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englitprof
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« on: October 09, 2009, 04:23:36 PM » |
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I'm trying to switch up my intro to lit selections, and am looking for good short stories with unreliable narrators (think Humbert Humbert). Any favorites?
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"Saving just one dog won't change the world, but surely the world will change for that one dog." --unknown
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marigolds
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if it ain't ruff it ain't me
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« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2009, 04:37:40 PM » |
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How short?
Yellow Wallpaper (Gilman)
Turn of the Screw (James)
Benito Cereno (Melville)
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"You and your mom are hillbillies. This is a house of learned doctors."
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offthemarket
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« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2009, 04:42:06 PM » |
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a short book: Novel about my wife (Perkins)
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dellaroux
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« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2009, 05:05:48 PM » |
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These aren't exactly favorites because I don't really like unreliable narrators, but:
Faulkner's The Light in August, when Christmas suggests that the Widow wanted to be killed;
The character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" who talks about the fog machine as a real thing, not realizing it's his own delusional state that is the issue (forget his name, he's the sweeper, maybe it's Broom?).
Anything that ends, "And then I woke up..."
:--}
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Pax in terra choreagibus
Ballo non bello parare
How am I?: There are four levels: Alive, Alert, Awake & Functioning. Right now, I'm standing upright & moving forward.
We are gifted superfluously--the cosmos is more generous than we can ask or imagine.
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asteria
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« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2009, 05:10:37 PM » |
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Notes from Underground
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englitprof
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« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2009, 05:23:39 PM » |
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Most of these suggestions, while great, are for novels, and I'm really looking for things under 20 pp. (this is for a three-week J-term course). "The Yellow Wallpaper" is one I've considered, especially because in that case, the narrator may ironically be more reliable than any of the other characters. I suppose "Young Goodman Brown" could work, in a way...
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"Saving just one dog won't change the world, but surely the world will change for that one dog." --unknown
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verbena
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« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2009, 05:38:38 PM » |
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Fun question! How about Gogol, "The Diary of a Madman"?
(Though, come to think of it, what narrator's actually truly reliable?)
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"My kind of paper, into lots of fiber."
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i_do_not_have_a_phd
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« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2009, 05:45:57 PM » |
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Poe's "Man of the Crowd"
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elsie
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« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2009, 06:11:46 PM » |
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Nabokov's Pale Fire -- gotta love a narrator with delusions of grandeur
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"People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff." - the Doctor
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hegemony
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« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2009, 07:10:37 PM » |
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Ron Carlson's "Bigfoot Stole My Wife." The narrator explains very calmly why it's clear that Bigfoot must have stolen his wife, how that can be the only explanation for her disappearance; the evidence that he's a self-absorbed gambling-addicted slob is irrelevant. Short, very funny, a hit with students.
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Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight.
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dellaroux
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« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2009, 07:14:44 PM » |
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Thurber's Walter Mitty...Unicorn in the Garden, etc...
"Tell-Tale Heart" by Poe
Does the whole story have to be encompassed in the "unreliable" part?
I.e., would excerpts or a couple of chapters of a longer work, instead of full stories, be adequate?
(Just thinking about Faulkner...)
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Pax in terra choreagibus
Ballo non bello parare
How am I?: There are four levels: Alive, Alert, Awake & Functioning. Right now, I'm standing upright & moving forward.
We are gifted superfluously--the cosmos is more generous than we can ask or imagine.
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kedves
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« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2009, 07:35:59 PM » |
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If it's a story and not a work of literature, I have to say, the film Momento is a favorite. In fiction, the beginning of Cold Mountain had a very disorienting effect on me. I saw everything from the narrator's perspective without understanding how that had been molded.
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marigolds
looks far too young to be a
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if it ain't ruff it ain't me
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« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2009, 08:33:27 PM » |
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What about Weir Mitchell's "The Case of George Dedlow"? It's a really interesting mishmash of multiple genres that ends with a bizarre seance scene (told with an entirely straight face) - my students have been really enjoying trying to figure out that twist at the end, and whether the narrator is buying into it or not.
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"You and your mom are hillbillies. This is a house of learned doctors."
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englitprof
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« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2009, 10:58:06 AM » |
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What about Weir Mitchell's "The Case of George Dedlow"? It's a really interesting mishmash of multiple genres that ends with a bizarre seance scene (told with an entirely straight face) - my students have been really enjoying trying to figure out that twist at the end, and whether the narrator is buying into it or not.
This one looks fascinating... Memento is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, only in short story form (although I suppose a short film could work, too)--a narrator who, for one reason or another (madness, youth, etc.) is not able to comprehend the true significance of what's going on. |
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"Saving just one dog won't change the world, but surely the world will change for that one dog." --unknown
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ufo_tofu
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« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2009, 11:03:35 AM » |
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What about Weir Mitchell's "The Case of George Dedlow"? It's a really interesting mishmash of multiple genres that ends with a bizarre seance scene (told with an entirely straight face) - my students have been really enjoying trying to figure out that twist at the end, and whether the narrator is buying into it or not.
This one looks fascinating... Memento is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, only in short story form (although I suppose a short film could work, too)--a narrator who, for one reason or another (madness, youth, etc.) is not able to comprehend the true significance of what's going on. Actually, Memento is based on a short story - perhaps you could find that? It's by Nolan's brother, I believe. Also, some stories in "The Things They Carried" might work. And of course Slaughterhouse-Five! My students also enjoyed "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." And, for that matter, "Good Country People," all of which might work. |
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Wash: Don't know. I'm starting to like this poetry thing. "Here lies my beloved Zoe, my autumn flower… somewhat less attractive now that she's all corpsified and gross-" [Zoe hits him with a pillow]
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