Piers Plowman - Prolouge & Passus 1
To me, a mystery story has always fallen under the category of "something like Sherlock Holmes, or similar". The Valley of Fear was a very traditional mystery/detective story, something which leaves much suspense and drama throughout the work, and leaves the reader with a sense of satisfaction at the end. Poe's short stories "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter" also are full of intense moments of suspense, and they both are detective stories, similar to The Valley of Fear. Now, after reading the prologue and first chapter of Piers Plowman, the "mystery" aspect has been redefined for me. A mystery story does not have to be a stereotypical Holmes novel or story. It just has to make you curious, and keep up the intense suspense while doing so.
While the language in Piers Plowman is definitely difficult to decipher, there is still a sense of mystery, even in the first two parts of the book. Socioeconomic drama and religion dominate the first two passages, and initially one might be drawn to think that that has nothing to do with a mystery story. I thought it was extremely weird when I was reading it. But now that I look back and reflect, it seems like those instances where something new or spontaneous happens, such as the appearance of the random woman who came down the mountain and started acting like she was the coming of Christ, bring new things to think about while reading. From just the first two sections alone I cannot tell if this will turn out to be a mystery story, but it certainly is interesting, if difficult to understand completely.
I really like your point that a mystery novel simply needs to be a story that invokes curiosity and suspense rather than having to fit into a specific framework like that of Sherlock Holmes, although Doyle definitely does invoke curiosity and suspense in his novels. I wrote something similar in my blog post, because I also think that what defines a mystery story can't necessarily be forced into specific categories. I didn't really see any sense of mystery at all at first in Plowman, but after reading your point I can see the connection between Passus 1 and what you said about invoking curiosity in a story since the strangeness of the story definitely did make me curious about what will happen next.
ReplyDelete