What is it, in summary?: “Doc” Stoeger is the editor, and most of the staff, of a local newspaper in a small town where nothing ever happens. Except for tonight, when everything’s happening at once, and Doc has to keep rewriting the newspaper’s front page while struggling to stay alive and not get arrested for murder in this screwball noir.
What do you love about it?: Fredric Brown is mostly known today for SF, but I love his crime stories, which have a weird atmosphere that often verges on SF. Hard-drinking, mild-mannered, Lewis-Carrol-quoting Doc is a quirky, likeable narrator-protagonist, and he’s having the weirdest night of his life.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Doc claims he bought the house he grew up in purely because it was practical; and he very briefly mentions losing his fiancée to TB, and then never brings up the topic again. As the events of the novel show him to be considerably more sentimental than he’s willing to admit, I’d like to see some explorations of that side of him. Alternately, I'd be just as happy to watch Doc deal with another crazy local news story or two.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): It’s a murder mystery, so obviously there’s some violence and death. Period-typical attitudes, but nothing that really jumps out iirc. Large amounts of drinking (Doc’s pretty obviously a functional alcoholic, by 21st-century standards if not by 1950s standards.)
Night of the Jabberwock (1950)
Media: novel
Approx length: short novel, approx 150-160 pages
Where to find it: I think it’s on Kindle
What is it, in summary?: “Doc” Stoeger is the editor, and most of the staff, of a local newspaper in a small town where nothing ever happens. Except for tonight, when everything’s happening at once, and Doc has to keep rewriting the newspaper’s front page while struggling to stay alive and not get arrested for murder in this screwball noir.
What do you love about it?: Fredric Brown is mostly known today for SF, but I love his crime stories, which have a weird atmosphere that often verges on SF. Hard-drinking, mild-mannered, Lewis-Carrol-quoting Doc is a quirky, likeable narrator-protagonist, and he’s having the weirdest night of his life.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Doc claims he bought the house he grew up in purely because it was practical; and he very briefly mentions losing his fiancée to TB, and then never brings up the topic again. As the events of the novel show him to be considerably more sentimental than he’s willing to admit, I’d like to see some explorations of that side of him. Alternately, I'd be just as happy to watch Doc deal with another crazy local news story or two.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): It’s a murder mystery, so obviously there’s some violence and death. Period-typical attitudes, but nothing that really jumps out iirc. Large amounts of drinking (Doc’s pretty obviously a functional alcoholic, by 21st-century standards if not by 1950s standards.)