AtD1: My Faithful Readers

[Dave Monroe]

"(Darby, as my faithful readers will remember ...)" (AtD, Pt. I, p. 3)


Many reviewers have commented on the various writing styles in the
book that hark back to popular fiction of the period. John Clute
identifies four "story clusters", each with one or more prose styles
mimicking a popular fiction genre in the style it was written before
the end of World War I:

1. "The Airship Boys cluster, which is told in a boys' adventure
idiom." Examples: "boys' adventure fiction, from the [contemporary]
Airship Boys tale [by Michael Moorcock] to Horatio Alger; the Dime
Novel in general; the British school story in general ... the future
war novel" ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Day#Writing_styles

See ...

Sci-Fi Weekly
November 27, 2006
Excessive Candour
Aubade, Poor Dad

By John Clute

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/books/column/sfw14197.html

But just who is writing here, then?  Who are these "faithful readers"
(and do consider the multivalence of "faithful," esp. when it comes to
reading), and to whom, or what, are they "faithful"?  At any rate,
note the implication of camaraderie and/or conspiracy ...

Cf., e.g., ...

   "'You one of those right wing nut outfits?' inquired the diplomatic Metzger.
   "Fallopian twinkled. 'They accuse us of being paranoids.'
   "'They?' inquired Metzger, twinkling also.
    "'Us?' asked Oedipa." (Lot 49, Ch. 3, p. 41)

"It was difficult even for us, old fans who've always been at the
movies (haven't we?) to tell which before the darkness swept in." (GR,
Pt. IV, p. 760)