WorldEmber Day 19: It Was Agatha (Christie) All Along!
Explore the controversy around Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' and the importance of playing fair with your audience in storytelling.
Follow along with my WorldEmber progress!
These resources will help you keep track of my progress through this month-long marathon challenge:
Haly’s Official WE Progress Report — each participant gets a page that automatically collects their author information and all WE-eligible articles across all worlds into a single, shareable package.
Haly’s WorldEmber on Argentii Index — an on-the-fly journal page and handy sidebar displaying only new Argentii WE-eligible articles.
Some Days are Research Days
World-building is an ever-evolving process, and sometimes we disappear down strange and unusual rabbit holes. Today was absolutely one of those days!
Yesterday’s World-building Wednesday carried over into today due to a question and follow-up conversation. Taken from the comments on yesterday’s Ask the Bard:
It seems that grappling with the end of Agatha Christie’s novel, And Then There Were None, has led to some resentment that Dame Christie played false with her audience; that she had somehow lied to us.
Now, you all know that I am a fan of breaking the rules, and that comes from knowing which rules are there for our brains, and which ones are there for publishers.
Authors, writers, dabblers, I am here to tell you now and forever: you are not allowed to flat-out lie to your audience. You may misguide, misdirect, and surprise them. These things are, in fact, encouraged in many genres and I’ve dedicated thousands of words to topics such as unreliable narrators, red herrings, and MacGuffins.
Playing fair with the audience is what makes a satisfying story. If it was all a dream in the end, then there has to be a point where the characters did — or could have — fallen asleep. Or stepped into a virtual reality simulation. Or thought they exited the holodeck when, in reality, Moriarty just made a fake Enterprise within the holodeck.
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What About Agatha?
There are no spoilers for the plot; only discussion of structure.
Agatha Christie, the trademarked Queen of Crime, is the best-selling author of all time for a damn good reason. Her novel, And Then There Were None, has sold over 100 million copies and is one of the best-selling books of all time. It is the most popular story from the most popular author…ever.
And it would not be this marvel of publishing if she had in any way played unfair with her audience.
Fortunately for D.W. I had never read it myself or seen any of the movie adaptations. So, in order to determine whether or not the world’s favorite author had played fair with her audience, I bought the audio book and listened to it while I was at work today.
I am, first and foremost, a horror writer. What many people don’t realize — unless they write horror or consume a truckload of horror — is that there is always mystery wrapped up in the horror. Horror is, in many examples, just the most visceral depiction of a mystery story: instead of stumbling upon the dead body, we bear witness to the murder as it happens in a particularly brutal way.
The only reason I point this out is because when you spend all of your time building something, it makes it a whole lot easier to take it apart. Because of this, I knew who U. N. Owen was before the first murder. Now, don’t get me wrong. There were several times when I questioned my choice, but in the end, it was obvious. (Anyone who wants to discuss what sentence tipped me off, I’m happy to do so in DMs!)
Going into the book, the only things I knew about the story were that the plot of Clue leaned heavily on it, the Season Nine premier of Family Guy, “And Then There Were Fewer,” was based on it, and that it was supposed to have a cracking twist at the end.
Yes, that’s right. Until today I hadn’t read it. And so, I was the perfect person to go in, unknowing, and see if it was true that the clues were there all along and overlooked by youth and/or forgotten by time.
As I said, I was able to formulate an accurate theory based on information that was presented in the book.
The nursery rhyme that opens the book is really all you need, if you have a brain that is good at sideways logic. (I do.)
The whole thing is spelled out before the first murder. Thrice, if you count the nursery rhyme being addressed twice.
At three distinct places there were legitimate clues dropped, both through the thoughts of the mastermind, as well as the observations of the others. (We spend time in the perspective of all the guests.)
So, What Went Wrong?
The only thing I can imagine, the only possible reason I can think that anyone would feel lied to…would be if they didn’t understand a certain turn of phrase. It’s a common enough phrase if you read a lot, especially from British authors.
But, if you are young or not particularly well versed in the differences between the UK and America, then this turn of phrase would not be the dead give-away that it was for me. (Again, hit me up if you know the story and want to know where I figured it out.)
Verdict: Always Play Fair
In the end, a satisfying conclusion depends on everything being contained within the story, including the clues to solving the mystery. Even if your audience has to go back and re-read or re-watch or re-play. In fact…that re-read is sort of the goal, isn’t it?
“I couldn’t believe the ending, I had to go back and read it again to see if the clues really were there all along!”
They were.
Send me your Ask the Bard questions now!
I’d like to pre-schedule those posts in order to maximize the time I spend with my family on Christmas and New Year’s, so hit me up with those questions now!! Send two if you’ve got ‘em.
And please, restack this with a note about what you liked, or forward this email to a friend in your creative circle.
Very classy to give me youthful ignorance as an out. I have acquired my own copy of the audio book and will check back in once my my mature and much more knowledgeable self has a chance to see just how badly I flubbed things. I don't think I caught the U. N. Owen thing before.
Funny enough, to nod to your title reference, that's also what I love about Agatha All Along. Everything that happens is laid out in the beginning, even though I didn't recognize it at first.
More to the point, I think one of the greatest misunderstandings of what readers want is that many aspiring authors make a twist come out of nowhere. They think the audience wants to be shocked and surprised... And maybe they're right, but like you pointed out, they do not want to be lied to. We should get to the twist and say "Oh, I misunderstood what these signs were pointing," not "Oh, this clue at the beginning lead nowhere." Try to fool your audience, but in a way that respects their deduction skills. Give them a chance to outsmart your characters.