S. - Theseus' ship

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S. - The Ship of Theseus is an experimental novel by Doug Dorst based on a concept by JJ Abrams .

With this novel, the two authors developed a nifty game with fictional authors, editors and readers nested in one another. On the face of it, real readers have a used book from a lending library published in 1949, allegedly the work of a VM Straka , translated from Czech into American English by a fictitious translator and provided with a foreword and many explanatory footnotes.

The novel itself revolves around the search of the title character "S" for his identity and personal story. In addition, the book offers a novel within a novel: over the pages of the work there are countless handwritten notes from two equally fictional readers who talk in a kind of analog chat about their reading experiences, their research into the identity of the alleged author and their personal feelings and exchange their relationship, which also leaves various materials in the book for mutual information - notes, letters, postcards, etc.

action

The novel consists of several levels of action. The book in print is the last novel The Ship of Theseus by the fictional, mysterious author VM Straka, translated by FX Caldeira and published in 1949. It is about the search of a man without a past for his identity. Caldeira provided the work with a foreword and several footnotes. The reader learns that the identity of the author Straka is in the dark and that there are several conspiracy theories surrounding his person.

The student Jen finds the book, which is also described with numerous handwritten marginal notes. These come from the PhD student Eric, who is researching the author Straka. Jen also writes in the book. Little by little, a dialogue emerges at the edge of the book about the identity of Straka, secret codes in the footnotes, the relationship between Straka and Caldeira, life after college and love. However, the new information about Straka that the two find out does not seem to be welcome. The dialogue runs through the book in several sequences and is therefore kept in different font colors in order to be able to distinguish between these “time levels”.

The book also includes other materials such as postcards, letters, maps and newspaper articles that provide further background information on the plot. Many of the secret codes in the footnotes are resolved, but not all. For example, it is up to the reader to solve the code of the last chapter with the enclosed "Eötvös disk".

Outside the book

Little by little, more information about the novel and the identity of the people will be published on the Internet with further information on the unsolved puzzles. A Twitter message from the author Dorst refers to a Tumblr post with an alternative ending. There are some podcasts from “Radio Straka” and the website “Dossier of VM Straka” with a lot of background information.

Press reviews

  • As if Franz Kafka and Karl May had written an adventure novel together after a night of partying. (Nicolas Freund / Süddeutsche Zeitung)
  • JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst show in their splendid confusion "S. - The Ship of Theseus" the limits of the e-book universe. (Tilman Spreckelsen / Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

See also

  • The Ship of Theseus refers to a since ancient handed down problem in the philosophy of identity.

Text output

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Twitter post from February 24, 2014. In: Twitter user Doug Dorst @dougdorst. Retrieved February 19, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Tumblr post from February 24, 2014. In: Tumblr blog by user jenheyward. Retrieved February 19, 2016 .
  3. ^ S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst / Radio Straka - a series of remote broadcasts. Retrieved February 19, 2016 .
  4. ^ Dossier of VM Straka. Retrieved February 19, 2016 .