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Culture Of Mystery Research Paper

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What is it about our culture that makes detective or mystery tales popular? Our culture is all about good defeating evil, you see this them everywhere within our society, mystery stories are but another element of this theme. Mystery stories appeal to human nature because they allow each of us to feel clever, especially when we’re able to figure out the subtle clues laid out for us throughout the story. Our culture has these themes throughout our lives we glorify these themes by always seeking to understand everyday mysteries, such as who killed Kennedy, who was Jack the Ripper, and just what really happened in the case of Lizzie Borden. Some of these mysteries have confounded our culture for decades while others have lasted throughout the …show more content…

Some of the mystery-genre that resonated with me were stories like, Columbo, Sherlock Holmes, in more recent years Alex Cross and Monk. These stories all resonated with me and the public at large not so much for the mystery as the how the detectives reasoned out the problems then solved the case. Case in point, Columbo always started with the killing so the audience already knew who the murderer was, the fun came in watching Columbo reason out the crime and then ensnare the criminal in a clever trap.
Do mystery stories exist in other cultures? Many cultures enjoy the idea of mystery stories, some of the best stories that we have in the United States have originated from other cultures such as Sherlock Holmes. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is another great mystery that has crossed over it was originally a Swedish mystery story. In Reykjavik “If there is a pretender to Henning Mankell's crown, it could well be Arnaldur Indridason. His Inspector Erlendur novels have the bleak setting, social realism and gentle pacing we associate with Scandinavian noir,” (Gibbs). Paris is not immune to the fun either, “For a contemporary police procedural that lives up to the legacy of Maigret, look no further than the dense, gripping Chief Inspector Adamsberg novels by Fred Vargas, two times winner of the International Dagger award,” (Gibbs). Those are but a few, there are many more and I suspect that many more hero’s as well as heroines will pop up to solve more mysteries throughout

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