Has science and technology changed mystery

 　　I originally planned to write an essay that explores how technological advancement affects literature, but found that it is a hard bone that can't be gnawed, so I had to replace "literature" with "fiction." Thinking about it carefully, since my debut for 17 years, I have never cared about "literature". Even if I mention it occasionally, I feel at a loss as to what "literature" means.

　　So, how has technological advancement affected the mystery? The answer is total subversion, the most representative of which is the popularity of mobile phones.

　　For example, someone found a male dead in the wilderness. Upon examination, the cause of his death was cerebral hemorrhage caused by a heavy blow to the back of the head. Whether this is a homicide case is still inconclusive, but the police found that about ten minutes before the deceased was found, he called his wife and was confirmed by the latter. However, the nearest telephone set was also more than an hour away. How did he contact his wife?

　　If it is a mystery a few years ago, this mystery alone is enough to attract readers. The police or detective must rack their brains and diverge thinking to explain this impossible situation at first glance.

　　Unfortunately, time has passed. I can affirm that readers today are no longer curious about the above-mentioned situation. The police involved in the investigation will not hesitate to search for mobile phones, otherwise readers will also be puzzled. If they can't find it, they will suspect that the phone was taken away like readers, making the clues unsuspicious.

　　This is just a simple example, but with the appearance of mobile phones, many telephone tricks in ancient and modern works have mostly lost their meaning. Of course, the story itself will not become boring, but readers must consider the background of the times when reading such novels.

　　There is also a camera who suffers from the same illness. Like the phone, there are countless puzzles to make a fuss about photos, but all of them are old-fashioned film cameras. A typical routine is that in order to claim his alibi, the criminal suspect took out a photo taken at a location far away from the crime scene, with the exact time and date printed on it in addition to himself. Once the photo is considered genuine, the suspect has no possibility of committing the crime. Detectives must dig out their brains to find out the quirks and let the facts of the case come to light.

　　But in the future, even if you think of similar institutions, I am afraid you can't write them into novels. After all, digital equipment has become the mainstream. Although the film camera will not disappear, but the light and convenient digital camera has entered thousands of households, I am afraid it is difficult for readers to accept the tricks of using photos. With the rapid development of computer retouching technology, even whether digital photos can be counted as evidence has to be questioned. If the characters in the work have to use film, it will definitely make the reader feel unnatural and make the story give off a false taste.

　　It is not only the gadgets such as telephones and cameras that influence the mystery, but also the increasingly developed means of transportation that cannot be ignored.

　　Assuming that the shortest tram route between A and B takes more than five hours, a certain writer has come up with a wonderful technique that will allow the murderer in A and B to arrive at B in just four hours after committing a murder. . As a result, the excited writer is frantically typing on the keyboard (or furiously writing), hopefully thinking that readers will be surprised by their stories. Unexpectedly, just before he was about to complete the manuscript, an amazing news came-the newly opened train line shortened the journey between the two places to three hours. Faced with this news, the writer can only abandon the article in tears.

　　The influence of technological progress on mystery is more than trickery, but the real focus is on plot development.

　　Different from ordinary novels, in reasoning works, the actions of characters are often calculated. Sometimes in order to make the story more interesting and exciting, the writer deliberately creates accidents between the characters. For example, let someone miss a meeting with an important character, or even lose contact with the other person. However, the advent of mobile phones makes all this difficult: For modern people, it is almost nonsense for modern people to miss the meeting place and delay important appointments. Therefore, writers either create characters who don't have mobile phones, or put them in places where the signal is blocked. However, as the penetration rate of mobile phones continues to rise, it is becoming more and more impossible to go out without a mobile phone, and the signal coverage is expanding year by year.

　　At a party not long ago, a writer worries: "I want a character who has just returned to China to be unable to contact his lover at the airport, but the other party has a mobile phone, which is really troublesome. I have to find a way to make the phone call. OK.”

　　So, has technological advancement increased the difficulty of creating mystery novels? My answer is no. It may be said that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in terms of conditions.

　　The development of the Internet has brought new types of criminal methods that people have never imagined, and has caused the entire society to face problems. But to the reasoning writers dealing with crime, it seems to be a new treasure. In the past, it was unimaginable that two strangers suddenly became intimate, but with the rise of dating sites, similar plot creation has become a breeze.

　　The popularity of mobile phones and digital cameras also provides the ground for the growth of new tricks, and convenient transportation has greatly expanded the stage of the story.

　　However, writers cannot be satisfied with following the pace of new methods of committing crimes. Once a new technology emerges, we must think more enthusiastically about its impact on crimes and the new types of cases that may be triggered than real criminals. If we can conceive a crime plan that makes the police take a breath of air, it will also contribute to society from the perspective of preventing problems before they happen.

　　However, few writers have the foresight of crimes that have not yet occurred in reality. We are often the same as the police, and it is not until after the fact that we realize the technique. Just ask, who would think of using a crane to destroy an ATM machine?

　　I watched the TV news and couldn't help thinking about it: If the criminal who came up with this new idea became a writer, he might be able to write a very interesting mystery.