I have seen characters talking and/or acting like they know there are in a story in movies, anime, comics and video games (Deadpool, Neptune in Hyperdimension, I would put the Joker into the category but this is more interpretation). However, I have yet to find a novel with such a character. I am tempted to use a character making remarks on the plot, the setting or about the author and the readers like Neptune does in Hyperdimension. But can it work in a novel? Has anyone done this before? (I'm certain someone did).
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Characters talking meta in novels
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I didn't know the term metafiction. The genre seems wider than I thought. Thanks for the information.
Just verified and he did. The series is called Thursday Next (the name of the main character). I think I'll take a look. It has been quite some times I didn't read a mystery novel.
For those who like video games and doesn't mind a little fan service, I suggest the entry in the Hyperdimension series (regularly on sales on steam). It's hilarious.
Just verified and he did. The series is called Thursday Next (the name of the main character). I think I'll take a look. It has been quite some times I didn't read a mystery novel.
For those who like video games and doesn't mind a little fan service, I suggest the entry in the Hyperdimension series (regularly on sales on steam). It's hilarious.
I feel like L Frank Baum did this a lot. Or he at least said Dorothy told him of her adventures? It's been a while since I've read them.
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I resisted breaking the fourth wall for a long time because my editors would slap my hand if I came anywhere near breaking it. Then I went totally indie, which meant I of course still use editors but *I* have the final say on stylistic choices. I started writing the odd character who will flat out say things like "Look, I was hungry. Don't judge me," or "Seriously, am I the only one?" And you know what? My readers love it.
So I'm all for breaking the fourth wall if it works for the character and the story.
So I'm all for breaking the fourth wall if it works for the character and the story.
Is there a difference between breaking the fourth wall and being "meta"?
I think "breaking the fourth wall" is a visual (theatrical or TV) version of the same thing. Rather like using audience for readers. It's not exactly the same, but it covers the same general area in a clumsyish sort of way.
(I'm copyrighting clumsyish sort of way. Pre-coffee-poetry, that phrase..)
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It seems to me that there is a substantive difference between several cases that have been raised in this thread.
"Reader, I married him" is simply a first-person narrator acknowledging the presence of an audience for the first-person narration. This can happen in third-person narrations as well, especially where there is a strongly-voiced omniscient narrator separate from the characters in the story.
This, to my mind, is qualitatively different from a situation in which the characters themselves acknowledge that they are in a fictional story. It's not just a matter of addressing the reader; it's an even more meta-level acknowledgment of the character's own place in the universe.
The latter is rarer, I would think, and probably harder to pull off, especially in a story that is not otherwise intentionally self-conscious and humerous.
What is referred to as "breaking the fourth wall" in TV or theater is perhaps somewhere in between; it is a character (rather than a distinct narrator) acknowledging the presence of an audience. Such acknowledgement implies that the character knows she is in a fictional story, in a way that "Reader, I married him" does not. "Reader, I married him" does acknowledge the audience but contains no explicit acknowledgement that the story is fictional.
There's yet another case I can think of, slightly different -- something Trollope often did, which is an omniscient narrator acknowledging not only the presence of the reader, but the fictionality of the narrative and the characters within it. Trollope often addresses the reader, referring to himself as "the novelist" and describing the difficulties that the novelist encounters in trying to craft a story that will be satisfactory to the reader (the quotation from Trollope in my signature comes from one such interjection.) Thackeray does it throughout Vanity Fair, as well, repeatedly reminding readers that all the characters are players in a tableau of sorts. It is a rather 19th-century conceit, I suppose.
"Reader, I married him" is simply a first-person narrator acknowledging the presence of an audience for the first-person narration. This can happen in third-person narrations as well, especially where there is a strongly-voiced omniscient narrator separate from the characters in the story.
This, to my mind, is qualitatively different from a situation in which the characters themselves acknowledge that they are in a fictional story. It's not just a matter of addressing the reader; it's an even more meta-level acknowledgment of the character's own place in the universe.
The latter is rarer, I would think, and probably harder to pull off, especially in a story that is not otherwise intentionally self-conscious and humerous.
What is referred to as "breaking the fourth wall" in TV or theater is perhaps somewhere in between; it is a character (rather than a distinct narrator) acknowledging the presence of an audience. Such acknowledgement implies that the character knows she is in a fictional story, in a way that "Reader, I married him" does not. "Reader, I married him" does acknowledge the audience but contains no explicit acknowledgement that the story is fictional.
There's yet another case I can think of, slightly different -- something Trollope often did, which is an omniscient narrator acknowledging not only the presence of the reader, but the fictionality of the narrative and the characters within it. Trollope often addresses the reader, referring to himself as "the novelist" and describing the difficulties that the novelist encounters in trying to craft a story that will be satisfactory to the reader (the quotation from Trollope in my signature comes from one such interjection.) Thackeray does it throughout Vanity Fair, as well, repeatedly reminding readers that all the characters are players in a tableau of sorts. It is a rather 19th-century conceit, I suppose.
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Yeah, the fourth wall was for TV, because tv sets that look like rooms (which have four walls), have an open fourth which is where the camera/audience is. To talk to the audience is to break through that invisible wall.
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Yes, the fourth wall is a theatrical reference carried over to television and film. And many times I've wished that not only was the fourth wall unbroken, but opaque and soundproof too.
It way pre-dates television though - it started in theatre. But yes, it's become general largely through TV.
I do this occasionally (and as subtly as possible) in historical romances, where the characters acknowledge some of the cliches of the sub-genre. In the WIP, the heroine mentions that there have been a couple of unfortunate accidental deaths in the hero's family, but her godfather scoffs at her caution, saying every family has people who die before their time - why, look at the new Duke of Someplace who only inherited the title because his father and two older brothers were killed in a carriage accident. The Duke of Someplace is never brought up again, and this is a little in-joke about how several heroes in historical romances inherit their titles.
I wondered whether to have the father and three older brothers be killed in the carriage accident, but I think that would be implausible.
A Rebellious Heroine was published in 1896: it's exactly what it says--the heroine refusing to cooperate with her author, and arguing about his stage directions. And she's hilarious. The file is free at Project Gutenberg, here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3324/3324-h/3324-h.htm
(Note: she doesn't appear until Chapter 2. Chapter 1 is literary people talking about being literary. After that, the pace picks up considerably.)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3324/3324-h/3324-h.htm
(Note: she doesn't appear until Chapter 2. Chapter 1 is literary people talking about being literary. After that, the pace picks up considerably.)
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Meta is self-referential, whereas breaking the fourth wall is addressing the audience in a self-aware way. Supernatural is masterful at meta and has done it a number of ways and *sort of* broke the fourth wall when Sam and Dean crashed into a dimension where they are actors called "Jared" and "Jensen" playing characters on a show called "Supernatual". There are also the episodes where a "prophet" is writing novels about them. And there are multiple episodes where fans of the books kind of stand in for fans of the show. These episodes are very meta, but without characters actually turning and talking to the camera.
Thank you everybody. Your answers were very insightful.
My own WIP has the narrator addressing the audience directly a few times, but she doesn't realize she's fictional. Sometimes it's just good to have the proper labels for what I'm writing.
My own WIP has the narrator addressing the audience directly a few times, but she doesn't realize she's fictional. Sometimes it's just good to have the proper labels for what I'm writing.
JF Lewis did this with a character in his Burned series. The character's reactions sometimes are hilarious.
Didn't any of you read the epilogue to the last book!?