''Lookout Cartridge'' is

Joseph McElroy Joseph Prince McElroy (born August 21, 1930) is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is noted for his long postmodern novels such as ''Women and Men''. Personal background McElroy was born on August 21, 1930, in Brookl ...

's fourth novel, published by

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers i ...

in 1974. The narrator, Cartwright, had made with his friend Dagger an art film/documentary about power using loaned professional equipment, with scenes set in

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting ...

, Hyde Park, and other locations in England, plus one scene in Ajaccio, Corsica. But someone destroyed it, and when acquaintances in New York press Cartwright for information about an alleged second print, the sound track, and even his personal diary, he finds himself trying to find out what really happened. Doing so involves multiple trips between New York and England, including a visit to the Hebrides and the Stones of Callanish, and increasing danger and death.

Larry McCaffery Lawrence F. McCaffery Jr. (born May 13, 1946) is an American literary critic, editor, and retired professor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University. His work and teaching focuses on postmodern literature, contemporary ...

ranked ''Lookout Cartridge'' 39th in his top 100 20th-century English novels list.

Film summary

The separate scenes are: *Bonfire in Wales - Supposedly come upon spontaneously, Cartwright's discovery that Dagger had planned it ahead of time is his first proof that there has been something sinister going on. *Unplaced Room - Starring an anonymous US AWOL who arrived via remote Scottish islands. *Suitcase Slowly Packed *Hawaiian Hippie aka Hawaiian in the Underground - Bill Liliuokalani *Hyde Park Softball *Stonehenge *Corsican Montage *Marvelous Country House - With

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to land on the Moon. It was the first J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greater focus on science than ea ...

on the television set being ignored. *USAF Base

Style

The language of film, computer technology, information theory, and liquid crystals permeate the novel. McElroy tried to make the novel as "cinematic" as possible, filled with information. The sentences were made deliberately labyrinthine, meant to be on the edge of incomprehensibility, yet to always feel as if significant clues had to be present.Tom LeClair 1978 interview, in LeClair and McCaffery (eds.) ''Anything Can Happen'' (1983) In the 1985 Carroll and Graf paperback reprint, McElroy wrote an introduction "One Reader to Another". He starts by stating that he recalls some French writer "arguing that fiction can't compete with film in visual immediacy." He recalls that his reaction then and in 1985 is that, "by magic ink-sign crypto-telepathy, ''words'' in the right sequence can transmit between remote minds the ''mind's'' motion pictures."

Film summary

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