Visual Aid

Sometimes, our eyes deceive us, and perception, which the observer may believe to be absolute, can be 1) biased, 2) partially incorrect, or 3) wholly wrong.  The above picture is not photoshopped.  What you see behind the car is not added in; but the first impression you do doubt came to, that missiles are following the pickup, about to strike, is incorrect.  Just click on the picture to see the inset enlarged.*

This funny picture reminds me that when we have characters who are unreliable narrators it behooves us as writers to show both their logic and to use subtle foreshadowing to also show the opportunity for misinterpretation of data on the character's part.  That way, when the reader sees the character was wrong s/he will have had the opportunity to wonder if this initial interpretation was flawed and look for more clues.

It's also fascinating when the character insists they don't feel a certain way and yet over and over the writer gives us internal dialog, decisions or statements that continually contradict the assertion that the character keeps making.  Such instances occur, much to my delight, in Ilona Andrews' latest Kate Daniels book, Magic Strikes.  What's also great is that she doesn't succumb to the temptation to have anyone around the main character, Kate, point out her contradictions.  Granted, 99% of these things are internal monologue; but her actions are some indicator as well.

So those are my thoughts.  How do you like to see characters lie to themselves?  How do you approach it as a writer?

*Those are balloons!

Comments

[jjdebenedictis]

Squee! I want some of those!

Of course, then I'd need to buy a car...

[laughingwolf]

dunno about characters lying to themselves, per se, but i like to use their misdirection of others, now and then :)

[writtenwyrdd]

First person narration can lend itself to this particularly well, LW, but third can be used as well.

Have you gotten that pup yet?

[Charles Gramlich]

I don't know if I'm skilled enough to pull off an unreliable narrator on more than an occassional level. To do it throughout a work would be tough.

[writtenwyrdd]

Perhaps the secret is to have them be unreliable in one specific way, as in Ilona andrews' character who is unreliable in her insistence she isn't interested in a particular guy.

[bets]

I like to have a character who takes himself too seriously be in denial and someone close to him point it out in a completely unsentimental way, hopefully when they're under fire or arguing with each other or something. That is Trinidad and Castile all over the place. Everyone is afraid of Trinidad but Castile, who continually points out his faults and denial via well-timed (I hope!) jokes and sassy comments.

[writtenwyrdd]

Sounds good. So get it published already so I can read it!

[Sylvia]

I was trying to explain the concept of unreliable narrator to someone just last week!

The person I was speaking to was struggling how it could be OK for the "author" to tell a story that wasn't the truth.

Ended up with a good example : "I'm not in love" by 10CC

He immediately understood that the narrator was lying to himself, not us, and he had no problem distinguishing the narrator from the song writer.