There should be a distinction between an outright lie and an
obfuscation. In his Burglar books, Larry Block will have his
narrator, Bernie, say something like: "I ran a few errands
and ..." with the errands being crucial to the denouement. I
think quite a few, if not most, first person private eye
narrations indulge in that particular form of holding back
key bits of exposition. Otherwise, the professional sleuth
would have to arrive at the solution no sooner than the
non-pro reader. The Op, for example, has to know the real
villain behind the Dain Curse before he or she is exposed,
but Hammett would clearly prefer the reader be kept in the
dark as long as possible. My feeling is that the fair play in
these instances would be in providing the reader with enough
clues to arrive at the right answer regardless of the
dependability or openness of the narrator.
Dick Lochte
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 17 Aug 2006 EDT