I wish I knew more about how other people were writing disability at the time. I'm not sure if Evil Cripple was a cliche in 1935. I kinda assume it was because this stuff doesn't come out of nowhere, but all the references I can find for the trope have to do with things that came along later.
I would be interested in a proper study on that too; as far as I know, then as now disability mostly just didn't exist in fiction, but I am also pretty sure there's at least one or two Christie characters from around that period who are worse than Chapin in terms of being actual fully fledged characters with lives.
Really, Archie Goodwin is a lot stranger than Archie Goodwin is willing to admit.
This is entirely true! I kind of love that; Archie clearly has a very particular image he wants to project, and he kind of does, but there's also all this stuff showing that that's not how he really is. He is a "ladies man" who doesn't want to actually shack up with a lady, he keeps quitting/being fired but has worked for Wolfe for years, he has some unfortunate ways of talking about foreigners but the main people in his life are immigrants, he is apparently a dance-all-night partier but mostly drinks milk! Genius.
(And OMFG he is OBSESSED with Wolfe's physical body. Like, if Wolfe wasn't fat, there is no way that would be seen as anything other than blatant ogling, but as he is, obvs there is no way anyone could fancy him. OMG. Archie has ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS about Wolfe's lips moving in and out!)
He doesn't have a "snap out of it, you big baby" attitude...it's more like he accepts it as another aspect of Wolfe's eccentricity that must be contended with, so he tries to goad Wolfe out of it, much like he goads Wolfe into working.
Yeah that is kind of what I was trying to express - they are accepted as being real and important (and in at least one book Archie's like, if it's a relapse it'll be nothing doing for at least a week, sort of like a force of nature), just not thought of medically in the way they would be now. He doesn't really get annoyed at Wolfe about them that much, considering how irritated he can get with other Wolfe attributes.
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Date: 2010-04-18 09:54 pm (UTC)I would be interested in a proper study on that too; as far as I know, then as now disability mostly just didn't exist in fiction, but I am also pretty sure there's at least one or two Christie characters from around that period who are worse than Chapin in terms of being actual fully fledged characters with lives.
Really, Archie Goodwin is a lot stranger than Archie Goodwin is willing to admit.
This is entirely true! I kind of love that; Archie clearly has a very particular image he wants to project, and he kind of does, but there's also all this stuff showing that that's not how he really is. He is a "ladies man" who doesn't want to actually shack up with a lady, he keeps quitting/being fired but has worked for Wolfe for years, he has some unfortunate ways of talking about foreigners but the main people in his life are immigrants, he is apparently a dance-all-night partier but mostly drinks milk! Genius.
(And OMFG he is OBSESSED with Wolfe's physical body. Like, if Wolfe wasn't fat, there is no way that would be seen as anything other than blatant ogling, but as he is, obvs there is no way anyone could fancy him. OMG. Archie has ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS about Wolfe's lips moving in and out!)
He doesn't have a "snap out of it, you big baby" attitude...it's more like he accepts it as another aspect of Wolfe's eccentricity that must be contended with, so he tries to goad Wolfe out of it, much like he goads Wolfe into working.
Yeah that is kind of what I was trying to express - they are accepted as being real and important (and in at least one book Archie's like, if it's a relapse it'll be nothing doing for at least a week, sort of like a force of nature), just not thought of medically in the way they would be now. He doesn't really get annoyed at Wolfe about them that much, considering how irritated he can get with other Wolfe attributes.