V2nd - chapter 11 - more examples - Bastardized?

[alice wellintown]

> Isn't Oedipus sometimes referred to as "the first detective"? Robert
> Fagles in his introduction to Oedipus Rex in my Penguin edition says
> of him, "he is investigator, prosecutor  and judge of a murderer" who,
> of course turns out to be none other than himself.

The play is not a detective story. It's kinda silly to insist that
this analogy, employed to characterize the protagonist says anything
critical about either form. Oedipus is a masterpiece of tragedy and it
works because of the great dramatic irony the playwright has taken
great pains to develop.

Of course, Oedipus is, as are Stencil and Oedipa, a figure subjected
to irony, but of different kinds. Stencil doesn't discover anything to
render him tragic. Oedipa is still waiting to find out. Oedipus
discovers what we know; it is at this moment (see Camus on this) that
he is made tragic. Stencil and Oedipa are absurd, so their quests,
like Sisyphus's are projections of a world that they give meaning to.