Flann O'Brien

Date
19 October 2011

A couple of weeks ago, fans of twisted comic absurdity celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Brian O’Nolan, better known as Flann O’Brien. His great work The Third Policeman, written in 1929 but published over 30 years later (after his death), is a great example of Irish postmodernism. In Ireland, post-modernity came before modernity. In fact modernity never arrived, and due to a bureaucratic oversight no one thought to cancel it, so there are literary critics at bus stops all over Ireland still waiting. This cover is by Fatime Szaszi, a Falmouth student at the time, and perfectly expresses the reverse logic of O’Brien’s world.

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John O'Reilly

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