I mean, seriously…
“The Comedians is about three men, Smith, Jones and Brown….“
“Again I was aware of the three names, interchangeable like comic masks in a farce.”
— Graham Greene, The Comedians, Penguin paperback, 1991, p. 23
Pico Iyer on Graham Greene in the current New York Review of Books:
“To play out the full logic….”
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Brown, Jones, and Smith are suspected of a crime. They testify as follows: Brown: Jones is guilty and Smith is innocent. Jones: If Brown is guilty then so is Smith. Smith: I’m innocent, but at least one of the others is guilty. Assuming all testimony is true, who is innocent and who is guilty? Assuming that the innocent told the truth and the guilty told lies, who is innocent and who is guilty? — Mathematical logic |