Scott

Jacob Scott
ENGL 340
Dr. Sparks
11 / 1 / 18
The Use of Metafiction - Project 2

At times authors of fiction will use techniques in his/her writing that cause

the reader to truly question their own position in the story itself, or even in general.

One of the many ways in which they are able to do this is through a literary device

called ‘metaficiton’ or even ‘metatexuality’ and this is far from the traditional

narrative techniques. Some prime examples of metafiction being used to its full

potential can be seen in two different ways through two completely different books.

In the book If on a Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino, Calvino uses

metafiction in order to control the reader and have absolute dominance over his

readers as if it was his favorite game to play, where as in the computer file titled

“Uncle Roger” by Judy Malloy, Malloy uses metafiction in order to give control to the

reader, to give them free choice. Calvino uses metafiction in order to treat his

readers like they are little children with no say, where as Malloy treats her readers

as mature adults with the privilege of free will. Calvino is interested in the control

factor of metafiction, and Malloy is interested in the freedom of the metafiction and

metatextuality. Calvino uses it to maintain control over his reader, and Malloy uses

it to give control to her readers.

In Italo Calvino’s novel he is constantly telling the reader what to do from

start to finish. The book begins with him forcing the reader to start reading against

their will and even harasses them with commands and questions such as, “Well,
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what are you waiting for? Stretch your legs, go ahead… take your shoes off… you

went to the bookshop and bought the volume. Goof for you.” (3-4). There is no

denying that this unnatural technique is interesting, but there is also no denying

that it is somewhat patronizing and utterly annoying, and almost even insulting. The

author is assuming that his reader can relate to every detail in the book every time,

due to the sense of confidence and the excessive amount of control, and to assume

such a thing is unrealistic and rather almost rude, or just pure ignorant. In the

computer file titled “Uncle Roger” by Judy Malloy, the reader is given the option to

choose from three different subtext within the text, which is extremely generous

and gives the reader a vast sense of control over the story.

In Calvino’s novel every other chapter of the book is made to confuse and

control the reader by telling them they are reading a book that is far from the

normal, as if one doesn’t realize that already at this point, again treating the reader

like a child. The sense of control is evident when he says in chapter two, “Here is

page 31, page 32, …and then what comes next? Page 17 all over again, a third time!

What kind of book did they sell you, anyway? They bound together all these copies

of the same signature, not another page in the whole book is any good.” (26). Here, it

is quite obvious that the author enjoys playing the role of god and making his

readers not know why he does the things he does, and makes the choices that he

does. He is simply controlling the reader by making them put complete trust in him

and in exchange he can confuse them. Once the reader is confused they go back to

the author for guidance, but the author is the one doing the confusing in the first

place, through metafiction. Malloy gains trust from her readers through metafiction
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and metatexuality, but through the exact opposite way as Calvino. Once the reader

has chosen one of the three files in “Uncle Roger”, either A Party in Woodside, The

Blue Notebook, or Terminals they are given the options of clicking on multiple

different ways to start the story, their own story. The options go way beyond the

limits you would expect. As soon as the reader has chosen a name, picture, or square

they are able to read a passage, and once they finish reading the passage there are

multiple words at the bottom of the page that they can choose from. The words at

the bottom that lead them further through the story have to be words that were in

the passage at the top of the page. It is almost as if Malloy is giving the reader the

position of god by putting the words within the text at the bottom and letting them

choose the story’s destiny.

In Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, he attempts to trick his readers

into making them believe, making them convince themselves that once you have got

far enough into the book you are trapped. He manipulates his readers into thinking

that this circus of a book is not only worth finishing, but that you actually enjoy

being controlled until the very end. He concludes chapter four by saying, “Whatever

it may be, this is a novel where, once you have got into it, you want to go forward,

without stopping.” (76). This is somewhat of a clever tactic to use due to the fact that

some individuals may read this and automatically take it as true simply because

Calvino is using the word “you” multiple times. Also because of the fact that he uses

the word “whatever” to suggest that no matter what it is about the book, there is

something about it that entices you. It doesn’t matter even if you are unaware of

what that something is because Calvino uses metafiction to convince you that there
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is in fact something there, and that you have to finish the book to figure out what

that something is.

Another way in which the computer file “Uncle Roger” gives the reader

freedom and choice is the fact that the reader can always change his/her mind and

go back, and choose to have the story unfold a different way than they way they

currently are. For instance, in the Terminals file, the reader is given about 90

different options to click on, and from there can go any route, go back whenever,

and go about it at different paces and different angles. This is the opposite feeling of

Calvino’s novel considering you must start the book thinking /saying in bed, “I’m

beginning to read Italo Calvino’s new novel!” (3), and you must finish the book in

bed thinking/saying, “ Just a moment, I’ve almost finished ‘If on a Winter’s Night a

Traveler’ by Italo Calvino.” (260). Since the reader is never given freedom of original

thought in Calvino’s novel it makes them even more unsatisfied by the ending of the

story because you have just read 260 pages, yet you feel like you just did one giant

circle. The reader feels like they have just read an entire story only to end in the

exact same position in which they started.

As one can see, metafiction and metatexuality are very powerful features that

can be used in many different ways, but it is important for one to know that they can

in fact be used in opposite ways. Some authors choose to use them in order to

maintain a certain level of control of their readers, and some authors choose to use

them in order to make their readers have a new experience of reading through

having complete control over the story. And through this way, it is the reader’s own

story that they get to create, rather than feeling like a pond in a game of chess.
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Work Cited

Calvino, Italo. If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,

Publishers, 1981.

http://collection.eliterature.org/3/works/uncle-roger/partytop.html