Al wrote:
"When a character tells a story is not the same as the author
telling a story."
True.
"Any apparent 'social assumptions' are those of the
character. That much you can say."
Again, true.
"To make the claim that they are also those of the author may
or may not be true but I don't see how a reader can tell
simply from the text."
Although an invisible author may be a goal for many, I'm
doubtful about how often it is actually achieved. Doesn't the
author create the world in which the character's story
happens? And can't a reader at least get some hints of the
author's worldview by looking at the world in which the
character's story is told and how it plays out, who is
rewarded and who pays, and whether or not those ends are
just? Now it may be too much to extrapolate the author from a
single work, but what about several? It's pretty easy to see
a consistency of vision in Cain, Thompson, Goodis, etc,
regardless of the lead character in a given book. But those
various characters seem to exist in the same world. Can't you
then form some suppositions about the way the author sees the
world?
For instance, Two Way Split and Kiss Her Goodbye seem to
exist in the same world. I'm not saying you endorse the
thoughts or actions of those characters, but can't we at
least draw the conclusion from them that you find certain
types of situations and/or characters interesting and worth
writing about? And that you hope others will find them
interesting to read about?
Mark
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