"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
Advertisements
Einstein and Mystery
The Impossible
The Elsinore Vanish is a variation of the classical locked-room mystery.
Ah, the French
Roland Barthes proposes an erotics of reading. And crime fiction does not come off well.
The Cleverest Christie: The Reversal
Writing about The Dry and its clever plotting reminded me of something I have been noticing about contemporary crime fiction, and brought me again to an appreciation of the skills of the masterful Agatha. An Engrossing Procession The clue-puzzle structure in The Dry is linear: a procession of clues or revisions point to first one … Continue reading The Cleverest Christie: The Reversal
The Limits of Reason
Their Story is Not Over In Devastation Road, two fifteen year old people, Matt and Chess, find the body of a friend and become embroiled in a murder mystery. In the process they come face to face with the sadness of death and the deep grief of bereaved parents, and they learn more about themselves and … Continue reading The Limits of Reason
Greek Tragedy and Freud: Auden on the Detective Story
For W. H. Auden detective fiction embodied a timeless idea, which appears in Classical, Christian and Freudian thought.
The Lonely Edge of the World
Hobart is beautiful and vibrant, but it sits on the edge of two great emptinesses.
