(urth) interview questions

[Jerry Friedman]

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>


>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.

A: Well, Tolkien had no knowledge of hobbit culture.  But in any case, Wolfe has 
called the halt, and you're right.  He said in his interview with Lawrence 
Person, ""'A Story,' by John V. Marsch," yes, which is not actually  written by 
John V. Marsch, but by the shadowchild who has replacedJohn V. Marsch."

http://home.roadrunner.com/~lperson1/wolfe.html

(Too many layers of quotation marks!)

>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.

True, but that reason may not to provide "factual" information.

I hate to keep bringing Nabokov into this (I'm lying), but in Pale Firethe main 
narrator, Kinbote, takes advantage of his commentary on a long poem to say a 
great deal about his homeland of Zembla, which probably doesn't exist in his 
world.  He's not doing this as background to the novel.  It's parodic fun in 
itself, and Nabokov says,

"I think it is a perfectly straightforward novel. The clearest revelation
of personality is to be found in the creative work in which a given
individual indulges. Here the poet is revealed by his poetry; the
commentator by his commentary."

http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0803&L=nabokv-l&P=9442

I think Nabokov was archly understating the complexity of his novel, but I can 
believe the most
important purpose of the material on Zembla is to reveal the character of the 
commentator.  And I
could believe the main purposes of "'A Story'" are to be interesting in itself 
and to reveal the
character of the replacement Marsch.

Jerry Friedman 



      
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