River ,'Out Of Gas'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Is it one of those that you found yourself flipping back pages, to see if you were remembering things correctly and/or going, "Oh hell, it was there all along"?
Well, it was more like flipping back pages and going, "Oh hell, he totally made that up."
I have to confess, I hate unreliable narrators. I don't like liars, and I don't like having to second guess everything that's going on. Dazzle me with the convoluted plot and relationships, not with the convoluted perceptions that are telling the story.
I have to confess, I hate unreliable narrators. I don't like liars, and I don't like having to second guess everything that's going on.
Two words: Nelly. Dean.
Ye gods, as much as the rest of Wuthering Heights annoys the CRAP out of me (seriously, Cathy? Heathcliff? GET OVER YOURSELVES), I wanted to beat Nelly Dean to death with a shovel.
umm, who's Nelly Dean?
who's Nelly Dean?
The housekeeper in Wuthering Heights who tells a great deal of Cathy's story to the narrator (whose name I suddenly can't remember).
OK. I skimmed a lot of Wuthering Heights because I couldn't reach half of the cast and give them the smacks they needed.
But, yeah, I didn't trust her from word one.
Lockwood is the narrator. I always felt Withering heights would be a good story, but seeing it through Lockwood/Nelly Dean drove me fucking nuts. As did the stableman's accent.
And that's exactly what I loved about Wuthering Heights ! I heart unreliable narrators.
The big example of an unreliable narrator I can think of is the narrator of Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier John Dowell. As for unpleasant characters, I had a serious issue with Edward Ashburnham in that book, and thought that Leonora had a good reason for taunting him for his unfaithfulness.
When I made that argument in my modern lit class, a classmate and I spent most of that class arguing back and forth on Edward's "goodness" and Leonora's striking back. The prof loved it that we got so into our respective opinions.
Strega recommended that book, and I really enjoyed it.