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SUSPECT_BELOW
August 25, 2006
Patrick Butler, the (primary) point-of-view
character in Carr's "Below Suspicion", was The more unbiquitous Dr. Fell
only used by Carr on a few occasions. is on hand in this one to
provide the final answers.
This is a character lifted from
the "Father Brown" stories, SPOILERS
by G.K. Chesterton:
"The prisoner was defended by The POV wanders
Mr Patrick Butler, K.C., who shamelessly, though,
was mistaken for a mere flaneur *including* into the
by those who misunderstood the mind of the murderer --
Irish character-- and those who you might think that
had not been examined by him." this would establish
guilt or innocence, but
"The Man in the Passage" Carr wiggles out of that
by G.K. Chesterton one with what amounts to
a split personality
gimmick. That's
Patrick Butler is much better "fair play", all right.
characterized than most of
Carr's vehicles -- which are CASTLE_SKULL
usually sketched in with only
the bare minimum required to
fufill their combined role of
romantic lead and Watson.
Butler is a defense lawyer,
and a fightin' Irishman, and
could easily have been a
prefunctory exercise in
ethnic stereotype, and yet he
stikes me as something close
to a well-realized character: Or at least he strikes
flawed, but likeable. me as likeable. There
are some people
Hot tempered, (e.g. S. T. Joshi) who
excessively proud. are rubbed the wrong
way by Butler -- just
Fakes a hearty because he's a
brogue when conceited blowhard?
convenient.
Let he who is without
Always on the verge of sin cast the first
sabotaging himself with billiard ball...
his conceits.
JUST_JOSHI
A man in a respectable
profession, constantly
sailing near the edge,
dangerously flirting with
wreckless behavior.
SPOILERS
Butler is a character with some
fire in him, a man with just a
touch of the devil about him...
And it's entirely appropriate that the
villains of this story turn out to be
a revival of a satan-worshipping sect.
LIKE_EVIL
I find that Carr's rendition of
Satanism has a suspicious amount
of sympathy about it.
Gideon Fell discusses post-war England:
"Let us look at the intolerable dreariness
in the life of the average man today. ...
"He is stifled in crowds, hammered to
docility by queues, entangled in
bureaucratic red-tape, snubbed by
tradesmen with whom he must deal. His
nerves, frayed by five years of war and
air raids, are scraped raw by reaching
for something which isn't there.
Haven't you ever observed those long
theatre-queues, blank-faced as sheep,
waiting in the cold to lose themselves
for a time in the sugar-candy nonsense
of a motion picture?
"And what is his state of mind then?
"Well, let's look back to those withered --
but all too familiar -- figures in the
Middle Ages. To many of them, in their
dreary lives, the Lord of Lords was a cold
enigma. But there was another God, just as
authentic and far more exciting. *He* had
power too. *He* could dispense rich gifts.
*He* would reward the faithful against
Church and State. And so they could -- ...
"They could worship Satan ... Then, as well
as now, in sheer lust for excitement."
"Below Suspicion" (1949),
Chapter 13, p. 131
Carr's mouthpiece
here is his detective
Gideon Fell, a figure
based in appearence (Yes, Carr got
and manner on to this long
G.K. Chesterton. before Gaiman's
Gilbert.)
And the name
I think Carr "Gideon Fell",
betrays a what does that
fascination that suggest?
goes beyond mere
intellectual Fallen angel?
diversion.
BOOKSHELF_OF_CARR
A satanist enthuses:
"To worship one ... is tedium and drabness.
To worship the other," she passed her hands
down over her body, "is fire and delirium
and light."
-- Chapter 19, p. 190
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