VDC and no CIA

Wed Aug 22 23:43:08 CDT 2001

Back to the book. One at a time. 

VDC
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:2020/dynaweb/teiproj/fsm/ro/@Generic__CollectionView

You can search for VDC. 

If you do,  you will get 9 documents and the history.
The dates. This is very important. P includes a slice
of time from the 1960s. He's very specific. He wants
to capture the reaction of different generations. This
a book about  a lot of things, but obviously, this is
a book about communication. 

Some things to think about. Why does P specifically
mention VDC? 

Protest? 

Also, 

Consider the fact that the college kids have Japanese
motor bikes. 

Consider the fact that Oediapa goes to a German Hotel.

Consider the fact that the IA founder, who survived
the horrors of WWII (working for the Defense Industry)
returned from war and went to work for the defense
industry but was pink slipped---lost his job because
he could not think as fast as an IBM. His wife, to add
insult to injury,  gives him a pair of Japanese
binoculars when she leaves him to have an affair with
the efficiency expert at the company. 

The IA sees the wire photo, the Buddhist Monk
protesting. 

He says, Groovy! Where did his get that word? 

The kids? TV? 

This book is almost notebook for VL. Sex and
communication and FSM next. 

Another question. 

Genre problem? Is CL49 a failure because it is a
detective/mystery  fiction or does it succeed as 
a political satire? 

But in fairness to our snob, we really haven't met his
objection head on if we
    insist on filing Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" in
the mystery section - even
    though it is undeniably a great mystery and a
greater legal thriller. No, if we're
    going to have any hope of expanding our literary
snob's view of literature, we
    need to agree on what actually qualifies as a
mystery.

    There are three basic requirements:
    - 1. An unexplained murder or missing person (or
thing) as the central plot
    device.
    - 2. A lone hero. Whether our detective is Miss
Marple or Travis McGee, the
    hero works alone. Oh, there may be a Watson to tag
along, but ultimately our
    hero must confront the danger and solve the
mystery alone.
    - 3. A single point of view. This is the crucial
requirement.
    An unexplained murder is at the heart of John
Grisham's "The Pelican Brief"
    and Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent," and each
novel has a lone protagonist.
    But Turow's book is a classic murder mystery while
Grisham's is not. That's
    because "Presumed Innocent" is narrated in the
first-person by the protagonist,
    and his is our only point of view throughout the
novel. By contrast, "The Pelican
    Brief" cuts between various points of view,
including the killer's.
    In many thrillers, the reader learns the killer's
identity in the very first chapter,
    e.g., "Absolute Power." In mysteries, the reader
usually discovers the murderer's
    identify after the hero does.

    OK? Now to the list. Here are nine mysteries that
any literary snob should be
    pleased to include in his library:
    1. "Heart of Darkness," by Joseph Conrad. Not only
is this short novel one of
    the great works of modern literature, it's also
the prototype of the 20th-century
    American detective novel - even though it was
written at the end of the 19th
    century. Its theme is European imperialism in
Africa, and its author was a Polish
    immigrant writing in England.
    The story, stripped to its basics, is immediately
familiar; the search for a
    powerful missing person, narrated in the first
person by a cynical loner who in
    the end turns out to be a grudging romantic. And
two women, of course - the
    lovely fiancee the vanished man left behind and
the exotic beauty who may now
    be his illicit companion. Sounds almost like "The
Big Sleep," doesn't it?
    There's no better introduction to the great
American detective novel than this
    Polish immigrant's short masterpiece.
    2. "The Crying of Lot 49," by Thomas Pynchon.
    Our reluctant detective is California housewife
Oedipa Mass, who is trying to
    sort out the details of the estate of her former
lover, an eccentric California
    mogul.
    This is classic Pynchon, where, as one critic
wrote, "the more we think we
    know, the less we know we know." And all set
within the structure of the
    American detective story that Pynchon
simultaneously copies and spoofs.
    3. "Labyrinths," by Jorge Luis Borges. The stories
in this extraordinary
    collection include "Death and the Compass," a
mystery in which the detective
    hero, Erik Lonnrot, a "pure reasoner" of the
Sherlock Holmes variety, agrees to
    help find a serial killer whose victims are rabbis
and Hebrew scholars.
    4. "A Murder of Quality," by John LeCarre. The
author toiled for years in the
    vineyards of another low-status genre, the spy
thriller, before critics discovered
    that his potboilers happened to be exceptional
novels. Back in 1962 - the year
    before "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" -
LeCarre published a short
    mystery masterpiece, "A Murder of Quality." George
Smiley, the dumpy hero of
    LeCarre's finest spy novels, puts in a turn at
detective that would have made
    Edgar Allen Poe chuckle with admiration.
    5. "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco. This
was the sleeper of 1980 - a
    work of fiction set in the Middle Ages and written
by a respected Italian scholar
    who had built his considerable academic reputation
in the field of semeiotics.
    Published without fanfare, "The Name of the Rose"
astounded the industry by
    selling millions and receiving several of Europe's
most prestigious literary prizes.
    The novel is a classic murder mystery, set in 1327
in a Benedectine monastery
    in northern Italy. Enter our detective, an English
Franciscan and master logician
    named William of Baskerville. Yes, Baskerville.
    6. "Absolam, Absolam," by William Faulkner. The
author flirted with the
    mystery genre - in "Knight's Gambit" and "Intruder
in the Dust" - and he wrote
    the screenplay for "The Big Sleep." His "Absolam,
Absolam" is simply a
    superior detective story.
    The novel opens in 1909 on the eve of Quentin
Compson's departure for his
    freshman year at Harvard. He is summoned to the
home of the elderly Miss
    Rosa Coldfield, who forces Quentin to listen to
her story of her wicked
    brother-in-law, Thomas Sutpen, who created
Sutpen's Hundred, a thriving
    plantation complete with splendid mansion and
socially prominant wife. But his
    quest to forge a dynasty exploded in a gothic
swirl of sex, madness, murder and
    mystery.
    7. "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight," by
Vladimir Nobokov.
    Conrad Brenner, writing in the New Republic,
describes this book as "the most
    perverse novel you are ever likely to encounter."
The novel is a spoof on literary
    biographies. Our narrator's mission is to ferret
out the real story of his
    half-brother, Sebastian Knight, an obscure Russian
emigre writer who died early
    in his career.
    The plot itself sounds straightforward enough: an
amateur biographer' s search
    for the real story of a minor 20th-century author.
But this is Nabokov country,
    which means that we soon find ourselves within a
hall of mirrors as baffling and
    beautiful and infuriating as a Pynchon novel - and
all deliciously conducted by
    the maestro of English prose.
    8. "The Big Sleep," by Raymond Chandler.
    You can now purchase your Raymond Chandler in the
fancy schmancy Library
    of America series, between Cather and Emerson.
    Never mind that the plot has a few loose ends.
Read it for the mood, for the
    characters, and for the language. Chandler was a
master of the one-liner - "It
    was a blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a
stained-glass window" - and the
    extended scene setter. Here's his description of
the greenhouse where Marlowe
    meets his new client, General Sternwood:
    "The air was thick, wet, steamy and larded with
the cloying smell of tropical
    orchids in bloom. The glass walls and roof were
heavily misted and big drops of
    moisture splashed down on the plants. The light
had an unreal greenish color,
    like light filtered through an aquarium tank. The
p lants filled the place, a forest
    of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like
the newly washed fingers of
    dead men."
    9. "The Maltese Falcon," by Dashiell Hammett.
    If our snob has only one Hammett to read, let it
be this one, in part because Sam
    Spade is the quintessential hard-boiled detective
and in part because, like "The
    Big Sleep," the book is even more delicious than
the movie. When the novel was
    first published, the London Times Literary
Supplement wrote, "This is not only
    probably the best detective story we have ever
read, it is an exceedingly well
    written novel." That verdict still holds.
    There. That's nine. The unifying factor: great
writing.

    Michael A. Kahn, NINE MYSTERIES FOR LITERARY
SNOBS. , St. Louis
    Post-Dispatch, 05-24-1998, pp C1. 

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