Piers Plowman Passus 2

Based on all the readings we've done, I think a mystery story is one with one person, usually the protagonist detective, who wants to solve mysteries and is able to be objective, and a mystery that needs to be solved within the story using clues left behind. Its main plot revolves around this detective and the deduction process that solves the mystery. On the other hand, crime story focuses more on the crime itself than the deduction process of the detective. Mystery in the story, a category I suspect this book might fall into, is similar to mystery stories in that there is a challenge that must be solved, except instead of a detective putting all the evidence together, it's up to the reader to figure it out.

I think Piers Plowman, by that definition, isn't quite a mystery novel. At first glance, it seems to be completely unrelated to the genre as a whole, since there is no detective, there is no gruesome murder or crime. Instead, all that's happened so far is a very vivid dream involving the personification of the Holy Church and a castle on a hill. However, I think it could technically be classified as one since instead of having a traditional detective figuring things out and analyzing clues, Langland assigns that role to the reader. It's not quite a novel of the mystery genre, but it is a mystery novel in that the novel itself if a puzzle that the readers must figure out.

To be honest, I don't particularly like this book. It is still extremely confusing, especially since it was written in Middle English. Trying to read it in Sean Connery's voice is kind of exhausting, but I have a vague understanding of what's going on.