the Chess-board of the evil (original Title: Carrion Comfort ) is a Romance fantastic of the author states-unien daN Simmons published in 1989.

Argument

Saul Laski is a Juif survivor of the death camp of Chełmno in 1942 during the Second world war. During nearly forty years, it tracks without slackening its of torture Nazi of the time, the Oberst , disappeared without leaving traces after the war. Then, to the month of December 1980, murder series unexplained with Charleston in South Carolina give Saul on the track of its former torturer.

Presentation of work

the Chess-board of the evil of daN Simmons is appeared in the United States in 1989 and France in 1992. Composed of a prolog, three books divided into 78 chapters and of an epilog, this fantastic novel makes many loans with the thrillers, with the novels of horror, espionage and action. Besides daN Simmons makes of the character called Bob Joe Gentry an amateur of whodunnits (with John Mr. MacDonald, Robert Parker, Donald Westlake), of thrillers (with Robert Ludlum, Trevanian, John Le Carré, Len Deighton) and of horror stories (with Stephen King, Steve Rasnic Tem), thus giving to the reader the key of his own sources of inspiration. On this subject, the Chess-board of the evil made say to Stephen King that daN Simmons was its literary competitor most serious.

DaN Simmons did not neglect the historical aspects of its account, while returning in a way very realistic and documented well the life in the Death camps as well as the ideology and the exactions of the Nazi regime during the Second world war. He also recalls in a brief way, but without care, the creation of the State of Israel and the exactions made by the army Tsahal.

daN Simmons presented itself certain aspects of the set of themes of the Chess-board of the evil in the review Ténèbres, n° January 1st, th and th 1998.

Gerald Manley Hopkins

The original title of the novel of daN Simmons, Carrion comfort , is the title of a poem written about 1885 per the British poet and priest Jesuit Gerald Manley Hopkins. This poem, of which the title means “putrid comfort”, described the keen efforts of the poet to resist the “pit of major despair and without future” which opens with him.

The novel opens on the three first towards Carrion Comfort . The second book of the Échiquier of the evil puts forward another quotation of Gerald Manley Hopkins drawn from a poem without title: I wake and feel the fell off dark, not day . Lastly, the third and the last deliver novel begin with an ultimate quotation from the British poet, drawn from the poem No worst, there is nun. Pitched past pitch off objection .

The title and the various quotations of Gerald Manley Hopkins place from the start the work of daN Simmons under the sign of the pain, the suffering, eagerness to survive and point towards the infinite potentialities of the spirit which are, in the good or the evil, in the middle of the novel.

Summary of the history

In 1942, whereas he is prisoner of the death camp of Chelmno, Saul Laski, an off-set Polish Jew, is taken along by the colonel S Wilhelm von Borchert in a castle lost in full forest. There, it takes part like “pawn” in part of failures between the colonel and an old officer S. All the parts of the giant chess-board are like him prisoners left the camps. Saul makes then the experiment traumatisante “Talent”, this capacity psychic which makes it possible to the two officers S to penetrate in the spirit of the prisoners to make them move on the chess-board or commit suicide when they are taken by the adversary. After the war, become psychiatrist, Saul Laski endeavors to find the trace of its old of torture, colonel Wilhelm von Borchert, which it calls the Oberst .

In the month of December 1980, in Charleston in South Carolina, three old friends, Nina Drayton, William Borden and Melanie Fuller, meet to evoke their youth Viennese and especially to count their points. Indeed, each one is endowed with the “Talent” and watch to both others its last murders in date, with great reinforcement of video cassette and stereotype, newspaper cuttings. At the conclusion of their meeting, Melanie Fuller is made attack in full street by his majordomo, handled psychiquement by Nina Drayton. She defends herself by using itself several innocent passers by and neighbors and finally succeeds in escaping after having found and having assassinated her Nina friend.

Intrigued by the murder series unexplained of Charleston, Saul Laski carries out its own survey, helped soon by Natalie Preston, the girl of one of the victims of Melanie Fuller, and by the sheriff of the County, Bobby Joe Gentry. At the same time, the members of Island Club, directed by C. Arnold Barent, also men of “Talent” competitors of the three friends of Charleston, use all average the techniques at their disposal to find Melanie Fuller whom they decided to eliminate. A series of indices leads the two groups to Germantown, an outskirts of the city of Philadelphia. While Natalie Preston succeeds in convincing the groups of youth blacks of Germantown to help them, Island Club makes use of the logistic resources of the FBI to find Melanie Fuller. At the time of the attack of the house where the latter is hiding place, the two groups fire a whole district of Germantown and in blood, the Gentry sheriff dies cut the throat of, Charles C. Colben, henchman of C. Arnold Barent, dies in the crash landing of his helicopter, but the old woman succeeds in once again escaping. Saul Laski, which was contacted by its former of torture Nazi Wilhelm von Borchert and by C. Arnold Barent, includes/understands whereas the two men play part of failures life size of which the plate of play is nothing less than the territory the United States.

After the drama of Germantown, Natalie Preston and Saul Laski take refuge in Césarée in Israel. They study the files on Wilhelm von Borchert sent by Simon Wiesenthal. They go then to Tijuana to Mexico to return incognito to the United States, where they are awaited by an agent of Mossad which provides them material of espionage. After having succeeded in capturing Anthony Harod, a producer of cinema without scruples used at the same time by Wilhelm von Borchert and C. Arnold Barent, Saul Laski and Natalie Preston subject it to a truth drug and learn that the ex-officer Nazi and the American business man must meet at the time of the camp of summer of Island Club on Dolmann Island, off the coasts of South Carolina, for a hunting for the man and very special part of failures. Located soon by Richard Hatreds, they flee after having destroyed the evidence of their passage.

After having escaped with the agent Richard Hatreds, Natalie and Saul put at execution their plan: Natalie leaves for Charleston in order to come into contact with the old woman Melanie Fuller who starts to lose the reason and Saul Laski succeeds in being made enlist among the victims which will be brought on Dolmann Island to take part in a hunting in the man. After having survived hunting for the man, Saul Laski succeeds in penetrating in the residence of C. Arnold Barent, but is found soon captive. It must take part once again as “pawn” in part of failures life size whose stake is terrible: if Wilhelm von Borchert puts C. Arnold Barent in failure, the Play continues, but this time at the planetary scales with nations like pawns! In the explosion of the building and the general confusion which follows, Saul succeeds in jumping to the throat of the general von Borchert and killing it. The old psychic vampire does not have time to reach its spirit for preventing some, because Saul had patiently memorized the life of hundreds of off-set Jews, thus creating a psychic wall of protection in its spirit. All the members of Island Club perish, only Melanie Fuller manages once again to escape.

Main characters

The main characters are classified alphabetically:

  • C. Arnold Barent , man of Talent, chairs of “Island Club”. Its Talent enables him to handle as well Neutrals as other gifted people of talents;

  • William Borden , alias Wilhelm von Borchert , man of Talent, homosexual, former colonel Nazi during the second world war, refugee in the pornographic United States as film producer;
  • Melanie Fuller , woman of Talent whose characteristic is to be able to handle spirits with very long distances after to have taken some control;
  • Bobby Joe Gentry , sheriff who inquires into the murders of Charleston, amateur of whodunnits and fantastic novels;
  • Tony Harod , man of Talent, film producer pornographic without scruples, associated of William Borden. Its Talent applies however only to the women;
  • Saul Laski , psychiatrist of Nina Drayton, author of one entitled book “Pathology of violence”;
  • Natalie Preston , young coed Afro-American who seeks the murderer of her father;

Supporting characters

The supporting characters are classified alphabetically:

  • Anne Bishop , old woman handled by Melanie Fuller;

  • Shayla Berrington , young Mormon, mannequin and actress;
  • Maria Chen , Neutral, assistant and secretary of Tony Harod;
  • Jack Cohen , member of Mossad based in the United States, superior of Aaron Eshkol;
  • Charles C. Colben man of Talent, special agent of the FBI;
  • Nina Drayton , born Hawkins, woman of Talent, friend of Willi Borden and Melanie;
  • Aaron Eshkol , nephew of Saul Laski, agent of the Mossad in the United States;
  • Marvin Gayle , gang leader Afro-American of Germantown;
  • Richard Hatreds , Neutral, special agent of FBI;
  • Doctor Hartmann , doctor handled by Melanie Fuller;
  • Joseph Philip Kepler , man of Talent, ex-number 3 of the CIA, media consultant;
  • Barrett Kramer , assistant of Nina Drayton;
  • Jensen Luhar , henchman of William Borden;
  • Daryl Meeks , pilot of plane, veteran of the war of Vietnam, revolutionist in the heart;
  • Vincent Pierce , young vagrant handled by Melanie Fuller;
  • Tom Reynolds , henchman of William Borden;
  • James Wayne Sutter , man of Talent, homosexual, reverend;
  • Mr. Thorne , majordomo of Melanie Fuller;
  • Nieman Trask , man of Talent, henchman of Barent, political adviser of the senator Kellog;
  • Justin Warden , little boy handled by Melanie Fuller;

Comments

The Talent

The “talent” makes it possible to the characters of the novel who are equipped with it to penetrate in the spirit of a person, to control it, condition it and handle it. The talent then gives an absolute capacity on others. The characters of the novel occasionally associate their Talent in the searches of Franz Anton Mesmer on magnetism. The “neutrals” are people insensitive with the psychic attacks. If the characters equipped with the “Talent” are compared with “psychic vampires” - what arranges them from the start in a traditional kind of the fantastic literature -, their victims on the other hand resemble “rather death-alive”, with their encéphalogramme flat and their total insensitivity to the various wounds and other amputations by psychic blocking of the pain.

In the novel, Doctor Saul Laski locates the origin of the Talent in the medulla. The psychic capacity would thus not be a genetic mutation or a form of the evolution of the species, but rather a psychic archaism of predator, former to the homo sapiens . In the novel, the thesis of the regression developed by Saul Laski is opposed frontally to the approach of the colonel Nazi Wilhelm von Borchert for whom the “Talent” is the tangible proof of the existence of a higher race, thesis defended at its time by the Nazi Germany.

From a moral point of view, daN Simmons evokes during the novel work of the American researcher Lawrence Kohlberg to explain why the characters equipped with the “Talent” are at level 0 of the moral scale. This level 0 defines beings for which does not exist any distinction between an criminal act and an ordinary act.

Company and handling

During its novel, daN Simmons explores and thématise the contemporary shapes of handling of the human beings, which they are moderate of ordinary spite, sadism, lure of gain or sexual desire. The author describes for example handling traumatisante children by perverse parents (Anthony Harod), the sexual exploitation of the ambition of the movie actors (Shayla Berrington), handling and humiliation sadists of beings physically and psychiquement decreased in time of war (Saul Laski handled by the officer Nazi Wilhelm von Borchert), the media and financial exploitation of the faith and the naivety of the believers (James Sutter), the handling of the political circles at personal ends (C. Arnold Barent), etc

Failures and literature

The failures structure the intrigue of the novel in two manners. From a formal point of view, the three books which compose the novel carry titles characteristic of the various phases of the play: “Openings”, “Medium of part” and “Finale”. On the level of the account, the failures determine the methods of the confrontation which opposes the members of Island Club, directed by C. Arnold Barent, with the former Nazi criminal, Wilhelm von Borchert.

The ultimate part of failures of the novel, played with human parts, is partially described, decorated of two diagrams of position of the parts and some movements in algebraic notation. Following the example John Brunner in his novel the City is a chess-board , daN Simmons takes as a starting point famous part of failures to organize from the narrative point of view sound great duel final. This famous part is the match which opposed Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky at the time of the championship of the world of failures of 1972.

Not without a point of humor, daN Simmons makes take to the reverend Sutter the role of “insane” on the chess-board of the final part, the insane one being called “ bishop ” in English, which also means “bishop”. But the irony of the author is with his roof when it saves its most cynical character, the general Nazi Wilhelm von Borchert, thanks to famous “Tarrasch Defense”, of the name of Siegbert Tarrasch, a German player of failures Jewish of the beginning of XXe century.

In the history of the literature, the failures maintain the close links and often ambiguous with psychism. In the Player of failures of Stefan Zweig, for example, the memorizing of parts of failures noted in a book avoids with the hero sinking in the madness induced by its enfermement, while in Defense Loujine of Vladimir Nabokov, the obsession of the failures makes rock the psychism of the Loujine hero in the pangs of the insanity. At daN Simmons, the failures are the means more refined which found of the people of “Talent” to clash while destroying the psychism of the human beings which are used to them as pawns.

See also: Set of failures

Portrait of America of the years 1980

The portrait of the United States which daN Simmons with the wire of its novel brushes approaches all the aspects of the american company: an endemic racism in the States of the South (Melanie Fuller), a mentality reactionary deploring the crawling forfeiture of America (Melanie Fuller, James Sutter), of the Afro-Americans for whom the best sign of social integration is the opening of a shop in a white residential district (the father of Natalie Preston), veterans of the war of the Vietnam who awaits impatiently the great revolution (Daryl Meeks), of the religious proselytes who use the media to finance their religious companies (James Sutter), of the obese police officers to the sharp intelligence discredited by the Americans of the east coast (Bobby Joe Gentry), the war of the gangs in the suburbs big cities between the Blacks and Latinos (events of Germantown), the corruption generalized in the political circles and the great American strategic administrations (Colben, Haines), the clandestine immigration at the Mexican border and the police exactions associated, the omnipresence of violence and the strong rates of criminality which gangrennent the american company (analyzes of Saul Laski), etc Without concessions for its own country, daN Simmons seems to throw a disillusioned glance on the american company of the Eighties which appears sclerosed, divided by strong social and cultural cleavages and mined by a doubled tough racism of urban violences.

History and fiction

DaN Simmons mixes during the account the fiction and the real history. Thus its fictitious characters meet contemporary historical personalities of the intrigue (1980-1981). The author utilizes in his account Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, the Ayatollah Khomeini - he also equipped with the “Talent” -, the chancellor of the federal Germany, Helmut Schmidt, and finally Simon Wiesenthal, celebrates it “hunter of Nazi criminals”.

DaN Simmons goes even until explaining historical events by elements of fiction directly related to its intrigue: the death of John Lennon would have been put in scene by its character Nina Drayton, the killer Charles Manson would have been handled by his character Wilhelm von Borchert and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby would have been also organized by Wilhelm von Borchert.

It is also to note that the wish of the reverend James Sutter in the novel - which awaits with heat the advent of a “really Christian” president -, will be exaucé a score of years later with the nomination of George Herbert Walker Bush! Lastly, for anecdote, a William Borden exists and he is indeed producer of cinema to the the United States.

Trouble and decline of the elite

All the characters malfaisants that daN Simmons puts in scene in its novel belong to a social elite, either by their aristocratic origin (Wilhelm von Borchert), or by their personal fortune (C. Arnold Barent, Anthony Harod), or by their hierarchical position in the American important administration (Charles C. Colben, Nieman Trask). These characters who enjoy a financial and political capacity exorbitant hardly find of excitation than in the murder, the ultimate source of strong emotions when all the material needs were appeased, the ultimate rampart vis-a-vis the trouble. It is precisely this need to feel always more excitations which leads the officer Nazi Wilhelm von Borchert to want a “scaling” for the Play: to play with parts which would not be any more of the human beings, but nations whole.

All things considered, and without neglecting the historical and cultural differences which separate two works, the basic problem of the novel of daN Simmons will be able to evoke at the French-speaking reader some memories of the dangerous Liaisons of Choderlos de Laclos. The two novels register indeed in their time of the declining characters who become exhausted in practice at the same time concerted and competing of a cruel play whose rule and principle are the handling of others, that this one is exerted on the sexual level (Laclos) or psychic (Simmons). One can also read there some memories of the Marquis de Sade in the fact of using people of weak condition to appease his own perverse needs.

The need for stimuli increasingly stronger leading the criminals to consider scalings will be illustrated in a very documented way a few years later in the Roots of the evil of the French author Maurice G. Dantec.

Literary prizes

the Chess-board of the evil of daN Simmons received various distinctions in the Anglo-Saxon countries:

Influences

the Chess-board of the evil partly inspired a Manga of Fuyumi Soryo entitled Eternal Sabbath.

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