interview questions

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 05 Jan 2011, 19:10 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 11:10:16 -0800
Subject: (urth) interview questions
In-Reply-To: <967498.11110.qm at web114719.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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	<967498.11110.qm at web114719.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 11:02 AM, Jerry Friedman
<jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm interested to see people taking "'A Story', by John V. Marsch" as a
> source of factual-in-the-fiction information.  I took the title to be a
> strong indication that it's maximally unreliable and that to the extent we
> get information from it, it's information about what Marsch believes or
> wants to believe or especially wants his fictitious readers (who are they?)
> to believe.  Or just what he thinks would be cool.

Well, the first question to ask when dealing with an unreliable
narrator is, "what are his motives in telling this story?" -- and I
have no idea of any motives for Marsch, or "Marsch"/VRT, to write "A
Story."

Some starting thoughts...

Q: Are we sure it was even written by Marsch or VRT?
A: We must call a halt to the Hall of Mirrors at some point.

Q: But _when_ was it written? Before or after Marsch was replaced by VRT?
A: "Before" makes very little sense. The real Marsch would have no
knowledge of Abo/Shadow Children culture that would allow him to write
it.

Q: Yeah, but, maybe he just made shit up. That's what Wolfe
effectively did, after all.
A: True, but again, I think we must call a halt to the Hall of
Mirrors. _Wolfe_ has some reason for putting "A Story" in the middle
of 5HoC, and so he wants us to find reason in it.

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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