Synesthete Spies, Detectives and Outlaws: Unsettling Truths Uncovered Through (an Equally Unsettling) Synesthetic Process

Abstract

This article focuses on portrayals of fictional characters with neurological synesthesia in seven selected 20th and 21st century English-language novels in the detective-spy genre. Characters are discussed in terms of the five categories of literacy depiction of synesthete characters as outlined in the chapter, “Synesthesia and Literature” in the Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia (Oxford University Press, 2013). I will suggest that depictions of synesthete characters in the detective genre link synesthetic perceptions with glimpses of ultimate truth, and trace these tendencies back to descriptions of synesthesia in 19th century seminal European works (written during a very fertile period of research into audition colorée), including Arthur Rimbaud’s “Letter of a Seer” and Max Nordau’s Degeneration. Novels included in this study: Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov, The Synesthete by Brent Kiernan, Top Ten by Gene Ha and Alan Moore, The Fallen by T. Jefferson Parker, Miracle Myx by Dave Diotalevi, Still Waters by Nigel McCrery, Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews.