If You Could Ask One Question

MarcWatson-Gray

If you had the chance to ask Agatha Christie one ( and only one ) question,what would it be and why ?

Nothing of a personal,rude or intrusive nature,but one that related to her stories.

The fact that i have not read Curtain.Poirot's Last Case as i do not want ***SPOILER*** him to die and don't intent to read it (Silly maybe,but do not judge !!! )

My question would need to be:

Why did Poirot have to die ?

I know A.C. felt that it was a fitting end to the series of books,but i always hoped that he would vanish form public life and therefore always (potentially)reappear.

Only rule in this discussion would be:There are such things as a silly question.if it's something you'd like to ask,then it is valid

MarcWatson-Gray

P.S. Last line should have read There are NO such things as a silly question.

An edit or delay function would be handy !!!!

Griselda

Hi Marc, I totally agree with you about not reading Curtain, and have not done so either for the same reason. I would ask AC which character about from her main sleuths does she like best and why? I would ask if she understood any of the sociopaths because of a personal experience with one. This is a good, penetrating question for us to ponder!

MarcWatson-Gray

Re: sociopath question....It would be a very interesting answer i'll bet !!!

GKCfan

There are many issues here– first, Curtain was written during WWII, when Christie thought that there was a high chance that she might be killed in a bombing or something like that, and she wanted to write a book that would close out her career.  Some people believe that Poirot met the fate his did so that other people wouldn't continue the series after Christie died (though that's not the case now, with The Monogram Murders).  

Of course, there are some readers, like myself, who are not convinced that Poirot is really dead.  I wrote an article about this years ago, but be wary of spoilers for The Big Four and Curtain!  http://legacy.agathachristie.com/insight/papers/2009/04/06/did-achille-poirot-really-exist/

Griselda

Sorry Marc, that ought to read apart from her main sleuths, Poirot, Marple, etc. iPad predictive texts my typing ( I bet AC would not approve of me making a verb out of the noun phrase predictive text) you could base a modern AC style novel on an email that gets predicticated to say something else, and Ariadne Oliver unscrambles in to read the true 'pointing the finger' message. Sometimes one might think that AC likes Rosemary Darnley in Evil under the Sun, or Megan, (Pointing Finger) who I think voices AC's own views on King Lear, but who knows. I wonder if she really liked Hastings and thought he was sweet. It would be fascinating to know!

MarcWatson-Gray

Thanks GKCFAN.....In myhumble opinion The Monogram Murders was a good reason for Poirot to have died when he did !!!!!

MarcWatson-Gray

Hi Griselda (From Memory ) i think Hastings appeared in about 8 Poirot stories.(Out of 39/40 ? )Was she bored with him or was she conscious of creating a Holmes/Watson situation ? Good question....

Griselda

My own hunch, Marc, is that you are spot on. I think that AC was conscious of having been creating a Holmes/Watson situation with all its attendant pantomime. I think she wanted, spurred on by what she would see as her burgeoning talent, to go with her intense scrutiny of the character of the individual, and to forget about form and genre as it surrounds the central focus on human motive. She must have become confident of her of her writing..She must have been jolly pleased with how her use of dialogue was working out to through light on respective characters, and how observation of small mannerisms compounded the strength of her characterisation. She must have felt, in a way, that the Holmes/Watson device was formulaic, and unnecessary. The tragedy is that the passages between Hastings and Poirot provide some of the best ever charm and gentle humour anywhere in English modern literature, let alone in the work of AC. Fellow posters, some of them, have read the biog. and realised how humble and modest was AC. Perhaps she didn't realise how wonderful her humour was, and how comforting and endearing the always ethical musings of the two sleuths were for the reader.

taliavishay-arbel

I was intrigued by the fact that AC portrayed several dominant and overwhelming parents - in Ordeal by Innocence, in Appointment with death, In Crooked House and in Death comes as the End, among others. I would ask her whether there was a reason for her interest in this situation.

Anubis

AC had quite a sense of humour. I would ask what made her laugh and which authors she found amusing. And if there was ever anyone she wanted to bump off.

MarcWatson-Gray

I wonder if she would have enjoyed all of thesegreat  questions so far........???

Tommy_A_Jones

I would ask if she ever doing more Bundle Brent Books or another one with Bobby and Lady Derwent or if she thought of having a Book without Miss Marple but with Lucy Eyelesbarrow or any other Pretty Young thing. 

shana

I would like to ask AC which of her stories she wrote with the most ease and just right.

Or why she never made any of her mysteries play out in India.

Tommy_A_Jones

I know I have had my go but something has just struck me, A few Characters in Books or short stories said they were going to Scotland and didn't as it was a ruse but my question would be why wasn't a book or short story set on Scotland, after all one was set in Wales.

MarcWatson-Gray

Well... if the weather back then was anything like it's been here the past two weeks...It would probably have been too wet to be bothered solving mysteries !!! Ha !

taliavishay-arbel

Lucky you, MarcWatson-Gray! Here it is oven-hot, has been like this for a couple of weeks, and the forecast is for another week or two at least. Foretaste of Hell!

MarcWatson-Gray

I'll give you one week of my wet for one week of your hot.......Sounds like a fair swap  !!!

GKCfan

You're welcome, MarcWatson-Gray!

taliavishay-arbel

MarcWatson-Gray, you've got yourself a deal!!

maryamalbulushi

Well you guys never experienced the really hot weather as we're doing in Muscat .. As the temperature gets easily in summer to 56 !!! Although now it's cloudy (I don't know why) but you gotta see when the water drops down from the tap boiling literally @MarcWatson-Gray so do enjoy that wet weather and thank god for it ^_^

MarcWatson-Gray

I'll try !!!!!

taliavishay-arbel

WOW!!  The hottest I ever felt was 54, and that was on a hike in Sinay. Absolutely hellish!

TeddyBg

MarcWatson-Gray said:

Why did Poirot have to die ?

Somewhere I read that she didn't want someone else to continue Poirot stoires.... but I don't know if it's true.


My question will be:
In her autobiography she says that she cannot believe that her play "The Mousetrap" is on stage for already 11 years, and that it has so big success. I'm really interested in what she would say now if she knew that the play is on stage for more than 60 years and almost 30 000 performances.

Tommy_A_Jones

I read that Agatha Christie didn't want anyone else to write Poirot Stories so she must be up in heaven Furious with her Grandson for allowing it to go ahead, I know I would be if I was a World Famous Published Novelist.