Preface

 

In doing some research for a book upon what Alexis de Tocqueville might have meant by the"greatness" he found lacking in the tide of democratic history, as announced in his Democracy in America (1835;1840), I was drawn to two projects—one American, one French—clearly struggling with that same matter. Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy (1990) and subsequent novels were seen to have brought to light with great panache the issue of dynamics. Jacques Demy’s Lola (1961) and subsequent films were discovered to have used the resources of movies to ponder with great flare a dearth of movement. Both treks were, to my surprise, most secretively indebted, for their difficult navigations, to the same instance of American audacity, namely, the 1955 film noir, Kiss Me Deadly

 

My book will be available in the Fall of 2009. Their amazing subterfuges are so overdue for recognition, they should be brought onstream without further delay.

 

How do I presume to undo the cover they so adamantly maintain – to pull open the Pandora’s Box they want closed? Is there not something about the massacre, taking place there, that justifies covert operations? My upcoming book, Parallel Lives and the Art of Convergence, should provide grounds for the departure enacted in this essay.

 

Toronto, December, 2008