From: g@crcomp.net   
      
   Pertinent excerpt from James' review included in this revision.   
      
   James Nicoll wrote:   
   > Five Ways to Build a Story Around an Unlikeable Protagonist   
   >   
   > Thoughts on hateable, problematic, and morally bankrupt characters.   
   >   
   > https://reactormag.com/five-ways-to-build-a-story-around-an-un   
   ikeable-protagonist/   
      
       (excerpt)   
      
       but is it possible that Heinlein was drawing readers   
       in with characters who were just a smidge dimmer than   
       the reader, so the reader could have the pleasure of   
       outthinking the lead? It’s probably tricky to hit   
       “just thick enough” without wandering into   
       “irritatingly dense."   
      
   In the crowded marketplace of ideas, artful authors attract an   
   audience's patronage by inculcating a sense of reader superiority into   
   their readership.   
       RAH's reliable narrators arguably act as a baseline. You get what   
   you pay for. Readers foresee what is coming while character   
   comprehension lags a little - it loiters to size up a straightforward   
   situation.   
       Unreliable narrators up the stakes. They require readers to expend   
   extra effort to question the narrative along the way. By the end of a   
   successfully sleuthed story, superiority is enhanced enough to enable   
   escalated euphoria.   
       But unreliable narration can backfire on readers who lack the   
   requisite intelligence or mental discipline to tackle the tale.   
      
   --   
   Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.                     veritas    _|_   
   telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.               liberabit   |   
   tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'              vos         |   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)