That's too much dramatic irony, the whole thing's corroded

[cimorene]

Given the commonness of this whole trope where the narrator, and sometimes everyone else except one intelligent character, is so clueless that they are continually surprised by everything that happens in the most obnoxious way while the writer ensures that the reader is anything but surprised...

... It's just occurred to me, for the first time, that it's got to be knowingly and deliberately employed by the authors. Does that mean people like it? Are there readers who regard it as a cherished and even favorite device? Does it come off as funny rather then agonizing, sort of like those people who like secondhand embarrassment humor?

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

This happens not infrequently in the Hercule Poirot mysteries, and frequently in the Jeeves and Wooster stories I read.

I think if the clueless characters are presented as comic, and that's done well, I find it less annoying.

But I guess it's fun for the reader to be "in the know"? Gives the reader a sense of superiority?

But it has an Andy Griffith Show feel to it alot of the time.

[cimorene]

That's true, although in Poirot usually it's more that Poirot is unusually smart. Yes, we understand what Hastings doesn't a lot, but we still don't understand all the stuff that Poirot does. Still, that could get irritatuing in exactly the same way as what I'm describing in the post if it wasn't done well.

And yeah, in Wodehouse it's funny and it's obviously done for humor, whereas the most recent example I'm complaining about are the Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke mysteries; which all seem to have a DIFFERENT guest narrator and the guest narrator is ALWAYS completely lacking common sense and all analytical skills, but frequently whenever any third parties are around they are just as irritatingly slow as the narrator. Once again, like with Poirot, or Holmes, the sleuth himself is way smarter than the reader, so you don't know what he's hinting about when he refuses to tell who he suspects; but on the other hand lots of other incidental issues come up, like why he's packing a gun for this trip for example - it's because he suspects the mysterious man who tried to kill you is going to be there, dipshit! He's already tried MORE THAN ONCE! Yet the narraotr will be like "This is incredible, Dr! Why would the guy who's trying to kill us try to kill us here?"