(no subject)

[aesmael]

In the currently playing episode of Poirot he [Hercule Poirot] is complaining of a play he saw, that it is unfair because the resolution depended on information not available until the end.

Depending if he means 'was discovered at the end of the story' or 'was not revealed to the audience until the solution was expounded on to the audience', I think maybe he is being unfair. The latter case I would agree is cheating, but in the former, is it not how detective stories go that they are a process of uncovering the information which indicates the solution? And therefore that the story typically ends once we have all the facts in hand because those facts indicate the answer and thus our mystery is solved?

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

I completely agree... the facts are generally revealed as the story goes.. or should be in good stories, but at the end, when the "hero" (or heroes) solves the case, all the informatino should be there that the audience could too... i agree with you that it's cheating (or "arbitrary difficulty") if the hero goes "aha! i got it!" and the writers can only make him look brilliant by having the solution require information that was never given to us until post facto them solving it.