unreliable narrators

[Michael Bailey]

alice quoted:

> "Is the baby smiling, or is it just gas?"

which is an interesting question in its own right.

not being a parent, but having a little time around babies,
isn't it a matter of gas or anything else might be a factor,
but the important thing is the baby is making a face
and we respond to it and comment on it and help it develop

not extremely topic-related, yet if you are loose enough in your
categories to think of a novel as similar in some respects
to a baby, there's a lot of ways you
can go with that gaseous expression

in a literary scene where like Saturday Night Live's New York,you
have to shout to be heard, if an author can establish an audience
with something fiercely individual and boisterous, other later productions
might trade on that achievement in order to risk subtleties or quieter
expressions...if the firstborn has to inherit the land, a middle kid
might go to the Church, another be a minstrel or such,
yet another might be a family historian.

Mark and some others are saying maybe there are "shinings" (all work
and no play makes Jack a dull boy) in IV where the thoughts of GR's
author might be grasped.  I saw a couple the other day but forgot.

I'm rereading the book and hope to catch some more such shinings.

-- 
- "The doctor said give him jug band music; it seems to make him feel
just fine!"