Originally, scholars thought that this idiom originated from a 1697 reference that talked about how to organize a hunt. The process turns the fish’s flesh dark red and gives it a powerfully pungent smell. Origin of the Idiomįirst off, there’s actually no such fish as a “red herring.” Rather, it’s a name given to a type of dried fish (typically herring) that is either smoked or brined. By providing alternate (albeit false) trails, writers are able to pack in more details that ultimately create a more interesting story. When authors use red herrings effectively, readers are rewarded with the realization that they’ve been tricked all along, and the ending comes as a total surprise.Īside from thickening the plot, red herrings are also opportunities to flesh out characters, scenes, and other narrative details.
It’s a powerful way to engage a reader and make them believe they’re onto something. To create more unique and less predictable mysteries, they throw in a few deceptive details to confuse readers. Writers often use this literary device to create surprising twists in their stories. Just as magicians bedazzle their audiences with fancy hand waves while setting up their deception, writers use red herrings to distract the reader while preparing the real conclusion of their story. The red herring is a writer’s equivalent of a magic trick. Remember how, in Harry Potter, Severus Snape is portrayed as a villain throughout the series? And then, at the very last part, we learn the true nature of his character.
Not surprisingly, then, Fforde takes one of the main plot elements of the detective thriller, the red herring, and turns it on its head, poking fun at it to the point that the very term red herring is in itself a red herring, a false clue (or series of false clues), throwing the reader completely off course.A favorite trope in detective fiction, red herrings are false clues that lead readers to an incorrect conclusion. This book, and Fforde's series, is a parody of the genre of classic, hard-boiled detective novels. Here, Fforde takes the notion of a red herring and uses it in a detective mystery novel, but with a twist: Fforde's book is one of a series of humorous detective novels that follows the exploits of its protagonist, a detective named Thursday Next.
"'We're talking serious metaherrings here.'" - Jasper Fforde, "One of Our Thursdays Is Missing." Viking, 2011) "'Or perhaps the fact you're meant to think Red Herring isn't a red herring is what makes Red Herring a red herring after all.'
Is Red Herring a red herring? Or is it the fact that we're meant to think Red Herring is a red herring that is actually the red herring?' Another example comes from British novelist Jasper Fforde. The perpetrator of the crime, perhaps the murderer, lays out false leads (red herrings) to throw the police off their tracks. Here, red herrings are used to distract and mislead. Do you follow me?' " - Henning Mankell, "The White Lioness," trans. Experience has taught me that red herrings are an important part of intelligence work. That means there are eyes and ears everywhere. I just want you to think critically about what you are doing. That doesn't mean I'm excluding the possibility that it really is Mandela these lunatics are after. I'd also like you to consider the possibility that these people intend to attack both Mandela and myself. I'd like you to read the report with that in mind, Scheepers. One is that it's me, the president, who is the intended victim. Let us imagine two different sets of circumstances. 'Let us assume there are red herrings laid out in appropriate places. "'There is something in the report that disturbs me,' said. Of course, red herrings are also used in fictional mediums, such as in mystery novels. This was a stinky ("pungent") red herring indeed, according to the author. Nor is the red herring within a red herring about single sourced stories really relevant either if your source is good enough, then the story is too." - "Labour's Phoney War," The Guardian , June 28, 2003Īccording to the author of this The Guardian piece, the individual in question, Alastair Campbell-former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's director of communications-managed to use a red herring to turn an argument as to whether the UK should be engaged in the Iraq War into a discussion of how the issue was being covered in the press. The BBC's reporting, though important, is not in fact the real issue that is the strength of the case for action against Iraq. Campbell has achieved is largely a classic use of a very pungent red herring. In the space of a couple of days, Alastair Campbell has managed to turn an argument about the way the government presented its case for war in Iraq into an entirely different dispute about the way the BBC covered what was going on in Whitehall at the time.