“The Neon Rain” by James Lee Burke (post 3): Detective Robicheaux has thoughts from, then switches to, an alternate personality (unacknowledged)

In the following passages, first-person protagonist Detective Robicheaux has a thought inserted into his mind by an alternate personality. (Thought insertion was once considered a symptom of schizophrenia, but has been found to be more characteristic of multiple personality.) Then he says he underwent “metamorphosis” (has switched to another self, an alternate personality).

Reasons for “I thought” and italics

“Right or wrong?” he said…

“Right,” I said.

But even as I spoke, I thought, if we break promises to God, shouldn’t we be allowed an occasional violation of our word to our friends and superiors? (1, p. 290).

Since “I” is a first-person, narrating protagonist, it was unnecessary to say “I thought.” The natural way to have written that sentence would have been: “But if we break promises to God, shouldn’t we be allowed an occasional violation of our word to our friends and superiors?” So why insert, “I thought,” unless he is making some kind of distinction? He means that he had a thought, but he didn’t feel like he was thinking it. It just came to him.

And why the italics? It was not needed for emphasis, since that sentence is the ending of a scene and is followed by a double space, after which the scene changes. So that sentence already had ample emphasis. Italics was used for another reason.

As I have discussed in many other writers’ works, italics are often used when quoting the voice of an alternate personality heard in the character’s head. In the above, it is not a voice, but a thought of an alternate personality. The protagonist is implying that he had a thought in his head, but it didn’t feel like his own thought, which he indicates by italics.

“Metamorphosis” (switch to sober alternate personality)

“I could feel the caution lights start to flash in my head, the way you do when you watch the amber light shimmer in a whiskey glass.” But since this time he was not drinking, he couldn’t blame alcohol for the way he was starting to feel, and “…you can’t even have the pleasure of loathing yourself because the metamorphosis to which you’ve committed yourself is now the only self you have” (1, p. 293). When you switch to an alternate personality, you now have that personality’s point of view.

Comment

The above is another example of unintentional, unacknowledged, multiple personality. It is probably in the novel only as a reflection of what most fiction writers consider ordinary psychology.

1. James Lee Burke. The Neon Rain [1987]. London, Orion Books, 2013.