LNH: Untold Tales of the Looniverse #2

[Martin Phipps]

Tom Russell wrote:

> That's another problem, I think, with the Nostalgics: I'm not really
> all that thrilled about writing in first person.

Another thing: first person FORCES you to stick to one point of view.
You couldn't possibly switch to another point of view, not unless the
narrator were able to see through other people's eyes.  So it can be a
bit limiting.  Also, because you're only getting one point of view you
don't know if what you are getting is the truth: the narrator could be
LYING.  One thing I DID like about Nostalgics, in fact, is that the
narrator has a very good reason to lie: he's trying to justify, or at
least explain, his killing of another human being.  So I figured there
was a very good chance he WAS lying.  But how to do show that a first
person narrator is lying through prose alone?  It would be difficult:
TV, movies and comics allows for the juxtiposition of a lying narrator
with the objective truth of the pictures we see.  With prose, first
person narration only provides us with one point of view and you
basically have to accept what you are told.  Or so I imagine.  If you
can think of a good way to show through first person narration that the
narrator himself is being untruthful then I'd be very impressed. :)

Martin