History Literature / TheThirdPoliceman

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Lots of de Selby's demented ideas sound like nothing more than the most ridiculous things O'Brien could think of, but many are in fact direct parodies of ideas advanced by real philosophers, such as Zeno.

* WeekendInventor: Policeman [=MacCruiskeen=] is one of these, building all sorts of strange things in his spare time, of which the aforementioned spear is one; others include a series of several ''dozen'' Matryosha-doll-like boxes stacked inside each other, the smallest being invisible to the unaided eye, and machines to convert light into sound and sound into electrical energy.

''The Third Policeman'' is a surreal, darkly comic novel by Irish author Creator/FlannOBrien, best known for his earlier work ''Literature/AtSwimTwoBirds''. Written between 1939 and 1940, it didn't receive publication until 1967, after the author's death.

''The Third Policeman'' is a darkly comic novel by Irish author Creator/FlannOBrien, best known for his earlier work ''Literature/AtSwimTwoBirds''. Written between 1939 and 1940, it didn't receive publication until 1967, after the author's death.

* DyingDream: Sort of.

* FootnoteFever: Long passages are devoted to the narrator discussing the various ideas espoused by the philosopher de Selby, his life, the interpretations of his ideas by other philosophers and their lives. While rarely directly related to the plot, they feature some of the most hilarious passages in the book.

* BookEnds: A particularly unsettling example. As the narrator and John Divney approach the police barracks at the end of the book, the descriptions of the building and the behaviour of Policeman Fox are almost exactly the same as their earlier counterparts, yet the narrator does not seem to realize this. This is how the reader learns [[spoiler: the narrator is inside an endlessly repeating IronicHell.]]

* CloudCuckooLander: de Selby. He's incapable of distinguishing men from women, thinks that all motion is illusory (taking Zeno's dichotomy paradox ''way'' too seriously) and that night is caused by pollution, distrusts houses, believes the earth to be sausage-shaped...
** Note that a somewhat different version of De Selby actually appears in ''The Dalkey Archive''. There, he hobnobs with St. Augustine, while pursuing a plan to save the world by destroying it.

* InformedAbility: Played for laughs with de Selby, whom the narrator and every other character seems convinced is a legendary genius. Most mentions of de Selby acknowledge his "regrettable lapses" (i.e. thinking that the Earth is shaped like a sausage and night is an accretion of "black air" caused by pollution), but still insist that his philosophy overall was brilliant, even though from what the reader can tell, those "lapses" pretty much ''are'' de Selby's philosophy.

* MoodWhiplash: All over the place. This book will have you laughing your head one minute and feeling weirdly unsettled the next.

* SharpenedToASingleAtom: One of the policemen has honed a spear to such a sharp point that if you were to prick yourself with it, your finger would begin to bleed about two inches ''before'' the point appeared to reach your finger. In fact, when your finger starts to bleed, the spear point had penetrated your skin 2 inches ago, but was so thin it slipped between the atoms of your finger without causing any damage.

* CloudCuckooLander: de Selby. He's incapable of distinguishing men from women, thinks motion is impossible, distrusts houses, believes the earth to be sausage-shaped...

* CompanionCube: Sergeant Pluck is extremely distrustful of bicycles, worrying that they will become sentient. By the end of the novel the narrator has developed an extremely tender relationship with a ladies' bicycle.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Everyone in their neighborhood ''thinks'' Divney and the narrator are this trope, but it's subverted: they're actually getting quite sick of each other, but the narrator mistrusts Divney and won't let him run off by himself to retrieve the money from where he cached it.

* InformedAbility: Played for laughs with de Selby, whom the narrator and every other character seems convinced is a legendary genius. Most mentions of de Selby acknowledge his "regrettable lapses" (i.e. thinking that the Earth is shaped like a sausage and night is caused by air pollution), but still insist that his philosophy overall was brilliant, even though from what the reader can tell, those "lapses" pretty much ''are'' de Selby's philosophy.

* NoodleIncident: The enigmatic circumstances around the narrator breaking his leg - "if you like, it was broken for me".

* SharpenedToASingleAtom: One of the policemen has a spear so sharp that if you were to prick yourself with it, your finger would begin to bleed about 2 inches before the point appeared to reach your finger. In fact, when your finger starts to bleed, the spear point had penetrated your skin 2 inches ago, but was so thin it slipped between the atoms of your finger without causing any damage.

* SomeCallMeTim: The narrator's immaterial, undying soul is called - Joe.