BASIC CONCEPTS

— When novelists claim they do not invent it, but hear voices and find stories in their head, they are neither joking nor crazy.

— When characters, narrators, or muses have minds of their own and occasionally take over, they are alternate personalities.

— Alternate personalities and memory gaps, but no significant distress or dysfunction, is a normal version of multiple personality.

— normal Multiple Personality Trait (MPT) (core of Multiple Identity Literary Theory), not clinical Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)

— The normal version of multiple personality is an asset in fiction writing when some alternate personalities are storytellers.

— Multiple personality originates when imaginative children with normal brains have unassuaged trauma as victim or witness.

— Psychiatrists, whose standard mental status exam fails to ask about memory gaps, think they never see multiple personality.

— They need the clue of memory gaps, because alternate personalities don’t acknowledge their presence until their cover is blown.

— In novels, most multiple personality, per se, is unnoticed, unintentional, and reflects the author’s view of ordinary psychology.

— Multiple personality means one person who has more than one identity and memory bank, not psychosis or possession.

— Euphemisms for alternate personalities include parts, pseudonyms, alter egos, doubles, double consciousness, voice or voices.

— Multiple personality trait: 90% of fiction writers; possibly 30% of public.

— Each time you visit, search "name index" or "subject index," choose another name or subject, and search it.

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Friday, April 21, 2023

“Wifey” (post 1) by Judy Blume: Marital Sex with Commentary by Italicized Voice in Wife’s Head


“Norman kissed her. He tasted like Colgate toothpaste. She hated Colgate. Did she also hate Norman? Answer: Yes, sometimes.


“Norman’s cold tongue was darting in and out of her mouth. One kiss. That was enough for him. Sandy didn’t mind. Her lip hurt. Besides, his kisses no longer pleased her, no longer offered any excitement.


“Ready, San?”


“Yes.” Sandy raised her hips to catch him. In and Out. In and Out. She closed her eyes and imagined herself with the beachboy…Norman was beginning his descent. Three more strokes and it would be over. Hurry, Sandy…hurry, or you’ll be left out. She moved with Norman but it was too late. No main course tonight.


“Sorry,” he said…


“It doesn’t matter," Sandy said. Liar. Liar. Of course it mattered (1, pp. 56-57).


Comment: As previously noted in posts on other writers, italics are often used for voices in a character’s head.


Most people don’t hear voices, but the many novelists who have multiple personality trait would sometimes hear the voices of their alternate personalities.


And since such novelists may experience such voices routinely, they may attribute such voices to their characters casually, as a realistic touch. Novelists commonly italicize such voices to distinguish them from a character’s ordinary thoughts.


1. Judy Blume. Wifey. New York, Berkley Books, 1978/2005.

2. Wikipedia “Judy Blume.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Blume 

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