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Postmodern
The Eight Memes of the
Mystery
Postmodern Mystery

By Ted Gioia

What do postmodern writers have against the mystery Postmodern Mystery is a web site
devoted to experimental, unconventional
novel? For reasons that perhaps only a Lacan or Derrida and postmodern approaches to stories
could deconstruct, they have turned to it again and again, of mystery and suspense
wreaking havoc with its rules and formulas, and trans-
forming the conventional whodunit into a playground for
the most experimental tendencies and avant-garde Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
techniques. The culprits: Thomas Pynchon, Vladimir www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Nabokov, Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, Alain Robbe-
Grillet and a host of other literary hit men and hit women.
Visit our companion sites
Related Articles:
The Postmodern Mystery: 50 Essential Works The New Canon
Selected Quotes on Detective Fiction A guide to outstanding works of
fiction published since 1985
In the process, they have created an entirely new genre:
the Conceptual Fiction
postmodern mystery. These books possess a paradoxical Celebrating masterworks of science
beauty, both celebrating and undermining the precepts of fiction, fantasy, alternate history and
crime fiction. To some degree, these are the emblematic magical realism
books of our time. They recognize our desire for the
certainty and affirmation of order epitomized by the Great Books Guide
A look at contemporary
traditional mystery story, yet they also play on our desire
currents in literature
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 The Reading List
enjoying the fun of toppling it over and watching the (with links to essays)
pieces fall where they may.
Peter Ackroyd
Even so, fans of conventional whodunits may do well to Hawksmoor
steer clear of these books, which will thwart their
Douglas Adams
expectations, mess with their minds, and possibly Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective
undermine their faith in the triumph of law and order. Agency

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Put simply, these books are not for the faint of heart.
Conceptual
Martin Fiction
Amis
But how do you know which works of fiction fall under Great London
Books Guide
Fields
the rubric of postmodern mystery? Like any detective, The New Canon
the Ted Gioia'sPaul Auster
homepage
Leviathan
Ted Gioia (on Twitter)
reader needs to gather evidence and look for clues. Here The New York Trilogy
is
a checklist: my handy guide to the eight memes of the American Fiction
Thomas Notes
Bernhard
postmodern mystery. Be on the lookout for these The The
Art Lime
of Reading
Works
tell-tale The Big Read
Jedediah
Blographia Berry
Literaria
signs, and if you encounter any of them in a book or The Manual Books,
of Detection
story, Inq.
take all necessary precautions. Bookslut
Alfred Bester
Booksquare
The Demolished Man
1. The Author Appears as a Character...or Even a A Commonplace Blog
Suspect: The worst most writers have to fear is a bad Conversational
RobertoReading
Bolaño
review or poor sales. But these authors might get a Crimespree Magazine 2666
conviction and the death penalty. That’s the price they Critical Mass
Jorge Luis
DanaBorges
Gioia
pay for showing up as characters in their own novels Ficciones
without a good alibi. The Elegant Variation
Fictionaut
Truman Capote
Examples: In Search of the Classic Mystery
In Cold Blood
Cameron McCabe: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor Joseph Peschel
Norman Holland: Death in a Delphi Seminar Light Reading
Michael Chabon
Miguel Syjuco: Ilustrado The Yiddish Policemen's Union
The Literary Saloon
Los Angeles Review of Books
Agatha
Maud Christie
Newton
2. An Obsession with Texts: Forget about solving the The A.B.C. Murders
The Millions
crime, postmodern detectives wants to interpret a text. Or TheRobert
Misread City
Coover
write a text. Or sometimes they are hiding inside a text. Mystery Fanfare
Noir
Why bother with fingerprints and autopsy reports, when The Neglected Books Page
you could be consulting Baudrillard and Barthes? The Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Nota Bene Books
producers of C.S.I. are reportedly so entranced by these The Pledge
Open Letters Monthly
books, that they are planning a follow-up show called Readerville
M.L.A. Umberto Eco
The Reading Experience
Foucault's Pendulum
Reviews and Responses
The Name of the Rose
Examples: Tipping My Fedora
Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire
DavidWaggish
Gordon
Paul Auster: The New York Trilogy
The Serialist
Gilbert Sorrentino: Mulligan Stew
Witold Gombrowicz
Cosmos
3. The Failed Detective: When Professor Moriarity
grappled with Sherlock Holmes, sending both plunging to Mark Haddon
their death at Reichenbach Falls, reader outrage was so The Curious Incident of
intense, Arthur Conan Doyle was forced to resurrect his the Dog in the Night-Time
famous detective in a follow-up story. Postmodern
Elizabeth Hand

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readers, Generation Loss

in contrast, are sympathetic to the failed and foiled
detective—ready to forgive incompetence with an easy Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr. Ripley
excuse such as "Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown."
Norman N. Holland
Examples: Death in a Delphi Seminar
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The Pledge
Leonardo Sciascia: Equal Danger Franz Kafka
Alain Robbe-Grillet: The Erasers The Trial

Jonathan Lethem
4. The Scales of Justice are Sagging: Remember that Gun, with Occasional Music
old adage about "crime doesn't pay"? It doesn't apply in Motherless Brooklyn
the postmodern mystery. In these works, the detectives
are the patsies, while the criminals seem to have an Jean-Patrick Manchette
The Prone Gunman
inexhaustible supply of Monopoly "Get Out of Jail Free"
cards. Gabriel García Márquez
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Examples:
Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley Cameron McCabe
Jean-Patrick Manchette: The Prone Gunman The Face on the Cutting-Room
Gabriel García Márquez: Chronicle of a Death Foretold Floor

Philip MacDonald
5. Not Much Crime, But Plenty of Clues: Why worry The Rynox Murder
about solving a particular crime, when the whole world is
a China Miéville
The City and the City
web of clues and complicity? In the postmodern novel,
almost everything can be seen as evidence, and even the Mo Yan
most banal, everyday event can be infused with a sense of The Republic of Wine
paranoia and foreboding.
Patrick Modiano
Examples: Missing Person
Witold Gombrowicz: Cosmos
Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49 Haruki Murakami
Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum Kafka on the Shore
A Wild Sheep Chase

6. The Wounded Investigator: The heroic qualities of Vladimir Nabokov

Pale Fire
the detective are undermined in the postmodern mystery.
Instead of the shrewd and courageous private Joyce Carol Oates
investigator, Mysteries of Winterthurn
we encounter Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old autistic
boy, or Lionel Essrog, afflicted with Tourette’s syndrome, Flann O'Brien
or Doc Sportello, burned out on too many drugs with The Third Policeman
barely enough brain cells functioning to find where he
Orhan Pamuk
parked his car, let alone solve a murder mystery. The Black Book

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Examples: Georges Perec

Jonathan Lethem: Motherless Brooklyn A Void
Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time Marisha Pessl
Thomas Pynchon: Inherent Vice Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Thomas Pynchon
7. The Genre Mashup: The postmodern mind delights The Crying of Lot 49
in the juxtaposition of contrary genres and styles. So why Inherent Vice
shouldn’t a postmodern mystery also take on elements of Alain Robbe-Grillet
a The Erasers
sci-fi story? Or a gothic romance? Or a historical The Voyeur
novel?
Leonardo Sciascia
Examples: The Day of the Owl
Joyce Carol Oates: Mysteries of Winterthurn Equal Danger
Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose Gilbert Sorrentino
Mulligan Stew

8. There’s No Mystery Here!: Why would the author Theodore Sturgeon

Some of Your Blood
of
a crime story tell you the identity of the killer on page Miguel Syjuco
one? Doesn’t that spoil all the fun? But postmodern Ilustrado
authors have a different kind of fun in mind, and part of it
is playing games with your genre expectations.
Other articles and feature:
50 Essential Postmodern Mysteries
Examples: The 8 Memes of the Postmodern Mystery
Martin Amis: London Fields Selected Quotes on Detective Fiction
Paul Auster: Leviathan
Thomas Bernhard: The Lime Works
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Contact Info:
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www.tedgioia.com

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