Unreliable Narrator: Difference between revisions

This can also be a source of humour for the work, too.

 

 

Note: as this is often a particularly subversive [[Reveal]], '''REALLY BIG spoilers''' ahead, especially in the Literature section.

* Rorschach in ''[[Watchmen]]'' is a good example of this, especially when he talks about himself.

** The artwork actually uses an unreliable ''framing device'' (one of many the work contains) to show "Rorschach" in the [[The Faceless|first person]] and Walter Kovacs in the 3rd person (walking around in the background of the same chapter), leading to [[The Reveal]]. This both misdirects the audience as to who Rorschach is behind the mask, and contributes to the sense of Rorschach's disconnection from "the man in the mirror", so to speak.

* The ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' revival used this as a [[Retcon]]: the authors claimed that the classic series was folklore, and the new series was closer to the 'truth'.

** ''[[Lost in Space]]'' was similarly retconned in a [[Dark Age|'90s comic book]]. The goofy aliens from the TV show were said to be Penny's interpretations. For example, one that was depicted as a giant carrot was "really" a [[Combat Tentacles|tentacled]] [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* Pretty much anything by Christopher Priest. ''The Affirmation'' is pretty notorious for this: {{spoiler|the narrator did not spend weeks cleaning up and repainting the summer house he was staying at, he never actually wrote his memoirs, and it is never clear if he was from London and invented Jethra or vice-versa.}} Same goes for ''The Prestige'', where {{spoiler|one of the character's memoirs is actually written by a set of twins.}} Even ''The Inverted World'' plays with the trope, though {{spoiler|there it's more because the narrator doesn't understand the nature of his own world.}}

* The Caitlin Kiernan novel ''The Red Tree'' takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]] with not just one but at least three and at some points five levels of unreliable narration. First, there is the main character Sarah: the story is told in the form of her journal, and she's clearly losing it (a note at the beginning mentions she killed herself after the events in the story). Then there is the unknown person who collected Sarah's journal and mailed it to her editor. Finally, there is the editor herself, who is distinctly coy in her note about any details that might confirm or deny Sarah's story. If that weren't enough, there are long sections of the book where Sarah is supposedly quoting from a manuscript she found. The author of this manuscript is also of questionable sanity, and there are several places where he is quoting from sources of questionable veracity. Not only is it impossible to tell if anything in this book actually happened outside anyone's imagination, it isn't even possible to tell whose imagination it might have been. [[Better Than It Sounds|It works, though.]]

*** It's explained that it's not that they don't feel any love for their children - they just love everyone ''as much as they love their own children'', so someone down the street is as dear to them as their new-born foal.

** Here the moral could be the need to strike a balance between excessive detachment (represented the horse-people) and primal emotions (represented by the Yahoos).

* ''[[Malcolm in The Middle]]'' plays with the more humorous variant. For one example, Malcolm says the house next-door never seemed to have a permanent resident and they never figured out why. Cue montage of the boys playing all ''sorts'' of pranks on the previous residents, then cut to Malcolm saying "I don't know - I think it might be haunted."

* Lampshaded in ''[[Space Cases]]''. When Catalina is asked to describe what happened with the Ion Storm, Harlan acts completely and utterly worthless and it's actually ''her'' who saves the day. When this flashback finishes, everyone says "...wait that's not what happened" and they ask for Harlan's version, which is...more or less the same thing but with ''Harlan'' presented as the hero and Catalina being useless and her obsession with Suzee being exaggerated. Naturally this is one of the more humorous examples, but it just blended ''so'' well with the rest of the rather serious episode.

** The episode ''Love & Monsters'' is framed as a story being told to the camera by Elton Pope. {{spoiler|It's explicitly shown that his memory of how the band sounded, and how they actually sounded are rather different, which calls into question a lot of his interpretation of events}}.

* In the fourth-season ''[[MASH]]'' episode "The Novocaine Mutiny", Frank and Hawkeye give wildly differing accounts of the same event.

* ''[[All in The Family]]'' had a [[Rashomon]] episode where an incident was seen from the points of view of all four principles - Edith's version was the objective, accurate one, of course.

* Most of the ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'' episode ''Tall Tales'' is a [[Rashomon]] episode, with Sam and Dean telling their own version of the previous events to their [[Mentor]] Bobby - and often end up arguing over who's telling the story and the exact details of what occurred. It is eventuality revealed that a Trickster (a minor god of chaos) has been messing with their relationship in order to distract them from the case at hand, so most of the narrative consists of whichever brother is speaking portraying himself as a suave, dedicated professional searching earnestly for the truth, while painting the other in decidedly uncomplimentary colors. In Sam's narration, Dean appears as a slutty, gluttonous pig with no standards, while Dean portrays Sam as a prissy, supersensitive do-gooder with [[Camp Gay]] mannerisms. They end up working together to defeat the Trickster and sincerely apologizing for their behavior after closing the case.

{{quote| '''Lucille''': So what if I'm a bad mother? It's not like children come with a manual!<br />

'''Narrator''': [On a screen showing Google search] In fact, Lucille was not aware that there are thousands of books on child-rearing. }}

"Oh, how awful!"<br />

"Of course not, you blundering idiot! How would I be talking to you now?" }}

 

 

** Making Kreia possibly unique as a party member in RPG history -- she is ''always'' lying about something.

* ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' gives you {{spoiler|Scott Shelby}}.

** Actually, the Pokédex entries are written by the professors, not the trainers. Which casts doubt on their actual Science knowledge, with all those errors in the descriptions.

* ''[[Portal (Video Game)|Portal]]'' and ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'' make use of this trope all over the friggin' place, largely because the characters who act as narrators during the games are (a) insane, (b) [[Blatant Lies|blatant liars]], (c) self-aggrandizing glory-seekers, (d) complete morons, or any combination of the above. Even the out-of-game promotional material surrounding Aperture Science, the company responsible for all of the insanity, is filled with apparent inaccuracies and material that's directly contradicted by revelations within ''Portal 2''.

 

== Real Life ==

** And in the same vein, the autobiographies of Giocomo [[Casanova]] - some tend to enjoy the book more if they treat it as fiction.

* Most small children tend to be this when telling you a story or their side of the events of something.

[[Category:Truth and Lies]]

[[Category:Unreliable Narrator]]