ABSTRACT
Reason is the organizing principle behind crime fiction's narrative structure. It is the method by which crime fiction's hermeneutic plot is constructed, and the force by which its developing action is propelled along. This chapter draws together some of the threads in the subversion of crime fiction's reflexive tendencies, connective systems, conventions of closure, and treatment of perception. From their common elements, one can gain an understanding of the pasticheurs' critique of crime fiction's reason. The chapter also shows some of the wider consequences of the critique of literary rationalism, through the implications it has for realist fiction in general. La Disparition's comic reworking of Poe's story leads one into Georges Perec's problematizing of detective story rationalism. A prerequisite for the understanding of Perec's approach to detective story reason is an appreciation of his use of the concept of clinamen.
