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''We Can Report Them'' is Michael Brodsky's sixth novel. The novel intertwines death and creation, centering on the making of a commercial glorifying a serial killer's last days. Bert, the commercial's director, must also deal with two terminally ill patients, first his stepfather Albert, then his mother-in-law Joyce. Several reviews noted that ''We Can Report Them'' has a more straightforward narrative than Brodsky's previous * * *. Nevertheless, the novel is filled with mathematical allusions (Cantor and transfinite cardinals, topology, infinite series, Turing machines) and to kabbalistic allusions (''tsimtsum'', ''ein sof'', ''sefirot'', Isaac Luria). It is also dense with philosophical discussion, with frequent allusions to Heidegger and Charles Peirce. Prominent film makers and critics, including Robert Bresson and Manny Farber, are also referred to. ==Significance of the title== The ability to "report" is mentioned several times in the text. The success of Albert's "unanticipated tonsillectomy" was so staggering that "We could report it", as one of the doctors says parenthetically, notwithstanding the fact that the patient died shortly afterwards.〔p 33〕 After thinking about the pending detailed highly positive test results Joyce's doctors are soon going to tell him, Bert summarizes what they will say as: "In other words, ... ''we can report her''."〔p 128〕 Joyce, in the midst of asking a question of her doctor, said "Given that mine is a very very rare case—one of the anesthesiologists ... said ... they could report me...."〔p 184〕 Bert, in a phone call with Doctor Pratt after Joyce's discharge, is told that Joyce should come for her first treatment session "well-stocked with stool and urine samples. They must be notarized ... for we could, as I'm sure you already know from last night's eleven o'clock news, Report Her—every step of the way."〔p 188〕 The prison chaplain, upon failing to convert Pudd at the last minute before his execution concludes "I won't be able to ''report'' your conversion scene ...."〔p 284〕 The chaplain goes on to contrast his inability to report with how a doctor who succeeds in an all-but-impossible situation "might get to expound upon such a prodigy." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「We Can Report Them」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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