The Jake Fonko Series: Books 4, 5 & 6
Page 63
Or consider his forays in Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, related in Fonko’s Errand Go Boom. There are four plagiarisms from James Joyce’s Ulysses, including the last lines of the book and a walking excursion through Dublin that corresponds suspiciously to Leopold Bloom’s auspicious day. Mr. Fonko claimed never to have read Ulysses, though he “saw the movie” (Kirk Douglas portraying Ulysses in The Odyssey). One detects asides hinting at Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting for Godot by Irish author Samuel Beckett as well. “Professor Pflingger” explains these away as resulting from an over-zealous editorial assistant’s attempts to enhance the text.
Or consider the numerous plagiarisms, allusions and references in Fonko in the Sun drawn from just about “everything under the sun” including: Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea; Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana and The Comedians; Ian Fleming’s Dr. No; and Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat Song. Once again “Professor Pflingger” asks the reader to accept a glib explanation, that some ill-informed editorial assistants mistook ancillary materials he included with his notes for original material and incorporated it in the narrative.
Similarly, in The Mother of All Fonkos, the narrative includes an incident strongly suggestive of the Alex Delaware novels by Jonathan Kellerman; several tales taken from 1001 Nights; and a poet Mr. Fonko meets in Abu Ghraib prison whose life story seems more than just vaguely similar to the musical, Kismet, and who spouts doggerel purloined from The Wizard of Oz, Hillaire Belloc, Ogden Nash, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the oldest limerick in the book.
And not only does Mr. Fonko inhabit literature and entertainment. It seems he also participates in urban legends (e.g., the abandoned stewardess) and hoary old jokes (e.g., “John the carpenter”). These fictions within fictions plunge the reader down metaphorical rabbit holes sufficient to have baffled even little Alice Pleasance Liddell.
One is reminded, perusing these texts, of the annual “Easter Egg Hunt”, for which treats (e.g., candies and decorated eggs) are hidden for gleeful tots to ferret out. Regarding the Jake Fonko series of books, one wonders if perhaps little nuggets and treasures (or tchotchkes, as our Jewish friends are wont to put it) were secreted to reward the sharp-eyed and attuned. One cannot evade the question: Did these events happen as reported—“true and factual accounts”? Or were these myriad “borrowings” inserted in the texts for some indiscernible, perhaps sinister purpose?
In summary, although deconstruction reveals substantial reasons to question the authenticity and veracity of yarns written by a dubious author about a dubious personage, yet doubts linger: a tenuous case can be made in their favor. It is not inconceivable that the tales are based on phenomenological reality, actual events some of whose features have been transfigured and disguised for reasons pertaining to national security or privacy concerns.
In the final analysis one must parse “Professor Pflingger’s” textualizations, decode inherent subtextual cryptocontent, dissect tangential quasi-visualizations, assay the evidence at hand, balance the pros and cons, and at the end of the day make one’s case. I rest mine, and I leave it to the reader to resolve these polysemies to his or her own satisfaction.
One hopes one’s modest efforts have helped clarify these issues.
AP 8/2015
The Jake Fonko Series
The Jake Fonko Series is now available at all major online booksellers. For purchase links, visit watchfirepress.com/jf.
The Jake Fonko Series, in order:
Jake Fonko M.I.A.
Fonko on the Carpet
Fonko’s Errand Go Boom
Fonko in the Sun
Fonko Bolo
The Mother of All Fonkos
Fonko Go Home
To Russia With Fonko
The Jake Fonko Series: 1, 2 & 3 Box Set
The Jake Fonko Series: 4, 5 & 6 Box Set