The narrative device of having one character annotate a work written by another character, grossly misinterpreting it to suit his own cynical ends and/or delusional worldview, is most famously used in Nabokov's Pale Fire where, in fact, the anotations to an (intentionally) dreadful poem constitute the bulk of the novel. Gene Wolfe has mentioned his admiration for Pale Fire in one interview, and it's easy to see how the book influenced Wolfe's own oblique style and penchant for unreliable narrators.
A previous, more limited use of that device can be found Bernard Wolfe's Limbo, published ten years before Pale Fire. One section of the book consists in the old diaries of the main character, written amidst the horrors of World War III. In them, he expounds a demented program for achieving world peace that involves the mass voluntary amputation of limbs as a way to curb the aggresive instincts of the human race.
The plan was clearly intended as satire by the protagonist, in the "Irish people should eat their children" manner. However, a former colleage of his got hold of the diaries, and took them literally. In fact, he goes on to become the leader of a post-apocalyptic US on a pro-amputation platform. The diaries are published as a kind of seminal political manifesto, conveniently and obtusely annotated to justify a literal interpretation.
Are there other uses of the "misguided commentary" device that predate both Pale Fire and Limbo? Or is Limbo the first novel to feature it, even if it is circumscribed to one part of the book and does not overwhelm the "main" text?
Anyway, Wolfe's novel is unjustly forgotten, and worth a read despite its misogyny and overuse of freudian jargon. Some (not misguided!) commentary on the book here.
No comments:
Post a Comment