The genealogy of the television detective has a brace of antecedents. The genre was invented by Sherlock Holmes and then merged with the gumshoes of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett. The hybrid was the template for one of the most enduring and inventive characters of modern drama. Although the accents, hats, hobbies and drinks changed, the essential qualities have remained faithful to their origins. The detective was always lonely, the family always broken; there was always a special empathy with the dead and a sense of dislocation from society. These were people who saw too much and felt too much. And there was the inevitable procedural archeology of sin.

So whatever is murdering the detectives? Have they gone the way of the TV cowboy?

Wallander is a Swedish detective. A lot of the natural motives and character traits of the genre - depression, drinking, loneliness, nihilism, busted families - are already Scandinavian traits. But this detective is more a conformist than an outsider. But then he’s also Kenneth Branagh. And Kenneth Branagh is close to being a thespian genius. He may also be one of the greatest wastes of talent of this generation. Every time he appears on the small screen, he’s in a class of his own. A thoughtful, truthful and strong, muscular actor who does real acting as opposed to just “being”. Being is what most television performances are. Soap operas are full of blokes being characters in a soap opera, which is only vaguely related to your actual acting.

Branagh is one of the few thesps who can do it both on stage and small screen with appropriate intensity. They were lucky to get him as this generic detective, and he was lucky to get Wallander as a great character. He fulfils all the demands of the classic detective: the stoic face, the hurt eyes, the clumsy emotion and the sudden bursts of condensed anger.

The screen itself, the background and the sets, all look wonderful. The production is huge and glossy, the camera set to stun. They’ve pulled all the big wide lenses out, the dressing and detail is a Scandinavian festival of immaculate good taste - polished wood and despair. It’s so pretty, it almost overtakes the production and works against the grain and grit. But Branagh walks through each frame of liberal taste looking suitably awkward and de trop. The final production credits are a Tetris of European television stations, all drowning in dubbed Americana and aching for one international euro-seller that will make them proud to be part of the business called show.

Well, they got all the ingredients right, and it was nicely slow, Bergman directed by a committee. Critics like things 20% slower than most of the rest of you. But Wallander is only a qualified success. Branagh did uncover why we are no longer watching the detectives. It’s the plot that done it. They’ve run out of stories. We’ve come to the end of procedural narrative."

What Academics do at Conferences?

The American Online Journal, Inside Higher Education, comments on the recent Modern Language Association Conference:

"The one-night stand may be being replaced by long-term monogamous relationships when it comes to sex at academic conferences. That was among the revelations Tuesday at a panel of the Modern Language Association devoted to conference sex. Well, actually it was devoted to theorizing and analyzing conference sex, although it was probably the only session at the MLA this year in which a panelist appeared in a bathrobe.

The annual meeting of the MLA has long been known (and frequently satirized) for the sexual puns and imagery of paper titles - even if many of the papers themselves are in fact more staid than their names would suggest. As the MLA meeting concluded on Tuesday, however, one session sought to put sex at academic conferences center stage. Drawing on literature, theory and experience, panelists considered not only the role of sex at conferences, but talked about identity, love and (perhaps more timely to many MLA attendees) the dismal academic job market.

points, and this session was no exception. Jennifer Drouin, an assistant professor of English and women’s studies at Allegheny College, argued that there are eight forms of conference sex (although she noted that some may count additional forms for each of the eight when the partners cross disciplinary, institutional or tenure-track/non-tenure track, or superstar/average academic boundaries).

The categories:

“Conference quickies” for gay male scholars to meet gay men at local bars.

“Down low” sex by closeted academics taking advantage of being away from home and in a big city.

“Bi-curious” experimentation by “nerdy academics trying to be more hip” (at least at the MLA, where queer studies is hip). This “increases one’s subversiveness” without much risk, she said.

The “conference sex get out of jail free” card that attendees (figuratively) trade with academic partners, permitting each to be free at their respective meetings. This freedom tends to take place at large conferences like the MLA, which are “more conducive” to anonymous encounters, Drouin said.

“Ongoing flirtations over a series of conferences, possibly over several years” that turn into conference sex. Drouin said this is more common in sub-field conferences, where academics are more certain of seeing one another from year to year if their meetings are “must attend” conferences.

“Conference sex as social networking,” where academics are introduced to other academics at receptions and one thing leads to another.

“Career building sex,” which generally crosses lines of academic rank. While Drouin said that this form of sex “may be ethically questionable,” she quipped that this type of sex “can lead to increased publication possibilities” or simply a higher profile as the less famous partner tags along to receptions.

And last but not least - and this was the surprise of the list: “monogamous sex among academic couples.” Drouin noted that the academic job market is so tight these days that many academics can’t live in the same cities with their partners. While many colleges try to help dual career couples, this isn’t always possible, and is particularly difficult for gay and lesbian couples, since not every college will even take their couple status seriously enough to try to find jobs for partners. So these long distance academic couples, gay and straight, tenured and adjuncts, must take the best academic positions they can, and unite at academic conferences."

The January 15 issue of the New York Review of Books has its usual impressive contents, including Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption by Marcia Angell

"No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top nine US drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a year. By such means, the pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of research, the way medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a disease".

A Chill on 'The Guardian'

Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian provides a sobering view of the legal forces thrown at newspapers trying to research financial issues.

"I have been at the thick end of these laws more than is strictly good for anyone. News organizations in the Western world, struggling with declining audiences and revenue, are shedding journalists, closing down foreign operations, and cutting costs. But they are also increasingly inhibited by efforts-of government officials and of private corporations-to prevent them from protecting sources or from carrying out difficult investigations".

The US Entertainment Weekly Critics List their Five Worst Books of the Year

This link also provides access to their 10 Best Fiction Books of 2008 and their 10 Best Non-Fiction Books of 2008.

Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It

A long article in the New York Times analyses the rather dark future for book publishers and sellers. "The holiday season that just ended is likely to have been one of the worst in decades. Publishers have been cutting back and laying off. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it wouldnt be acquiring any new manuscripts, a move akin to a butcher shop proclaiming it had stopped ordering fresh meat. Bookstores, both new and secondhand, are faltering as well. Olssons, the leading independent chain in Washington, went bankrupt and shut down in September. Robins, which says it is the oldest bookstore in Philadelphia, will close next month. The once-mighty Borders chain is on the rocks. Powells, the huge store in Portland, Ore., said sales were so weak it was encouraging its staff to take unpaid sabbaticals.

Don’t blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects, including increased competition for the reader’s time or diminished attention spans. What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of casual readers but the changing habits of devoted readers.

In other words, it’s all the fault of people like myself, who increasingly use the Internet both to buy books and later, after their value to us is gone, sell them. This is not about Amazon peddling new books at discounted prices, which has been a factor in the book business for a decade, but about the rise of a worldwide network of amateurs who sell books from their homes or, if they’re lazy like me, in partnership with an Internet dealer who does all the work for a chunk of the proceeds".

Quote of the Week

"French widows in every bedroom", advertisement in an Italian hotel.

Odd Book Title

"Ten Good Tricks with Empty Bass Bottles", Bass, Radcliff & Gretton, 1929

Pun of the Week

The first macaroni factory in Chicago had to pasta inspection!