by
n+1
(editor)
n+1 Issue 31: Out There
n+1 Issue 31: Out There
by
n+1
(editor)
by
n+1
(editor)
n+1 Issue 31: Out There
by
n+1
(editor)
by
n+1
(editor)
175
On spy fiction
(missing author)
4
terms
1
notes
179
The spy novel is silly, when it isn’t claustrophobic; urgent, but with an urgency severed from any link to the various impending geopolitical alarms — German invasion, Soviet infiltration, Chinese technological advancement, terrorist havoc — that the genre’s history continually sounds. There is something in the condition of existence in these novels, the presuppositions of their world, in other words, that seems, finally, to be at once illness and cure.
the "presuppositions of their world" bit is nice tho im not entirely sure what specifically the author is referring to
The spy novel is silly, when it isn’t claustrophobic; urgent, but with an urgency severed from any link to the various impending geopolitical alarms — German invasion, Soviet infiltration, Chinese technological advancement, terrorist havoc — that the genre’s history continually sounds. There is something in the condition of existence in these novels, the presuppositions of their world, in other words, that seems, finally, to be at once illness and cure.
the "presuppositions of their world" bit is nice tho im not entirely sure what specifically the author is referring to
pallid
(en)
(adjective) deficient in color; wan / (adjective) lacking sparkle or liveliness; dull
179
mise-en-abyme
(fr)
term derived from heraldry; means "placed into abyss"
180
The mole offers the spy story its mise en abyme: their every act is at once real and false, an embodied double negative; they threaten at every moment to double or triple themselves
notable
5 years ago
The mole offers the spy story its mise en abyme: their every act is at once real and false, an embodied double negative; they threaten at every moment to double or triple themselves
notable
5 years ago
bathos
(en)
(noun) a literary term coined by Alexander Pope to describe to describe amusingly failed attempts at sublimity (an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous); adj is "bathetic"
182
traduce
(en)
(verb) to expose to shame or blame by means of falsehood and misrepresentation / (verb) violate betray
183
The agency may in fact be the villain in most postwar spy stories: it tries to eliminate Jason Bourne, it traduces its employees like Milo Weaver or David Morgan
confirm
5 years ago
The agency may in fact be the villain in most postwar spy stories: it tries to eliminate Jason Bourne, it traduces its employees like Milo Weaver or David Morgan
confirm
5 years ago