MDMD Intro

[Otto]

Great start, Judy

Some people have compared "M&D" to "The Sot-Weed Factor" by John Barth,
which has never been my favorite Barth-novel. But as a reader who has loved
his "Chimera" (plus the secondary material Barth had provided himself) the
Scheherazade-like narrative situation in which we encounter the good
Reverend seems to me much more a reference to Barth.

There must be a reason to tell. To stay Cherrycoke has to narrate
successfully but for being a good storyteller he needs the pressure of the
threat & the danger (like Scheherazade) of being thrown out & exposed to the
winter.

Scheherazade had to find out that magic trick of delaying the end of every
story to avoid the execution & to go on 1001 nights. I'm asking myself how
we could call (or describe) Cherrycoke's trick?

But maybe this is something for chapter three. How reliable is the narrator
and how can he tell such intimate details?

Otto