De Selby

De Selby serves as an unseen character in The Third Policeman, where he is discussed at length in references and footnotes which tenuously link his unorthodox theories and areas of research to the plot.

capable of extracting all oxygen from an airtight enclosure, thus disrupting the sequentiality of time, incidentally making it possible to produce fine mature whiskey in a week.

[2] O'Brien's text and footnotes mention a number of de Selby's works including Golden Hours, The Country Album, A Memoir of Garcia, Layman's Atlas and the Codex.

[3] As discussed in Irish Philosophy, de Selby believed human existence was "a succession of static experiences each infinitely brief" and "a journey is a hallucination" which he demonstrated by travelling from Bath to Folkestone by means of picture postcards of the supposed route, barometric instruments, clocks and a device to regulate gaslight to simulate sunlight at various "times" of day.

Although generally held in high regard by these people (many of whom hate each other), he is thought by many to have had regrettable lapses and is even called, by implication, a "nincompoop".