Call of the Void
Major
English – Writing
Submission Type
Oral Presentation
Area of Study or Work
English-Writing
Faculty Advisor
Michael Theune
Expected Graduation Date
2024
Location
CNS E104
Start Date
4-13-2024 11:15 AM
End Date
4-13-2024 12:15 PM
Abstract
"Call of the Void" is a fictional story set after the last show of the famous illusionist Lyall Messer, which ended as a tragedy when six thousand people in the audience disappeared from their seats. The story’s protagonist, Tony Bartier, tells the story of Messer as a person and his thoughts on what led Messer to a mass murder and subsequent suicide. The story encompasses multiple formats, including transcriptions of talk show interviews with Messer, excerpts from Messer’s diary, and even sections with abstract incomprehensible voices that grow louder and angrier. My intention is to address Dostoevsky’s question of whether a person has a right to take lives and to do so within the atmosphere of tragedy and despair that exists in Russian literature. "Call of the Void" is a detective fiction that simultaneously explores the mysterious disappearance of Messer’s audience and why and how a person might come to commit a horrific crime of murder.
Call of the Void
CNS E104
"Call of the Void" is a fictional story set after the last show of the famous illusionist Lyall Messer, which ended as a tragedy when six thousand people in the audience disappeared from their seats. The story’s protagonist, Tony Bartier, tells the story of Messer as a person and his thoughts on what led Messer to a mass murder and subsequent suicide. The story encompasses multiple formats, including transcriptions of talk show interviews with Messer, excerpts from Messer’s diary, and even sections with abstract incomprehensible voices that grow louder and angrier. My intention is to address Dostoevsky’s question of whether a person has a right to take lives and to do so within the atmosphere of tragedy and despair that exists in Russian literature. "Call of the Void" is a detective fiction that simultaneously explores the mysterious disappearance of Messer’s audience and why and how a person might come to commit a horrific crime of murder.