I'm not sure if the books we've read are really valuable. Our lives continue along pre-set routes. Fiction just gives us a glimpse into another option. ...... However, Murder by the Magpie really changed my entire life. That night, when I reached out and opened the first page of the printed manuscript, I didn't know I was about to embark on a journey...
- "Magpie Murder"
Because of the broadcast of the British drama "Magpie Murder", after a few years, I opened the book again. Like actors who are not used to facing the roles on the screen, as translators who are used to hiding behind words, I feel the same trepidation and shame.
I still remember the first time I opened a sample chapter of Murder by a Magpie. It was a night, I only read the first few sentences, unconsciously immersed in it, read the first case in one breath, and came back to god it was late at night. Half dreaming and half waking up, I felt like Susan, the editor of the book. Coincidentally, her life was no different from that of me, who was still a bald editor in real life at that time. The next day, I excitedly told the editor that the book was bound to be a hit. I decided to take over the translation of the book at a friendly price, and accepted the proposal of a phased delivery and simultaneous editing, hoping to grab time and let mainland readers see this special detective novel for the first time.
Magpie Murder
The special feature of this novel is that the setting of the book in its book is complex and exquisite, revealing the author's creative ambitions everywhere, even at the expense of himself. The first half of the book is about the case of the fictional best-selling author Allen's covered book" "Magpie Murder", which is the unending novel that Ellen's editor Susan saw at the beginning of the detective novel. The second half of the novel, which is missing from the ending, leads to the death of the author Alan, and Susan transforms into a real-life detective and begins to investigate a murder disguised as a suicide. Creation originates from life, so while gradually visiting, the characters in Allen's fictional novels also gradually appear in their original form, and reality and fiction are inextricably linked. Its intricacies are evident.
Even Jill Green, the show's executive producer, explains: "We've made a lot of mystery dramas, but I must say it's the most distinctive one we've ever made. Because of the case in this book, the setting of the book in the book. ”
I deliberately searched for the audience reputation on Twitter and found that most of them were positive reviews. One of the viewers commented: "It's a fun and clever adaptation – the cast is exciting, and Leslie Manville is the heroine!" ”
In January 2018, Leslie Manville was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 90th Academy Awards for The Phantom of neon
The original author, Anthony Horowitz, who is also a veteran screenwriter, seems to be quite satisfied with the adaptation: "For the first time ever, I really figured it out! ”
I couldn't help but be curious about this 6-episode short series, so I spent a few nights chasing the series. Maybe it's because I knew the plot in advance, and I didn't start a brain storm of guessing the murderer, or be emotionally aroused by the plot, as I used to watch reasoning dramas. On the contrary, in this calm viewing experience, I was able to savor the fresh and clean picture colors, silky and smooth camera switching in the play, and of course, the British humor of the high cold and poisonous tongue.
In the original book, the village of Saxby on the River Avon, where three murders occurred, occupies the vast majority of the book, while 70% of the plot of the adapted British drama revolves around modern cases, and the editor Susan, as a reliable narrator, leads the audience to switch between different time and space from her perspective.
So, we have the privilege of seeing the editor Susan discuss clues and cheer each other up with the characters in the novel, Detective Pound, in a dream; see the archetypal characters of the novel burn books when they read the author's sharp and straightforward descriptions; and even better, there is an original plot in the play- the careful author Allen vents his anger in his work because the students of the creative writing class offend him, and portrays the nasty ghost who questions him as a lonely gardener who has achieved nothing. Alan Conway created characters in novels based on acquaintances, deriving a sense of bad taste from them. The novel is like a grotesque self-portrait of him.
Stills from Murder by magpies
Of course, it is inevitable that because the adaptation of the British drama does not focus more on the atmosphere of the case, reversal and character portrayal, the rhythm of solving the case is relatively gentle, and the supporting roles that appear cannot help but appear to be some paper people. It is not a reasoning drama in the conventional sense, and the audience's immersive reasoning and the experience of revealing the mystery are inevitably discounted. Perhaps the producer says that this British drama is different from this: it is not satisfied with just being a reasoning drama that pays tribute to Agatha, it focuses more on the creative ambitions of the original author. After all, fans who have seen this best-selling book are still the majority, and it is difficult for the old tune to attract their attention. Not to mention, even the author in the book borrows the heroine's mouth to laugh at himself: "It took Atticus Pound one hundred and thirty pages to find out the identity of the man at Mary Barekiston's funeral." I can't wait that long. "Of course, the audience can't wait that long.
However, I personally feel that another special thing about the novel "Magpie Murder" is that it requires you to sink your heart and chew carefully. At first reading, you can easily be dissuaded by slightly lengthy Benguet reasoning and ignore the treasures it buries. In the case, the author cleverly weaves into his various thoughts on novel creation, just like a mystery writer who is ruthlessly deconstructing speculative fiction, and also selflessly presents a practical lesson in creative writing for beginners.
For example, how to create a detective character with a funny and full image? These thoughts are scattered throughout the book, and they are told through the mouths of different characters.
When Susan reflects on whether she is worthy of the detective job, her mental activity is like this:
Detectives are certainly smarter than us. We want them to do the same. But that doesn't mean they are the embodiment of virtue. Sherlock Holmes was depressed. Poirot is conceited. Miss Marple was abrupt and eccentric. They don't need to be attractive.
The restaurant waiter, a student in Allen's creative writing class, revealed only a few words when he talked about his intersection with the deceased:
He gave me the protagonist of the story, the detective I wrote, some very pertinent advice. I remember one of the suggestions: He should have a bad habit like smoking, drinking, or something.
And a still of "Schindler's List" found in Allen's office during the search for evidence incidentally tells the prototype of Detective Pound created by Allen:
The image of the detective in Alan Conway's book was originally borrowed from a movie, or it can be said to be stolen... Atticus Pound is not a completely original character, in a way, he is second-hand.
Therefore, it is not difficult to summarize the elements that an attractive detective character should have: he must have his own personality limitations, not be a perfect persona, and if necessary, he can use the character of the already successful.
When speculative fiction becomes a genre novel, it is inevitable that it will be full of various routines, and the author will unceremoniously expose them one by one.
Unsigned wills are one of the tricks I hate in detective fiction, simply because it's a cliché. In real life, many people are too lazy to even make a will;
The first law in detective fiction is that the most suspicious people often end up not being the real culprits;
In a detective novel, when a detective hears that Mr. So-and-So Smith has been slashed thirty-six times on a train or has his head cut off, they quickly accept the fact and think it is a natural thing. They packed their bags and set out to inquire, gather clues, and finally arrest the murderer.
Why do people like speculative fiction in ancient and modern China and abroad? The author also borrowed the heroine Susan to give an interesting answer when analyzing the murderer -
In a world of uncertainty, when you read to the last page and find that every letter i is dotted, and every letter t is added a horizontal, doesn't this innate charm make you feel satisfied? These stories simulate our experience of the world. We are surrounded by tension and ambiguity every day, we have spent half our lives trying to find a solution, and when we finally usher in that moment, we find that everything makes sense, and it is likely that we are already dying. Almost every detective novel offers this kind of fun. That's why they exist.
You can also capture in the book all the struggles that an original author experiences in the creative process: depression at the beginning of the creation, having to compromise with market preferences, disagreeing with the editors who discovered their own Bole until they looked at each other unfavorably, accused of plagiarizing other people's ideas, and being lonely and confused after becoming famous. The most painful thing is to encounter creative bottlenecks and self-doubt.
And the death of Allen is essentially a self-interruption of an author who can't bear to copy the best-selling path and falls into a creative bottleneck. He was bent on killing his characters, but who was the one who killed him?
So, when we see the bad riddle that Ellen buried in the detective's name, everything suddenly opens up. He made up his mind early on and made a vile joke to fans who loved his work. It turned out that throughout, he was not satisfied with becoming a best-selling author of speculative fiction, and his literary original intention was castrated from the day he decided to cater to the market.
Interestingly, the last person to read him was the editor who didn't like him, and the one who first discovered him, Susan. The love and killing of editors and authors is so common. The author's ending for Susan is even more intriguing, susan's eyes are smoked in the fire, and after all this, she no longer even wants to see the missing chapters of "Magpie Murder".
When Susan saw a strange woman reading the book by the sea in San Nicolaos, she thought of Alan again. She incarnated herself as one of the millions of readers who loved the Atticus Pound series of novels, imagining herself, standing on the tower of Grange Manor, stretching out her hands and pushing Alan to death.
So, I never thought the real killer of Alan was Charles. The treasure buried in "Magpie Murder" by the author is far more than that, and I hope that readers will reap the windfall.