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.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
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
Thursday, May 14, 2015
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.
--
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
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.
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)
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