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.

— If you read only recent posts, you miss most of what this site has to offer.

— Share site with friends.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

“The Guest List” by Lucy Foley: Meaning of Voices and Parts


Jules, bride-to-be, thinks that the setting for her marriage is perfect: “Everything is going to be perfect” (1, p. 16).


However, using the literary convention of italics for a voice in the head, a voice in her head advises her: “Don’t think about the note, Jules.”


Jules agrees: "I will not think about the note (that she found in her letter box three weeks ago) that…“told me not to marry Will. To call it off,” (1, p. 16).


Comment: Conversations with rational (but not infallible) voices in the head—voices of alternate personalities—are often found in multiple personality. But since Jules is not labelled as having multiple personality, the above may reflect the novelist’s psychology, a creative literary asset I call “multiple personality trait.” Search it in this blog and see below:


Author’s afterword: The author’s reference to “a sneaky little part of me that’s always on the lookout for inspiration” (1, p. 3 “About the book”) may refer to a creative alternate personality in her “multiple personality trait.” 


1. Lucy Foley. The Guest List. New York, William Morrow, 2020. 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment (whether you agree or disagree) and ask questions (simple or expert). I appreciate your contribution.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)