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I recently read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut's books which are generally good and I would recommend most of them. One thing that struck me about Breakfast of Champions was that there are a few instances where he has himself in there as a character. He wasn't in there in a first-person participation way which is pretty common like an autobiography, but as the author of the story and Creator of the people and world around him. It was an interesting meta situation and I was wondering if anyone knows: A: Is this a specific literary device or so case-specific it doesn't have a name? B: Are there any other books that do this? A few items I can think of are Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the animator has a heart attack causing the cartoon monster to vanish, as well as Red Dwarf where they have a space squid induced hallucination that they're in a TV show and meet the writers and one of the actors in order to petition the show to continue. These were both made after Breakfast of Champions and are more out of comedy than a mostly-serious scenario like Breakfast of Champions. Another similar example I remember is the children's story Wayside Stories from Wayside School where the author, Louis Sachar, was "the character" Groundskeeper Louis. However, he doesn't speak in first person or claim authorship of the world they're in; he's just a third-person character who I guess shared the name, appearance and general characteristics of the author. Any info would be appreciated!
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May 10, 2022 01:09
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 15:45 |
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Stephen King is a character in his Dark Tower series.
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May 10, 2022 14:02
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Metafiction, OP? Check out "At Swim-Two-Birds". If metafiction isn't the device you're looking for, at least you'll have read a really interesting book
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May 10, 2022 15:02
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Tiggum posted:Stephen King is a character in his Dark Tower series. That's pretty cool! I'll check it out. gleebster posted:Metafiction, OP? Check out "At Swim-Two-Birds". If metafiction isn't the device you're looking for, at least you'll have read a really interesting book That sounds about right. Metafiction is probably a good word to describe it. Inserting yourself as a Creator might be a more narcissistic sub-group of Metafiction, but that gives me a good place to start. I'll also take a look at At Swim-Two-Birds. Thanks!
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May 10, 2022 18:20
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uh, self insertion? it's always a question of how fictional you make the self insert.
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May 10, 2022 19:15
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Jolly Jumbuck posted:That's pretty cool! The first book is good, but the best part of it is the opening sentence and the series just goes downhill from there.
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May 10, 2022 19:30
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Tiggum posted:It's not. It's really not. It's one of those book series that showed a bit of promise. Then King got hit by a drunk driver, facing his own mortality he tried to incorporate a story about bad guys trying to shut him up about what is really going on. Then there are some Doombots and werewolves for some reason. And it is a horrible mess. And I realize telling goons not read something because it is lovely is a lost cause. But it is lovely, and you've been warned. I would suggest checking out Supernatural for a halfway decent Self-insertion story. Around the 4th season the main characters find out they're stuck in someone's novels and are pissed about the lousy writing they have to deal with. They don't so much break the fourth wall as grab the nearest narrator and toss him through a window. And yes, they namecheck Vonnegut a few times for self-insertion. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 10:27 on May 12, 2022 |
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May 12, 2022 10:02
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thrakkorzog posted:I would suggest checking out Supernatural for a halfway decent Self-insertion story. Around the 4th season the main characters find out they're stuck in someone's novels and are pissed about the lousy writing they have to deal with. They don't so much break the fourth wall as grab the nearest narrator and toss him through a window. And yes, they namecheck Vonnegut a few times for self-insertion. In both cases, I'd say it's fine to start but once you reach the point where you're not enjoying it much any more it's time to stop because it's not going to miraculously become good again.
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May 12, 2022 16:17
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I would say Supernatural started off bad, then kind of got a groove as it went on. It had fun with being meta after a bit. Nobody is going to complain when the writers apologized for the racist ghost truck episode or indian burial ground bugs episode. It did kind of go way too meta as the show went on. But it's good for around the 5th season, which ended is generally considered to have ended well, and after that, ymmv. It did kind of go way too meta.
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May 12, 2022 19:29
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 15:45 |
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Jolly Jumbuck posted:A: Is this a specific literary device or so case-specific it doesn't have a name? i dont know the technical term for the literary device but the earliest and most famous example of it that i can think of would be The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1320)
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May 26, 2022 19:33
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