Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Detective Fiction in the Age of Mythology

You have done this, and you are cursed... As with much of the history of civilization, there have been two views of the origins of the detective story: one holds that there were no detective stories before the advent of organized police agencies and private detectives; Or in ancient Greek mythology, there are all kinds of investigations and counter-investigations, which are early detective novels. According to the first argument, detective novels should begin in 1841.This year, American writer, poet, and critic Edgar Allan Poe created his first detective novel, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.Undoubtedly, from today's point of view, this novel has flaws of one kind or another, but it cannot be denied that it already possesses the three most basic elements of today's detective novels - detective, mystery and logic.The character creation and atmosphere rendering of the novel are also quite successful (of course, this is a conclusion drawn considering the background of the time at that time).But there is a problem here: if you agree with this statement, then detective novels seem to become "freaks" that do not conform to the theory of evolution.There is no reason for any new genre of fiction to "turn out".Therefore, even though Edgar Allan Poe's publication of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in 1841 can be regarded as a sign of the birth of detective novels, its actual origin can still be traced back to the age of mythology.

The beginning of the "Bible Genesis" tells us about two crimes - the mystery of the golden apple and the case of Cain's murder of his brother.In the first crime, Eve violated the earliest law of mankind - "You shall not steal from the fruit of wisdom" - a law made by God.Adam, who was completely innocent, was kicked out of the Garden of Eden and worked all his life for food and clothing; more seriously, the unborn children of Adam and Eve—our human beings today—were implicated and struggled with heaven and earth for generations.Moreover, no matter how good the human beings in later generations are and how much they worship God, they will not be able to obtain the fruit of life and have the same eternal life as God.In the second crime, the cruel Cain killed his younger brother Abel who was more pleasing to God because of "envy, jealousy, and hatred"—this is the first murder case in human history!Regardless of whether God's judgment on these two crimes is fair or not, at least it can be confirmed that such "extraordinary events" have accompanied us in a posture of "unable to do anything" since the birth of human beings.We can even think that "crime" and "salvation" are innate propositions of human beings, so that the detective novels that will appear in the future will have unlimited "useful space".

In addition to the Jewish classics, we find that in Greek mythology, which is the origin of European civilization, such events can be seen everywhere.Two family conspiracies stabilized the rule of the gods—first, Cronus overthrew the rule of his father Uranus, and then Zeus made his father taste the loss of his grandfather not long ago.Since then, the world of gods, humans and the underworld lived miserable lives under the laws formulated by Zeus, the violent, tyrannical, and sadistic god.Therefore, we will respect Prometheus who stole the fire from heaven, applaud Heracles for his twelve great achievements, and we will love to hear and see Odysseus, the first wise man, who played with the gods.It can be seen that "punishing evil and promoting good" in later detective novels has a long tradition.

Of course, literature cannot always remain at the stage of legends and myths, and the "resistance" of characters in literature should not remain at the level of "armed resistance", so that it will not be the turn of detectives to show their talents.History has entered the Age of Enlightenment.The thinker Voltaire told such a story in his novel "Zadig": the queen's dog and the king's horse disappeared, and Zadig said that he did not see them.But he said the bitch had long ears, was lame on her left front leg, and was recently pregnant with puppies; the horse was five feet high, had small hooves, and a tail three and a half feet long.He also said that the hooves of the horses were made of silver, and that the golden bits had ornaments on them.When he insisted that he had never seen a dog or a horse, the king and queen whipped him because they could not believe his words.But after the dogs and horses were found, Zadig's explanation proved to be true.

The drooping ears and breasts of the bitch marked the sand, and one hoof left a deeper footprint than the other; It is about a foot and a half long, and the marks left on the stone show the condition of the horse's bit and hoof.This wonderful clip by Voltaire is borrowed from a legend published 30 years ago by the Knight of Merry.His original purpose was not to illustrate the power of reasoning, but to express a helpless irony.On the one hand, the laws of the king and queen are still "unreasonable"; on the other hand, the utility of logical reasoning is manifested for the first time—although it is still against the law, it is obviously safer and more effective than in the era of Greek mythology .

There is an element of trickery and mystery in many of the stories in the novel, often cited as examples of wit getting out of a difficult situation, as in Chaucer's Tale of the Nun and the Priest, where a cock is caught by a fox and it persuades the fox to open its mouth. mouth and escape.And similar stories are not uncommon in another popular pamphlet.The descriptions of crime and wits in some works of the Italian writer Boccaccio and the pride of the British Shakespeare are more vivid and profound. In this long and dark Middle Ages, demons put on the cloak of "religion" and "law" and gnawed at the hearts of human beings unscrupulously; literature, as the most advanced productive force at that time, was undoubtedly trying to get rid of this obstacle. with bondage.Based on this, the emergence and prosperity of detective novels in the future seems to be a matter of course.

The era of capitalism is coming one after another, we must not be fooled by the slogan of "freedom, democracy, fraternity".In the early days of the establishment of the capitalist system, the system can be said to be full of loopholes.Special classes such as the monarch, nobles, and bishops still have privileges, and the new criminal investigation agencies established under the so-called new system are completely "running dog departments" to maintain the privileged class and protect their private property.Therefore, one can imagine the so-called new type of law formulated by the privileged class and enforced by the "running dog department".

Here is just one example, the famous detective writer (“Father of Sherlock Holmes”) Conan Doyle was once entrusted to investigate an injustice case.A pastor is consistently discriminated against and criticized for being a person of color.One rainy night, a horse in the pastor's village was killed, and the police immediately arrested the pastor.They roughly put in a bag a piece of flesh cut from a horse's carcass and a raincoat found at the vicar's house, from which they concluded that there was blood on the vicar's clothing; they forced the vicar's leather shoes on the spot From the shoe prints left in the mud, it was concluded that the footprints were exactly the same... In this way, the pastor was found guilty!Moreover, when the verdict aroused strong public dissatisfaction and demanded a retrial of the case, the government even appointed a person who strongly accused the pastor of guilt as a "neutral person" to be in charge of the retrial!You must know that this miracle occurred in the British Victorian era when the capitalist system was quite mature.Therefore, at the beginning of the establishment of this system, it is self-evident what the law looks like.

But on the other hand, we must see that although the process of establishing the capitalist system is somewhat ridiculous, it is better than nothing. As time goes by, various capitalist systems have been gradually improved.First of all, private ownership is recognized, private property is recognized and protected by international institutions, and any behavior that attempts to threaten the property of others is expressly prohibited.This makes crimes more "unforgivable" and lays a theoretical basis for the emergence of detective novels. Secondly, as an Englishman named Watt improved the steam engine, the productivity of the capitalist world developed unprecedentedly, and the people had more wealth—therefore, they were targeted by criminals without any suspense. It takes help to survive.And this has become the objective condition for the existence of detective novels.

Third, the perfection of the judicial system has legalized the work of detectives. Holmes can bid farewell to the predicament of "walking outside the law" of Robin Hood, Red Flower Man, and Liangshan Heroes, and openly appear in the investigation as a gentleman.Moreover, the evidence obtained by detectives can also be submitted to the authorities through reasonable procedures to achieve the purpose of detective intervention. Finally, the achievements of the industrial revolution promoted the development of science and technology, which became a necessary condition for the birth of detective novels.Chemical experiments, blood type testing, fingerprint identification, and many other technologies that are familiar to everyone today became the detective's trump card in that era, providing physical evidence for the detective's logical reasoning and making criminals invisible.It can be said that without breakthroughs in the field of science and technology, all the detectives' reasoning is just talking to themselves and will not produce any practical effects.If so, detective stories would be considered "fantasy novels".

It can be said that the birth of detective novels in the era of capitalism is no accident.This style of writing conforms to human nature and has never been neglected in the field of literature; it is a contradictory product of the early days of capitalism—it benefits from the perfection of various systems, and it is very necessary because of the loopholes in the system.Of course, the above only talked about the social basis for the birth of detective novels, and there are some more concrete reasons that should not be ignored.Such as life materials and sources of inspiration.Therefore, we have to talk about the first detective in human history, the "prototype" character that cannot be ignored in the creation of detective novels-Eugene Francois Vidoc.The Frenchman was a character unlike any other.He is not a writer, nor is he a fictional character in a certain work, but a real legend who played a major role in the development of detective novels. Vidock (1775-1857) was once a criminal.We know little about his early criminal history, except that he stole 2,000 francs from his mother when he was a teenager.He later joined the army and fought 15 duels in six months. At the age of 22, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. "In order to be an honest man", he decided to be a police informant.He wrote to Henri, the prefect of the Paris region, offering to serve him.He recalled that he once spent 21 months in prison, and then let the police arrange his escape to gain the trust of criminals.Due to his outstanding performance, Vidoc became the head of the Security Bureau in 1811-I am afraid that only French people who can't distinguish between danger and romance will complete Vidoc and his like.At the same time, he also took on some "private work"-opened a modern detective firm called "Bao inquiring". At the beginning, Vidok only had four men, and finally increased to 28 people.Almost all of his men have been in prison.Rumors continued to circulate that some of them—possibly including Vidock himself—planned the robbery and then went on to handle the case.They also do this because of certain rules and regulations - they don't get paid, and they get some payment and expenses every time they arrest a criminal.These actions are entirely possible, but have never been proven. Because the controversy caused was too great, the boss had to remove Vidok from his post.Afterwards, Vidok was reinstated for a while, but was soon dismissed again because of the lawless behavior of his subordinates.In the end, the firm closed its doors due to the constant troubles Vidock was having with the authorities (and, of course, he was no less of a concern).In the last 20 years of his life, Vidok still undertook some detective work, and wrote books about his legendary life in his spare time. Vidock's contribution to the field of detectives cannot be ignored.He pioneered many investigation methods, such as physical observation, footprint identification, disguise, logical reasoning and so on.He was also the first to establish a criminal index file, saving his followers endless trouble.Vidock wrote in his "Memoirs" (which is regarded as a classic by almost all subsequent detective novelists): "I frequented those notorious houses and streets, and adopted different guises. Indeed, the rapid change The clothes and manner of a man speak of a desire to remain hidden from the police, until the bums and thieves I encounter every day are convinced that I am with them." Indeed, Vidock's importance lies in his Essentially a hybrid of criminal and hero.Doubt about whether a person is a hero or a criminal is one of the basic characteristics of detective stories.His attributes directly affect the creation of later detective novels and the shaping of detective characters.Sherlock Holmes is to some extent the embodiment of Vidok - a hero who often commits crimes in order to maintain justice.The great writer Balzac is Victor's best friend.He often uses Vidoc to map someone in his works, and Watling (aka Jax Colin) in it is one of them. Vidok appeared in the western world at the most appropriate time and in the most appropriate posture.Those creators who have already reserved all the resources for creating detective novels, but lack of inspiration, moved the real Vidok into the virtual world almost intact, making him the protagonist of such works.Vidock is the fuse, he ignited the detective novel, and finally made it into a prairie fire. If we say that the history of mankind is a complete farce full of contradictions.Then the most extreme and dramatic manifestation of contradictions and farce is undoubtedly crime.Therefore, in the age of the Bible, the description of crime is a reflection of human nature; in the dark age, the description of crime is the cry of human nature; catharsis.Therefore, it is inevitable that detective novels appear in the "post-industrial revolution" era.It is equally plausible that this style of writing can last forever. It is obviously unscientific to think about the emergence of the detective story in isolation, ignoring the history before 1841.However, from another point of view, the emergence of anything always requires a symbolic event and a symbolic figure, because a specific job must always be undertaken by a specific person.Therefore, we still have to locate the birth of detective novels in 1841 AD.And the owner of this honor - American Edgar Allan Poe, will be the protagonist of the next section.