The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Twelve Months, chapter one
Mira:
--- Quote from: Dina on November 06, 2025, 12:25:42 PM ---Mira, I absolutely agree about the grief that Harry is living feeling realistic. I think you are using "reliable" in two different senses. One is, you can relate with the narrator. I totally agree with that. I had terrible grief moments myself. But I think most of us were talking about the term "reliable narrator", in the sense that if you can trust in what Harry told us. When Harry hallucinates, forgets something, and perhaps has been mentally affected, we as readers only have his words to go by. An objective narrator would have told us that Harry was talking alone in the bookstore, but Harry talk us how nice and pretty was Shiela. That is what we were talking about.
LaraBeck. I agree with what you said, but when I mentioned Harry's depression about Susan, I was talking about when she was bitten. Harry told us that he was a mess for a lot of time, but we barely see it on page.
--- End quote ---
Dina, I disagree that Harry is unreliable as a narrator. Why? Because he is telling us his story as he saw it at the moment he saw it. Yes, he could be very wrong about what he saw as in the case of Sheila, but he does go back and correct it when he finds out the truth. That is presenting the whole picture, as it happens warts and all. Mistakes and all, Harry presents it as he saw it at the time.
I disagree that we barely saw Harry's depression on page at the beginning of Summer Knight after Susan got infected and left him. It was on every page, his hygiene, the state of his apartment, going to a Council meeting in his bathrobe, because he didn't take care of his official robe and Mister threw hairballs up all over it, everyone from Lea to Murphy telling him he looked like warmed over crap! More to the point, Harry didn't seem to care, wouldn't or was unable to do anything about it. That screams clinical depression, Harry doesn't have to tell us he was going through a deep depression, he was describing it truthfully and reliably.
RobReece:
Hi Mira, I'm not so sure about when Harry is recording his experiences, is there anything to say that he writes them down on a regular basis? I always figured that a significant amount of time had occurred between the experiences and when Harry writes his memoirs.
For instance, he finishes the first book with the phrase
--- Quote --- My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk.
--- End quote ---
At that point, he really wasn't a threat to those who could summon him by his name, not like he is now or as he will continue to grow in strength.
I always took that as an indication that he wrote these long after the event took place and that was why he'd be considered a unreliable narrator.
Mira:
--- Quote ---At that point, he really wasn't a threat to those who could summon him by his name, not like he is now or as he will continue to grow in strength.
I always took that as an indication that he wrote these long after the event took place and that was why he'd be considered a unreliable narrator.
--- End quote ---
However we don't know if he isn't keeping a journal, do we? There is a hint that he is, not proof positive, but a hint. The fact in Turn Coat when he is in Eb's quarters, and not only comes across Eb's journal, but journals handed from master to apprentice clear back to Merlin. That means tradition, it also might mean it is the duty of a wizard to keep a journal. To me that's a hint that more likely than not, Harry is also keeping a journal. It's also in the name of the series, "The Dresden Files." Files are something you keep records of your cases in.. If the series is a memoire, Harry is still using files or journals, not memory alone to write it.
--- Quote ---For instance, he finishes the first book with the phrase
Quote
My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk.
At that point, he really wasn't a threat to those who could summon him by his name, not like he is now or as he will continue to grow in strength.
I always took that as an indication that he wrote these long after the event took place and that was why he'd be considered a unreliable narrator.
--- End quote ---
Maybe, but if you will remember Harry had a pretty high opinion of himself, even in Storm Front and in Fool Moon he is very careful not to give his full name to Chauncy. Harry knows that names have power, he knew this even as a young wizard, he had kicked butt and got out from under the Doom at the end of Storm Front, so feeling a little full of himself and young, he might dare you to conjour using his name.
RobReece:
Definitely maybe,
But will we ever know for sure
Lol
Dina:
Hi Mira
Well, effectively we disagree in the things you mentioned in your answer to me, but I completely agree with your response to RobReece about the files/journal.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version