What is a reliable narrator?

[Jochen Stremmel]

Yes, I think you could call the narrator of GR omniscient, perhaps so with
a vengeance because sometimes he seems a bit more than omniscient, playful
in His hyper-omniscience, as one keen reader called it (spoiler!) regarding
the pinball game on p.583-5. (There is more to it, of course.)

http://www.thekevinsun.com/2012/08/extracts-from-thomas-pynchons-gravitys.html

2016-04-07 15:43 GMT+02:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> One of the early reader-critics has written something like "Gravity's
> Rainbow
> has an omniscient narrator...who seems to have many personae."....
>
> And, yes to confusion, and another remark bubbles up,--sorry for no
> footnotes all---
> an early reviewer or essayist about Pynchon wrote something like the book
> is
> confusing to read because everything in it is supposed to show
> confusion---[that is
> a named literary fallacy when it is not organized for effects under the
> mind of a Pynchon,
> mostly without any confusion about the confusion, even if he trips on a
> pebble or three] ...
> ....esp as we count Slothrop the 'main' character.
>
> And then spying, ontological and epistemological confusion up the wazoo.
>
> On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>
>> As readers we are aleady moving from one frame of reference to another
>> with alarming regularity. Slothrop’s take on things is one the reader is
>> much more inclined to see as reliable than Poinstman or Pirate Prentice
>> because he is so honestly unsure of every frame of reference that has been
>> offered to him. He too, like the reader is shifting through ways of
>> understanding his life, his time, who and what can be trusted.
>>
>>  The doubts cast on what we actually have of his own accounts are not
>> direct textual contradictions of action but differences among spies about
>> what can be discovered about Slothrop and his map by spying. The
>> contradictions mentioned by the spies are based on presumptions about the
>> map and its meaning, and dependent on after-the-fact research. The
>> contradictions are generalizations put forth by people with a limited
>> access to the evidence, and by people with   furtive and tainted patterns
>> of behavior.  We as reader’s cannot be sure how important or real these
>> contradictions are or if they are contradictions with Slothrop’s version of
>> the meaning of the map, which I don’t think we actually have, or just
>> contradictions in the spies’ own theories.
>> > On Apr 6, 2016, at 8:40 PM, Gary Webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Lets just say Slothrop is the fulcrum of the narrative... As readers we
>> are put into the Slothropian frame of reference... I would argue making
>> factual claims, or constructing chronology or sequence,  inside Slothropian
>> frame of reference is potentially unreliable... Hahhaha ya dig ??
>> >
>> > Sent from my iPhone
>> >
>> > On Apr 6, 2016, at 7:21 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Would you like to describe the meaning/difference? GR has a narrator
>> (maybe numerous ones), but Slothrup isn't one of them.
>> >>
>> >> David Morris
>> >>
>> >> On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, Gary Webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> Maybe Narrator isn't the right word, how about interlocutor...?
>> >>
>> >> Sent from my iPhone
>> >>
>> >> On Apr 6, 2016, at 6:32 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> The current thread has provided no examples of Slothrup narrating, as
>> far as I can tell.  Can you provide some text as example?
>> >>>
>> >>> David Morris
>> >>>
>> >>> On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 5:28 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>> see current thread under this subject where examples are provided and
>> >>> the question of reliability is discussed.
>> >>>
>> >>> BtZ42, 21: Slothrop backstory in UK
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 4:45 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>> > Please show an example of Slothrup narrating.  Then we can discuss
>> the
>> >>> > reliablility of said narration.  Otherwise, this is a worthless
>> question.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > David Morris
>> >>> >
>> >>> > On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 3:36 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> Anyone care to explain?
>> >>> >> What do posters mean when thy say Slothrop is a reliable narrator?
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> Hard to find anything we can rely on in this book, so if have a
>> >>> >> reliable narrator in Slothrop, if, we have something to hang our
>> hats
>> >>> >> on. Right?
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> Papa wasa rolling stone.....
>> >>> >> -
>> >>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> -
>> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>> >>>
>>
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>
>
>
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