| The Eight Memes of the Postmodern Mystery |
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By Ted Gioia
What do postmodern writers have against the mystery
novel? For reasons that perhaps only a Lacan or Derrida
could deconstruct, they have turned to it again and again,
wreaking havoc with its rules and formulas, and trans-
forming the conventional whodunit into a playground for
the most experimental tendencies and avant-garde
techniques. The culprits: Thomas Pynchon, Vladimir
Nabokov, Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, Alain Robbe-
Grillet and a host of other literary hit men and hit women.
Related Articles:
The Postmodern Mystery: 50 Essential Works
Selected Quotes on Detective Fiction
In the process, they have created an entirely new genre: the
postmodern mystery. These books possess a paradoxical
beauty, both celebrating and undermining the precepts of
crime fiction. To some degree, these are the emblematic
books of our time. They recognize our desire for the
certainty and affirmation of order epitomized by the
traditional mystery story, yet they also play on our desire
to reject formulas and move beyond the constraints of the
past. We want to savor this reassuring heritage, with its
neat and tidy to solutions to all problems, even while
enjoying the fun of toppling it over and watching the
pieces fall where they may.
Even so, fans of conventional whodunits may do well to
steer clear of these books, which will thwart their
expectations, mess with their minds, and possibly
undermine their faith in the triumph of law and order.
Put simply, these books are not for the faint of heart.
But how do you know which works of fiction fall under
the rubric of postmodern mystery? Like any detective, the
reader needs to gather evidence and look for clues. Here is
a checklist: my handy guide to the eight memes of the
postmodern mystery. Be on the lookout for these tell-tale
signs, and if you encounter any of them in a book or story,
take all necessary precautions.
1. The Author Appears as a Character...or Even a
Suspect: The worst most writers have to fear is a bad
review or poor sales. But these authors might get a
conviction and the death penalty. That’s the price they
pay for showing up as characters in their own novels
without a good alibi.
Examples:
Cameron McCabe: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
Norman Holland: Death in a Delphi Seminar
Miguel Syjuco: Ilustrado
2. An Obsession with Texts: Forget about solving the
crime, postmodern detectives wants to interpret a text. Or
write a text. Or sometimes they are hiding inside a text.
Why bother with fingerprints and autopsy reports, when
you could be consulting Baudrillard and Barthes? The
producers of C.S.I. are reportedly so entranced by these
books, that they are planning a follow-up show called
M.L.A.
Examples:
Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire
Paul Auster: The New York Trilogy
Gilbert Sorrentino: Mulligan Stew
3. The Failed Detective: When Professor Moriarity
grappled with Sherlock Holmes, sending both plunging to
their death at Reichenbach Falls, reader outrage was so
intense, Arthur Conan Doyle was forced to resurrect his
famous detective in a follow-up story. Postmodern readers,
in contrast, are sympathetic to the failed and foiled
detective—ready to forgive incompetence with an easy
excuse such as "Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown."
Examples:
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The Pledge
Leonardo Sciascia: Equal Danger
Alain Robbe-Grillet: The Erasers
4. The Scales of Justice are Sagging: Remember that
old adage about "crime doesn't pay"? It doesn't apply in
the postmodern mystery. In these works, the detectives
are the patsies, while the criminals seem to have an
inexhaustible supply of Monopoly "Get Out of Jail Free"
cards.
Examples:
Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley
Jean-Patrick Manchette: The Prone Gunman
Gabriel García Márquez: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
5. Not Much Crime, But Plenty of Clues: Why worry
about solving a particular crime, when the whole world is a
web of clues and complicity? In the postmodern novel,
almost everything can be seen as evidence, and even the
most banal, everyday event can be infused with a sense of
paranoia and foreboding.
Examples:
Witold Gombrowicz: Cosmos
Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49
Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum
6. The Wounded Investigator: The heroic qualities of
the detective are undermined in the postmodern mystery.
Instead of the shrewd and courageous private investigator,
we encounter Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old autistic
boy, or Lionel Essrog, afflicted with Tourette’s syndrome,
or Doc Sportello, burned out on too many drugs with
barely enough brain cells functioning to find where he
parked his car, let alone solve a murder mystery.
Examples:
Jonathan Lethem: Motherless Brooklyn
Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time
Thomas Pynchon: Inherent Vice
7. The Genre Mashup: The postmodern mind delights
in the juxtaposition of contrary genres and styles. So why
shouldn’t a postmodern mystery also take on elements of a
sci-fi story? Or a gothic romance? Or a historical
novel?
Examples:
Joyce Carol Oates: Mysteries of Winterthurn
Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
8. There’s No Mystery Here!: Why would the author of
a crime story tell you the identity of the killer on page
one? Doesn’t that spoil all the fun? But postmodern
authors have a different kind of fun in mind, and part of it
is playing games with your genre expectations.
Examples:
Martin Amis: London Fields
Paul Auster: Leviathan
Thomas Bernhard: The Lime Works
