"The narrator, unnamed, a de Selby scholar, confesses…" — Flann O'Brien (#c447)

Card #c447IR // #c447Verbatim excerpt

The narrator, unnamed, a de Selby scholar, confesses early: It was for de Selby I committed my first serious sin. It was for him that I committed my greatest sin. The greatest sin is murder: old Mathers, felled by an iron bicycle-pump, hacked to death with a heavy spade and then securely buried in a field. Everything that follows, the parish, the policemen, the bicycles, is narrated by this man.

— Source: The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien)

[Use when]

A bizarre world is reported by a narrator with blood on his hands: discount the scenery until you have priced the witness.

[Why it matters]

Narrator reliability is the first OSINT entry. A murderer justifying himself is not a neutral camera: every absurdity the policemen spout, every precise-insane statement, arrives filtered through a mind with a motive to make the world look stranger than his crime. Before asking what the parish means, ask who is showing it to you, and what he needs you not to notice.

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