Lying character

Michael Straight · 24 Jun 1998, 12:16 · from urth-v0015.mbox · original

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Lying character
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 12:16:21
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On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, adam louis stephanides wrote:

> In _Castle of Days_, in an essay orginally published in 1990, Wolfe
> complains regarding careless readers: "I have had them tell me (for
> example) that they were completely baffled when a scene they had read was
> discribed [sic] differently, later in the story, by one of the characters
> who took part in it; because I had not told them, 'This man's lying,' it
> had never occurred to them that he might be." (340)  Does anybody have an
> idea what he's referring to?

I know this happens in the Soldier series in several places, and I think I
remember that kind of thing happening in FREE LIVE FREE too, but I can't
remember any specific examples.

Of course much more frequent in Wolfe is for the protagonist to guess
what's going on and guess wrong.  Silk does that constantly, and Latro
too.=20

-Rostrum


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