always want to have that first paragraph or chapter to hook the readers attention, and the setting has to play out perfectly with the murder. It has to be special, unlike any other. That way the reader will continue reading your story. And I think that all the story we had read this week had that special element. The authors all paid extra attention to the setting. For example, The big sleep kept on talking about the weather, how its always dark and gloomy; the mousetrap had the snow storm. All these settings gives the reader a chill in the back. That's what makes a great detective novel, the think up a perfect setting that ties the story up perfectly.

The Appeal of Noir

Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep is commonly referred to as hard-boiled detective fiction, but this falls under a larger genre in film and literature: noir. Film noir, literally meaning "black film", was a type of cinema that began in the mid-forties and ended in the late-fifties. Noir is famous for its morally dubious characters, dark story lines, and pessimistic perspective on life. The question remains, how does a genre so cynical become so popular?

In order to answer this question, we need to look at the time period in which this genre was celebrated. Noir started in literature a decade or so earlier than on film, circa 1930. Quite obviously, the biggest historical event we associate with the thirties was the stock market crash in 1929. Millions of people worldwide were pushed into poverty, and for many, the future looked bleak.

Noir was a style that reflected this sentiment. People down on their luck found someone to identify with; someone equally as downtrodden as they were. Noir was a manifestation of the time period. Because of this, it rose in popularity, continuing through World War II, and making its way onto film and into the cinemas.

This is the most famous period of noir, and its cinematography is instantly recognizable, even to those uneducated in the genre. High-contrast frames, actors in shadows, and fog are hallmarks of this era. Into the fifties, film noir remained popular in Europe, as the continent attempted to rebuild after the war that destroyed it.

However, it lost popularity in the United States. The dark morals and messages of noir could not compete with American idealism, which, after the war, was on the rise. American tastes changed, and it seemed that all the American people wanted out of their movies was their own optimism. Similarly, hard-boiled detective fiction saw it's heyday from the thirties to the fifties, ending when things began to get better.

Blood on the Dinning Room Floor

At first, when I read the story, I was confused and struggled with the plot. There are apparently more then one story running through and they are somehow interrelated to each other.
The main plot being the hotel-keeper's wife fell into cement and died, and Alexander is the suspect because he has the special hobby of not sleeping during night time. Also, Alexander's sister, being the only one in the family that works in the hotel, is suspected that she might have planned the whole murder with her brother in order to create a possible marriage. In this way, Alexander and his sister can gain control over the business.

Since Stein has spent most of her life writing Opera, she is very good at turing "writing a story" into "telling a story". She stresses on the communication between the author and the reader a lot. She also created the character Lizzie to represent the interaction between audience and the text.
Even though this story is open to all types of readers, the calling toward Lizzie shows that Stein puts most of her attention toward female readership. It is a strong calling for the interchange relationship between a female writer and a female reader.
I think this shows Stein that she has a strong sense of feminism

There're also critics about Blood on the Dinning Room Floor not being a detective novel. For instance, there's no detective presented through out the story, and the crime is left unsolved. And the possibility of not having a crime exists.
However, three factors make this story somehow tie to detective story. Which is the present of a corpse, the hotel keeper's wife; the possible motive, which is Alexander and his sister wanting to gain control; and at last, the suspicious character, who are Alexander and his sister.

After doing a bunch of research, I really appreciate the way Stein writes this story. It somehow ironically criticize the traditional authoritative detective novel, which presents confusion and gives solution. In Blood on the Dinning Room Floor, it's more like the author presents question and leaves it unsolved. This way, the content becomes more open.

I found this video while doing the Blood on the Dining Room Floor presentation. This prologue is a very short introduction to the story and the author.
I think the background story is quite interesting. After the introduction and a long music, there is a women singing to express Stein's struggle and feeling toward writing this story.

The Big Sleep Setting

These top two make me think of a downtown L.A. at the time of the book, tall cement and brick building lined streets.

These next two show the movie business-old black and white movies: classic Hollywood.

More of what I would imagine the downtown Marlowe is in.

Reminds me of the Sternwood's grounds leading to the house.

More of the downtown with the classic brick style.