Written by | Amo
"I" Am the Murderer: The Golden Age of Classical Reasoning and Narrative Trickery
Roger Aykroyd was a man who knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her first husband. He knew someone was blackmailing her. The evening mail would soon let him know who the mysterious endorser was. But Roger died before he could finish reading the letter— he was sitting in his study and was stabbed in the neck with a knife... And the murderer is "me," the one who is telling you the story at the moment.
- "Roger's Doubts"
Cover of Chinese translations of Christie's "Beer Murder", "No One Survives", "Five Little Pigs" and other works (People's Literature Publishing House, Nova Publishing House).
In 1920, Agatha Christie's The Strange Case of Stiles Manor and Freeman Clauvez's Barrel shook the literary world and ushered in a new era of speculative fiction.
This was the era of hypocritical prosperity brewed by the worst economic crisis of capitalist society and the era of the Great Depression that broke out at all. The First World War ended, but the social contradictions of European countries were far from being resolved. The division between the rich and the poor in society has widened sharply, and the number of criminal incidents has increased sharply. In the face of a variety of murders, kidnappings, robberies, and extortions, people, while showing disappointment with the guardian of the state apparatus, the police, are also looking forward to the emergence of detective characters who are both intelligent and courageous and insightful, which provides a social hotbed for the development of detective novels. At the same time, with the development of the second industrial revolution, the rapid development of industry in major capitalist countries, industrialization promotes urbanization, the emergence of a number of emerging cities, and the increase in the number of urban citizens directly promote the rise and development of popular literature of citizens. Detective novels have won the favor of the general public with their suspenseful storylines and challenges to the wisdom of readers, and have become the mainstream of popular literature - speculative fiction has ushered in a golden age.
The Golden Age is also known as the "Age of Classical Puzzle Reasoning". "Solving puzzles" was the highest purpose of the speculative works of this period. Bizarre criminal methods, impeccable cover-ups, hard-to-tell testimony... A variety of puzzles flourished in the Golden Age. People have an instinctive curiosity and desire to explore, and "solving the puzzle" is to capture the nature of this person, so as to make a big splash.
The seemingly simple measure of "unexpected, reasonable" is the highest state of classical puzzle reasoning, and it is also the touchstone for distinguishing first-, second- and third-rate detective fiction writers. Agatha Christie's first detective novel, The Mysterious Case of Stiles, showcases her creative talent. In a mysterious case, after the murder, Mr. Inglisan was unanimously suspected by the public and the police. However, the suspect has credible alibi. After interrogation, the jury acquitted him. At the end, the plot peaks and loops. After a series of investigations, Mr. Inglisan was indeed a murderer, but he covered up his crimes in a very ingenious way.
The Mysterious Case of Stiles is Christie's debut detective novel, pictured on the cover of an early Chinese translation.
Perhaps the pinnacle of the "puzzle-solving" nature of classical speculative fiction in Agatha's creation is Roger's Mystery, which pioneered narrative trickery. The so-called narrative trick refers to the author's use of article structure or textual skills to deliberately conceal or mislead certain facts to the reader, until the final revelation of the truth, so that the reader feels an indescribable sense of consternation. In this novel, Christie narrates the entire story in the first person, making the reader preconceived and entering the role of "I", thus deliberately inducing the reader to easily believe the facts described by "I" and assuming that the protagonist as the narrator will not be the murderer. In the process of reading the novel, the reader constantly speculates about who is the murderer among the other suspects, and as the suspicions of other characters except "I" are eliminated one by one, the reader becomes more and more confused. Finally, the novel's ending reveals surprisingly and logically that the murderer is the narrator "I" himself.
Stills from The Crime of Fashion (2017), adapted from Christie's work.
What makes you desperate to kill? The pinnacle of psychological reasoning
On a speeding train, Detective Poirot is woken up three times during the night. Early the next morning, it was discovered that Rachel, a wealthy American businessman in the same car, had been murdered and the deceased had been stabbed 12 times. Poirot silently observed all kinds of suspicious signs, interrogated the people in the same car one by one, and found that there was more than one murderer, which was a strange case of "collective revenge"...
- Murder on the Orient Express
Compared with writers such as Conan Doyle, who are known for their short stories and focus on expressing the personal intelligence of detectives, Agatha Christie's reasoning is more mature and more attractive. She likes to use layers of in-depth techniques to set up suspense - not rushing to a substantive conclusion through one or two reasoning, but leaving more room for the reader to analyze and imagine. In addition, Agatha has largely introduced psychological evidence, using psychological analysis as an important means of reasoning. If Holmes focuses on on-site investigation, he is good at finding clues to solve the case from tiny traces such as fingerprints, poison, blood stains, and soot. Well, christie's detectives are best at exploring psychology through dialogue and finding criminals.
As Poirot, her most famous detective, declared: "Nothing is more dangerous than hiding a conversation." Speak...... It is an invention that humans use to discourage thinking. At the same time, it is the most reliable tool for finding out what others are trying to hide. ”
Christie asks Poirot to talk to the suspect, and the content of the conversation is not only about the case, but also about personality, preferences, card skills, clothing, etc., and there are hidden mysteries in the seemingly unremarkable and even rambling conversation. In the long, trivial and seemingly casual daily conversation, Poirot had already smelled the murderous evil fear.
Through reflection on the conversation, Poirot could even expose "cooperative murder." In detective novels, it is generally one or two suspects who are the real murderers, and this model has been accepted by creators and readers in detective novels. But in Murder on the Orient Express, the lies in the passenger testimony of the passengers in the car are debunked one by one. It was eventually confirmed that it was a murder involving 12 people.
Stills from the film version of Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
What is even more amazing is the accuracy of Christie's psychological knowledge. In The Mystery of the Corpse of a Female Corpse in the Library, Miss Marple easily catches a liar from a dozen children. Miss Marple's explanation was: "People who lie always relax too quickly. My little maid Janet was like that, and she would convincingly explain that the rest of the cake had been eaten by rats, but the triumphant smile on her face when she went out made her stuffed.
In another novel, The Mysterious Villa, Miss Gwenda always feels some inexplicable hallucinations in her new home, thinking that she has witnessed a murder here. Miss Marple told her that the house had been inhabited by her when she was young. The subconscious of her childhood made her choose this house. After moving into the house, the familiar objects reminded her of the earth-shattering secrets buried in the ignorant consciousness of her childhood. Christie's translation of professional psychological knowledge into simple case-solving know-how is naturally more convincing in her explanation of the case.
In order to allow the reader's energy to focus more on psychoanalysis and reasoning itself, rather than being drawn to the bloody scenes of curiosity, ignoring the scenes becomes a major feature of Christie's novels. She had designed detectives to solve a case from decades ago: "Beer Murder" happened 20 years ago, and the evidence at the scene has long been lost. One-half of the novel is devoted to detective Poirot's conversations with the people involved in the case, and the other half is a review of the facts of the case by the people involved in the case. Poirot, on the other hand, digs up the truth and locks in the murderer in repeated tea chats.
It is true that Poirot's way of solving cases has become obsolete with the development of the times, but today, when a fingerprint can grasp all the information of the perpetrator, readers still like to watch Poirot wear his foot-clamping shoes, slowly walking through the country roads to Mrs. Maria's house. The impact of this approach on logic and psychology was so profound that criminal psychology became one of the topics of concern in the twentieth century, applied to the detection of real-world cases.
Christie and daughter.
No One Survives: Cruel Nursery Rhymes and Murder in the Closed Place
Ten people were caught in the point of not being able to connect with the outside world. Then they noticed an Indian nursery rhyme written on the parchment of the chiming bell:
"Ten black children went to dinner, and one choked to death with nine left.
The nine black children overslept, and one did not wake up, leaving eight.
……
Two black children bask in the sun, one scorched and one left.
A black child is too lonely, hang himself completely! ”
Then, one by one, people died, in exactly the same way as in Indian nursery rhymes...
- "No One Survives"
Christie is adept at using allusions, proverbs, and ballads to reveal the development of the fate of the characters in the book. Most of these references have a strong sense of suggestibility and fatalism, and appear repeatedly in the text to render the atmosphere of the novel. Her novels have many literary phrases and proverbs, and their use is mostly novel and unique. Christie's novel's unique approach to expression brings a refreshing feeling to her work. It is the first in detective fiction and has a dazzling value even in world literature.
In the novel "Long Night", the opening sentence "The end is the beginning" establishes the sad and poignant mood of the novel. The recurring gypsy fortune teller in the book adds a mysterious and melancholy color to the novel. At the end of the novel, "the end is the beginning" appears again, once again implying that the ending has long been predestined.
Among Agatha Christie's many works, the most successful use of metaphorical symbols is "No One Survives". This strangely conceived detective novel is also the pioneering work of the "Blizzard Mountain Villa Model": a group of people who know each other or do not know each other on an isolated island from the outside world, during which a terrible serial killing occurs, and the murderer is among the people... "No One Survives", as the pinnacle of this model, has not been surpassed to this day, and is considered one of the most accomplished speculative fiction in history.
Chinese version of the drama "No One Survives".
The nursery rhymes in "No One Survives" are no longer simply setting off the atmosphere, but are directly involved in the development of the plot of the novel. As people die one by one in the way the song is sung, the supposedly innocent ballad creates a gloomy atmosphere, the seemingly peaceful relationship is turbulent, and the murder becomes more terrifying and terrifying. The movie "Seven Deadly Sins" followed this model and was a great success.
Admittedly, due to the mysterious and illusory background environment, the complex and diverse relationships of the characters, and the serendipitous coincidences of the storyline, Agatha's novels are often defined by critics as entertainment and entertainment without the social utility of serious novels and classic novels. However, it is precisely this unique literary approach that has shaped the eerie and rich bizarre stories of his works and countless classic reasoning patterns that have impressed the world. One of the most amazing mystery writers, Agatha Christie, the great British writer who wrote mysteries all his life, not just with pen and paper, but with his own life:
On the night of Friday 3rd December 1926, she went upstairs to kiss her sleeping daughter and drove her black Maurice Cowrie out of her home in Berkshire, England. After that, Agatha Christie disappeared and no one ever saw her again.
This article was originally published in the beijing news book review weekly public number, September 15, 2015.
Author | Amo
Edited | Poultry Luodong
Proofreading | Chen Diyan