unreliable narrators

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 10, 2009, at 8:29 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

> "Unreliable narrator" is a term that should be used carefully. . . .

Interesting points you're making here. Note that I refer to Pynchon's  
narrators as unstable. But as long as were on the subject—Giant  
Adenoid? Byron The Lightbulb? A monolith of Marijuana right out of  
2001 a Space Odyssey/20,000 Years in Sing Sing? Learned English Dogs?  
Chorus lines breaking into World War Two? Time Travel? Slothrop/ 
Rocketman, Mickey Rooney and a brick of Hash at Potsdam?

Compared to that, an L.A. hunk of architecture in the shape of a giant  
Golden Fang is no big. There's nothing "documentary" about these  
scenes, these are the works of a fantasist, a "magical realist" as it  
were. There's nothing "reliable" in being witness to such events, I'd  
say it stretches credulity well past the breaking point, in fact.  
We're in Baron von Münchhausen territory here.

> I do not see the term "unreliable narrator" as being  meaningful  
> apart from first person narration, history, or journalism.

Perhaps, but my favorite single line of Bob Dylan comes to mind:

	 "I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from."

Of course, he's just a song 'n dance man . . .