De Selby
De Selby[note 1] is a fictional character originally created by Flann O'Brien for his novel The Third Policeman. Described as an eminent "physicist, ballistician, philosopher and psychologist", de Selby is known for his paradoxically non-scientific beliefs and personality. De Selby serves as an unseen character in The Third Policeman, where he is discussed at length in references and footnotes that tenuously link his unorthodox theories and areas of research to the plot. (In one footnote, he attempts to dilute water; in another, he posits that night is caused by the accumulation of "black air".) Later, O'Brien published The Dalkey Archive, a novel focusing on de Selby himself.
De Selby has a host of critical analyzers – the narrator among them – many of whom have deeply conflicting opinions of his esoteric thoughts. Although generally held in high regard by these people (many of whom hate each other), he is thought by many to have had regrettable lapses and is even called, by implication, a "nincompoop".
De Selby also appears in O'Brien's The Dalkey Archive, in which he develops a substance ("D.M.P.") capable of extracting all oxygen from an airtight enclosure, of disrupting the sequentiality of time, and of producing fine mature whiskey in a week.[1] De Selby vows to use the substance to destroy the world in the name of God.[1]
"de Selby" and his commentators are frequently cited in the footnotes of Robert Anton Wilson's novel The Widow's Son.[2] Wilson later included Professor de Selby as the main character in his short story "The Horror on Howth Hill" where de Selby has a conversation with J. R. "Bob" Dobbs.[3]
De Selby's research continues into the 1990s, when he compiles the Index to Roger Scruton's pioneering work of classical scholarship Xanthippic Dialogues.[4]
Footnotes
- ↑ Spelt "de Selby" in The Third Policeman and "De Selby" in The Dalkey Archive
References
- 1 2 Gonzalez, Alexander (1997). Modern Irish Writers. Westport: Greenwood Press. pp. 292–294. ISBN 0-313-29557-3.
- ↑ Wilson, Robert Anton (1985). The Widow's Son.
- ↑ Stang, Rev. Ivan, ed. (1990). Three-Fisted Tales of "Bob": Short Stories in the Subgenius Mythos. New York: Fireside. pp. 168–181. ISBN 0-671-67190-1.
- ↑ Scruton, Roger (1993). Xanthippic Dialogues.
External links
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