Flann O’Brien (pseudonym of Brian O’Nolan) was an Irish writer born in 1911. His first novel, At-Swim-Two-Birds, 1939, was praised highly by Samuel Beckett and James Joyce. His second attempt however, from 1940, The Third Policeman, was denied publication, and subsequently had to wait until posthumous publication in 1967. Within this hilariously satirical murder thriller, and wildly surrealistic novel, is a brief, complex story woven by one Sergeant Pluck, concerning the flagrant overuse of the iron bicycle; its impact with profound regards to the Laws of Atomic Theory; and its bizarre ensuing molecular consequences. O’Brien wrote to a friend, stating that he would like to make a crazy play out of the manuscript, and I have bravely attempted to fulfill a small segment of that wish, with a not at all faithful, interpretive rendition of the policeman’s postulations.
(12 minute video)
Atomic Theory vis à vis The Bicycle
