Ode on a Grecian URL

Hi, all! This hebdomadal is due at 11 am on the morning of Friday, November 24th.

Topic 1: Suspense and addiction in The Moonstone

For the last two lectures, Prof. Ortiz-Robles has been developing the connection between the suspenseful structure of The Moonstone and its physical effect on the reader. At the end of lecture today, he tantalizingly suggested that fiction -- or at least detective fiction -- could be understood in reference to opium.

Choose a meaty paragraph that describes in some detail the effect of opium either on Ezra Jennings or on Franklin Blake. How is this effect likened to the act of reading, or to the effect of Gabriel Betteredge's "detective-fever"?

Topic 2: How is reading detective work?

How does the novel describe the reading practice? Base your answer on a close reading of one of these four scenes:

• The "Oriental manuscript," pp. 196 and 198
• Rosanna Spearman's letter to Franklin Blake, pp. 309ff
• Ezra Jenning's transcription and translation of Thomas Candy's delerious ramblings, pp. 382f
• Gabriel Betteredge's final comments on Robinson Crusoe, p. 458

You might want to consider how these scenes enact detection, both deduction and induction.

Topic 3: Determining the effect of symbolic determination

How does the conclusion of the novel resolve or fail to resolve the problems of symbollic overdetermination that we discussed in class on Friday?