What is a "satisfactory" narrator?

Michael Straight · 25 Oct 1999, 12:56 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) What is a "satisfactory" narrator?
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:56:47
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0221 at digest.urth.net>
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On Sun, 24 Oct 1999, Daniel Fusch wrote:

> "Whether Severian is a reliable narrator or not, he is certainly an
> unsatisfactory one by any of the usual standards of story telling."
[...]
> Here's my point--or rather my question--isn't Gene Wolfe, through
> Severian, asking us to examine the way we perceive storytelling?
> Consider that storytelling is thousands of years old, and has passed
> through many forms--at one time it was an oral form in which the
> audience was invited to participate.=20
[...]
> Severian's fictional audience may not expect the same manner of
> storytelling that we expect. "The Book of the New Sun" should really be
> treated--for all intents and purposes--as a work translated from another
> culture. That, after all, is the effect that Wolfe is trying to achieve.=20

As I first read this, I wondered if you weren't conflating Wolfe and
Severian.  That last paragraph seems like handwaving, unless we have some
evidence that Severian's culture has different narrative standards than
our own.=20

We have some data to consider the question.  Severian repeats several
stories not of his own invention.  Do they show any of the same
idiosyncrasies as Severian's narrative?

-Rostrum

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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