Podcast interview! Also, tons of writing completed.

I was flattered and honored to be invited as a guest on auticulture.com to talk about True Detective season 2 (with many references to season 1, because you can't completely separate the two). Here's the link to the podcast and write-up.

Jasun Horsley is a gracious and skilled interviewer. We covered a mind-blowing amount of territory as we discussed the many ideas presented in season 2. His approach is from a perspective that's pretty different from mine, but we had many observations in common, and we teased out some really interesting things as we compared notes.

The short version is that we are both fans of season 2 without being brain donor cheerleaders.

Next...

I've written 41 pages since my post here of 7 July.

Today's project: Complete the slide set for the presentation at NecronomiCon Providence, which is going to be on Friday, August 21, as listed here. My talk begins at 10:30. 

One of my drinking buddies is presenting during the 9-10:15 session:

"Lovecraft and Folkloric Methodology," Ken Van Wey, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

Ken is both a gentleman and an expert on Edgar Allan Poe, and I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts on Lovecraft.

Onwards and upwards, as always. I'll see about uploading the slide set here when I get it done.

Lots of writing today.

Lots of writing today. I began with a definition of the artist-investigator as first conceived by theater workers in San Francisco, then moved to an epistemology of investigation (via Richard Foley, "An Epistemology That Matters"). I examined how an artist-investigator approaches the necessities of investigation via an aesthetics of crime and redemption. I followed that with an aesthetics of criminality (this goes back to Jack the Ripper at the very least) and its corresponding aesthetics of redemption. The problematic nature of an aesthetics of redemption in the current day leads to the way that Cohle and Hart each differently approach the idea of redemption in True Detective. 

I followed that with a brief examination of the aesthetic sensibilities of the investigator with specific regard to Chambers's narrators, HP Lovecraft's investigators, and Cohle and Hart in True Detective (this part is incomplete because it's the real meat of the presentation, and I need to work on it intensively). I looked over Chambers's narrators and examined how some of them encountered beauty through their artistic sensibilities, including the horrible beauty of The King in Yellow (the text-within-the-text). HP Lovecraft's narrators have similar encounters with the weird, with some of them pulled into their investigations by their artistic sensibilities ("At the Mountains of Madness," "The Music of Erich Zann"). "Pickman's Model" is an obvious choice. Interestingly, though, it is Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath who is pulled along as much by aesthetics as he is by curiosity and determination. 

My IG account (@mensan98th) has the video of today's pages. All hail Themyscira!

Post-structuralism via Donald Burleson.

I finished a couple of items before diving into Donald Burleson's book Lovecraft: Disturbing the Universe. This is a masterful application of post-structuralism and deconstruction to Lovecraft's stories. It's especially refreshing after having read a relatively short piece on narratology, a critical theory that is rigid in its efforts to delineate narrative versus narration versus diegesis and then any number of sublevels of those three concepts. I also finished James A. Anderson's Out of the Shadows, a structuralist approach to Lovecraft that was interesting but ultimately ran a little half-hearted. Valuable as a prelude to Burleson, though.

The clock, she's a-ticking, to quote the esteemed Dr. Emilio Lizardo.

Thinking about Greek tragedy.

I've got much more work to do on the Providence paper, but I spent today's writing session on Greek tragedy and learning about Mithridates VI. 

I think this season is not going to be as bad as some critics have said. I'm thinking they're not getting a lot of the references, or if they are, they're dismissing them as too superficial. I don't think you can discount the death drives the three detectives each exhibit, and the use of tropes in detective fiction (in S2E1, there were image/reflection and sight/blindness, just for starters) are a modern version of the heavily ironic figures used in Greek tragedy, where surfaces present one face and depths present another.

Lots more to come on this. My first priority is Providence.

I speak at 10:30 a.m. the Friday of the conference, and heavens be praised, I am not going up against the Ramsay Campbell live interview.

"The Western Book of the Dead": True Detective, S2E1.

"Behold, what was once a man." --Bryan Maurice, or The Seeker, Walter Mitchell

Some of the Greek historical and tragedic references in this first episode of season 2 and how they play out in this episode:

Panticapaeum: Ancient Greek city in the Crimea. Built on Mount Mithradat. Mithridates took his life here in 60 BC.

Two sisters, Athena and Antigone. Heavy on the Greek irony: Athena is a virgin goddess, while the character of Antigone's sister is a sex performer online; Antigone died to stay true to her beliefs about burying her brother, while the character is a plainclothes police officer who's got it out for herself and everyone.

Frank Semyon sits across from Ray Velcoro, exchanging the gaze that Achilles and Priam exchanged at the fall of Troy. Privileged gaze: girls doing online porn; police surveillance.

The three detectives are staring into death, both their own and that of Ben Casper. Thanatos, the personification of death, represented by theta, poppy, butterfly (in Paul Woodrugh's girlfriend's apartment, on the wall by the bathroom door where Woodrugh takes Viagra), sword, inverted torch.

Nyx and Erebus are the parents of  Thanatos. 

Death drive: the drive towards death, self-destruction, and the return to the inorganic (Wikipedia); ego or death instincts are opposed to the sexual or life instincts (Freud, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," On Metapsychology, Middlesex 1987, p. 316). Later, Freud adjusted his theory so that eros opposed the aggressive instincts (New Introductory Lectures 1991, pp. 140-141).

Ben Casper's eyes have been cut out and he's been castrated, per Oedipus.

Casper was discovered at sunrise, so there's a vague attempt to adhere to the unity of time.

Much writing.

I've been writing a lot in my journals lately. I filled up journal 00002 and have made it to page 8 of journal 00003. Three more are on order (I use inventor's notebooks from www.bookfactory.com, and no, that's not a paid URL).

Tonight's writing is on Walter Benjamin and historical epistemology. Not particularly easy going, but it's important for when I start talking about an epistemology of investigation because I'll need some kind of theoretical grounding. 

I think I have done enough research to fill in gaps and begin writing in earnest. I'm going to order a few articles through interlibrary loan that will help with ongoing filling of gaps, but I think the background for the structure as a whole is now solid enough to bear some considered development.

Today's research.

I scoured the TOCs of the journal Lovecraft Studies to see what I needed to gather for more reading. Here's the list:

The Masks of Nothing: Notes toward a Possible Reading of Lovecraft, by Eduardo Haro Ibars, translated by Marie Claire Cebrián 17:26-29 (October 1988)

Infratextual Structures in Poe, Bierce, and Lovecraft, by Andrew Wheeler 21:3-23 (April 1990)

Lovecraft: Artist or Poseur?, by Kenneth W. Faig, Jr. 22/23:46-49 (Lovecraft centennial issue) (October 1990)

Lovecraft on Human Knowledge: An Exchange, by K. Setiya and S.T. Joshi 24:22-23, 34 (Spring [April] 1991)

Empiricism and the Limits of Knowledge in Lovecraft, by K. Setiya 25:18-22 (Fall [October] 1991)

--Lovecraft’s Semantics, by Kieran Setiya 27:26-30 (Fall [October] 1992)

A Gothic Approach to Lovecraft’s Sense of Outsideness, by Kirk Sigurdson 28:22-34 (Spring [April] 1993)

--Lovecraft’s Aesthetic Development: From Classicism to Decadence, by S.T. Joshi 31:24-34 (Fall [October] 1994)

--Some Aspects of Narration in Lovecraft, by Dan Clore 40:2-11 (Fall 1998)
The Problem with Solving: Implications for Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft Narrators, by Deborah D’Agati 42-43:54-60

“Reality” and Knowledge: Some Notes on the Aesthetic Thought of H.P. Lovecraft, by S.T. Joshi 3:17-27 (October 1980)

Lovecraft’s Concept of “Background”, by Steven J. Mariconda 12:3-12 (April 1986)

The three in italics I have on order via available back issues of the journal; the others I'll need to get through interlibrary loan. 

Planning the next stage.

I am waiting to hear details on my presentation, specifically how long I'll have to talk. At this point, I'm planning to write a 10-page paper that I will know well enough to talk about rather than from. I would rather not show slides, because, well, slides, but I'm a believer in having a plan B. So I'll have slides on a USB stick in my pocket and will consider between now and then putting together some handouts (even if just the lecture notes of the slides). 

Here's the abstract as submitted:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and tracing back to the Biblical Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to change within the genre. Without the investigator, without some figure fortified by curiosity and determination, much of the work of HP Lovecraft would not have been possible.

In the HBO series True Detective, the investigator has evolved into the "artist-investigator." This term is most often used in theater--and then only by a few groups--to describe an artist, employed by a theater company, who pushes against theater's current boundaries. Noteworthy is that the term is not used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address the artist-investigator as part of its canon. These are critical omissions.

In this talk, a review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, along with a discussion of True Detective, will show how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of character derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This talk, by closely examining the above elements, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

And here's the outline for a 10-page paper that treats the content:

Introduction: My topic in brief and what I'll talk about

Brief overview of movements in detective fiction

Brief overview of tropes and dynamics in detective fiction

The artist-investigator
   Definition in theater
   Epistemology of investigation
   Aesthetics of crime and redemption
   Artistic sensibilities of the detective
   Artistic sensibilities of the criminal

True Detective and the artist-investigator
   Chambers as source material
   Lovecraft as source material
   Cohle vs Hart as investigators
   Cohle as artist-investigator

Conclusion; Q&A

I'll need to write a longer version and trim it to 10 pages. This will give me a start on it.

Good news!

I am officially a presenter at NecronomiCon Providence this year! I got the email this morning from the person who's the head of programming. 

This gives me a road map for what to do in the next 2 months. Before, it was a toss-up: do I prep a conference paper, or do I start writing book chapters? This way, it's the natural progression from abstract to conference paper to book.

Really, really happy about this!

A draught from the river of inspiration.

I saw Neal Stephenson (@nealstephenson on Twitter) speak last night at the Sidwell Friends Meeting Room here in DC. 

Listening to him speak was food for the soul.

He had a cold and had done 21 (not a typo) radio interviews yesterday, and he apologized for being hoarse. Everyone who got up to ask questions thanked him for talking to us. Even that seemed too little.

He spoke for about 10 minutes about his new novel Seveneves, of which I now own a signed copy, and read an excerpt. The next 50 minutes were solid questions. No one had anything really difficult to ask him, though he did note occasionally that a question was interesting, such as the one a gentleman asked about where and how he saw himself in his own stories, eg, as a character, an observer, or what. Apparently Stephenson had never been asked anything like that before, because his reply was thoughtful yet inconclusive; it seems that he positions himself as an invisible observer more than anything. 

I also got my copy of Cryptonomicon autographed. It's the #2 book behind Moby-Dick in my list of all-time favorites, and now it's a real treasure because he added "To Heather" above his name. I asked him if he still did historical fencing, and he said that he does it 3-4 times per week. He has dark, Gaelic looks, yet his eyes are very kind.

I'm also still reading in The Hastur Cycle and waiting to hear if my abstract has been accepted for NecronomiCon Providence.

Where I'm going:

I have been flailing with figuring out where to start writing this thing. No luck. I've written three pages of outlines in my notebook, still no luck. I reread the scholarship notes I'd made a few weeks ago. You get it.

Then I wrote

Where I'm going:

And here's what I discovered.

I'm going to take my audience through a brief review of two unlikely writers of investigation--Poe, who did it consciously, and Chambers, who did it as a consequence of his other narrative strategies--into a brief review of some 20th-century elements of detective fiction, ranging from the gumshoe to the ineffective detective. I'll then talk about the epistemology of investigation and how that leads into an aesthetics of investigation. From there, I'll discuss how the dominant tropes of detective fiction help shape that aesthetics of investigation with regard to the aesthetics of crime, investigation, and redemption. Next will come the definition of the artist-investigator, along with how Chambers, Lovecraft, and Cohle and Hart in True Detective are aligned with that definition. I'll wrap up by taking questions.

I think what I have in my notebook is everything without connections, and writing that paragraph helped me establish them. 

The map and the mask.

This may be the overarching metaphor for this book.

The mask: Chambers, The King in Yellow, and True Detective ("Who Goes There?" and the unmaskings in Chambers)

The map: Lovecraft and True Detective (palimpsest)

(source: radarman.deviantart.com/art/Hastur-the-King-in-Yellow-42177576)

Back to the paper outline:

Brief review of detective fiction and tropes

The investigator in HP Lovecraft

The artist-investigator

    defined

    epistemology of investigation

Brief review of Chambers's artists as detectives

Brief review of HP Lovecraft's investigators as detectives

Aesthetics

    aesthetics of crime

    aesthetics of redemption

The artist-investigator in True Detective

After another glass of Sauvignon blanc and a few more minutes' thought, here's an improved outline:

Review of detective fiction

   gentleman-investigator/consulting detective

   gumshoe

   investigator as failed investigator/criminal

   impossibility of solving crimes/escaping criminal

Tropes

   visual metaphors

   priest/criminal/community as dominant figure

   concealment metaphors

   palimpsest metaphors

   atonement metaphors

Artist-investigator

   Chambers: artist as gumshoe

   epistemology of investigator: investigation as a way of knowing

HP Lovecraft's investigators

   artistic sensibilities

   investigators as artist types

Aesthetics

   aesthetics of crime defined

   aesthetics of redemption defined

   aesthetics of investigation -> artist-investigator

True Detective

   artist-investigator defined

   Chambers in True Detective

   HP Lovecraft in True Detective

Conclusion

Deriving a book outline.

Yes, I have a previous post that is an exploration of a book outline. Now that the abstract is done, I can pull an abstract from its contents.

--

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and tracing back to the Biblical Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to change within the genre. Without the investigator, without some figure fortified by curiosity and determination, much of the work of  HP Lovecraft would not have been possible.

In the HBO series True Detective, the investigator has evolved into the "artist-investigator." This term is most often used in theater--and then only by a few groups--to describe an artist, employed by a theater company, who pushes against theater's current boundaries. Noteworthy is that the term is not used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address the artist-investigator as part of its canon. These are critical omissions.

In this talk, a review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, along with a discussion of True Detective, will show how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of character derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This talk, by closely examining the above elements, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

--

Deriving a rough outline from this:

Introduction: Tropes and conventions in detective fiction; the world of the investigator

Part I: The artist as investigator in Robert W. Chambers


Part II: The investigator as both artist and scientist in HP Lovecraft

Part III: The artist-investigator

Part IV: True Detective via Chambers and Lovecraft

Conclusion

That's very, very preliminary.

Final work on the abstract.

SILENCE. I know I said last night that I was probably done.

Revision 6:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and tracing back to the Biblical Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to change within the genre. Without the investigator, without some figure fortified by curiosity and determination, much of the work of  HP Lovecraft would not have been possible.

In the HBO series True Detective, the investigator has evolved into the "artist-investigator." This term is most often used in theater--and then only by a few groups--to describe an artist, employed by a theater company, who pushes against theater's current boundaries. Noteworthy is that the term is not used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address the artist-investigator as part of its canon. These are critical omissions.

A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, along with a discussion of True Detective, shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of character derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper, by closely examining the above elements, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

(265 words, not counting this count marker)

I think this may be it. I feel this niggling urge to add something about the epistemology of investigation to the final paragraph, but that may not be necessary for this abstract.

Revision 7:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and tracing back to the Biblical Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to change within the genre. Without the investigator, without some figure fortified by curiosity and determination, much of the work of  HP Lovecraft would not have been possible.

In the HBO series True Detective, the investigator has evolved into the "artist-investigator." This term is most often used in theater--and then only by a few groups--to describe an artist, employed by a theater company, who pushes against theater's current boundaries. Noteworthy is that the term is not used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address the artist-investigator as part of its canon. These are critical omissions.

In this talk, a review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, along with a discussion of True Detective, will show how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of character derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper, by closely examining the above elements, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

(269 words, not counting this count marker)

I think I'm really, really close on this version. 

See, the hard part begins after this: the book chapters. So I diddle with the abstract. But hey, it needed diddling, or something.

What may actually be the final draft of the abstract.

So here's revision 4:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and, in fact, going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today.

That investigator has become the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used in theater studies--and then only by a select group--to describe someone who pushes against established boundaries in that discipline. It is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address this figure as part of its canon. This is a critical omission.
 
A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

Revision 5:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and tracing back to the Biblical Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to change within the genre.


In the HBO series True Detective, the investigator has now evolved into the "artist-investigator." This term is used in theater studies--and then only by a select group--to describe an artist, employed by a theater company, who pushes against theater's current boundaries. Noteworthy is that the term is not used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address the artist-investigator as part of its canon. This is a critical omission.


A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, along with a discussion of True Detective, shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of character derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper, by closely examining the above elements, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

(243 words, not counting this count marker) 

I'm now at the point of making minor word-level changes, so I'll let this rest. This may actually be it.

Revised abstract.

This post is going to have multiple updates tonight. Hold on to yer hat, cowboy.

Revision 1:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today. The HBO series True Detective presents us with another step in the development of the investigator. 

The term "artist-investigator" is used to describe someone working in the arts, especially theater, who pushes against established boundaries in the discipline. However, it is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology.

In this paper, I review selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, showing how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character is based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pitting the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper, by closely examining the links among Chambers, Lovecraft, detective fiction, and True Detective, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.

 (196 words, not counting this count marker)


The last graf needs work. 

A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.


Yep, that's better. Here's the abstract in full, revision 2:

The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and in fact going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today. The HBO series True Detective presents us with another step in the development of the investigator. 

That step is the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used to describe someone working in the arts, especially theater, who pushes against established boundaries in the discipline. However, it is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology.

A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.

(203 words, not counting this count marker)


Revision 3: 


The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and in fact going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today. The HBO series True Detective presents us with another step in the development of the investigator. 

That step is the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used in theater studies to describe someone who pushes against established boundaries in the discipline. However, it is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address this figure as part of its canon. This is a critical omission.

A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

(227 words, not counting this count marker) 

Revision 4:


The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and, in fact, going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today.

That investigator has become the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used in theater studies--and then only by a select group--to describe someone who pushes against established boundaries in that discipline. It is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address this figure as part of its canon. This is a critical omission.
 
A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator. 

(249 words, not counting this count marker)