Crime and Punishment

My official New Yorker recommendation this week is "Letter from Poland: True Crime" (February 11 & 18 issue).   It is a fascinating study of a man who commits a murder of passion and then writes a splashy transgressive novel about it.  The work frames the crime as part of the novel's amoralistic  philosophical implications. The text and the author's philosophical views play a starring role during the police investigation and murder trial.

Before the the trial commences, the alleged murderer accuses the Polish police of kidnapping and torturing him when he was first taken into police custody.  He then commences a suit against the Polish government.  He claims that he is being prosecuted for writing offensive and controversial material.  The author has a longstanding hobby, well known locally, of spreading outright lies about himself to challenge language and reality--he calls these "mytho-creations".  Despite this, he is able to spread his story via the internet and convince thousands of strangers that he is being persecuted by a reactionary government for penning a controversial text.  Despite a public outcry by supporters around the globe who condemn the Polish government's "persecution" of the author, his suit against the government is dismissed.  

During the trial itself, roles become reversed between the judicial system and the post-structuralist philosopher/murderer.  The trial turns into an exercise in literary theory and criticism, with witnesses, lawyers and judges interpreting the text while the defendant challenges the legitimacy of their factual evidence.  The defendant, who subscribes to radical relativism in intellectual as well as moral matters, declares that as the author he has the sole privilege to interpret his work! He also insists that there are subtle flaws in the prosecution's chain of evidence, and ends up using language as a meaningful tool to determine fact. It is a real coup for reality, and a swift kick in the boot to all the countless know-it-all uber-mensch freaks I had to deal with as an undergraduate philosophy major (who will now think twice before putting their ideas into practice).

Due to the case's generous publicity, the novel has become a bestseller in Poland and is being published in other languages.  In addition to literary immortality, the author also secured for himself 25 years in jail.