Trying to find the magic, Trying to write a classic

“Any form of authorial writing where the narrator sets himself up as stagehand and director and judge and executor in text, I find somehow unacceptable” writes James Wood in the chapter Narrating of his novel How Fiction Works.

Isn’t it true that everyone hates a book where the narrator knows everything, acts like he/she’s God and judges the story along the way, commenting all actions of every character? That is what the author is trying to say and I agree with him. A narrator like this reveals too much and there is no ‘reading between the lines’. By nature we are repulsed by a person that acts like he’s God. In the Road we find some very interesting narration. The narrator is omniscient (third person) but at the same time we don’t get the feeling that he knows much. It’s written in the perspective of someone who just stands next to them watching what they do, hearing what they say, as well as knowing the thoughts of the man. An astonishing fact is that the man and the boy are never called by their names. The narrator never gives us background about the characters, only through the father’s thoughts. Wood suggests that a third person is reliable (omniscience) and a first person narrator is unreliable because he knows less about himself than the reader does. However he feels like the perfect narrator is someone who knows what the rules are and knows the answers to certain questions, this I find is a difficult thing to do but I think that the narrator in the Road did an amazing job achieving this. There is so much suspense and mystery only due to the fact that the narrator doesn’t know too much.

James Wood makes different statements throughout his piece of text about reliable and unreliable narration as well as omniscience, coming to the conclusion that omniscience does not exist. He goes on and analyzes narration of many different authors in depth which to me ruins a good book when you know all of this because you learn to look more closely at a text instead of just enjoying or disliking it. This realization reminded me a lot of theatrical analysis. When you learn about all the details that make a good actor, a good speech or a good setting you pay so much attention to these small details that you forget to just enjoy the play. When you’ve studied theater or English for a long time, I think it might be possible to just unconsciously realizing the details while loving a good theater performance or relaxing while reading a good book. To get to this point, is another challenge I have to overcome.

All the literary features such as irony that are discussed reminded me of the text On Language by Zamyatin that I read a few months ago. Both texts are very helpful when used for a deeper understanding of a text such as the Road and We by Zamyatin. Even though I prefer reading about people and their stories instead of reading about narration and literary features, this text is an immense help while one is trying to understand a text or a novel in detail.