Oren: There are two possibilities, and they are both equally hilarious, as laid out in ChrisвЂ™s post Lessons from the Empty writing of the Alchemyst. HeвЂ™s like, вЂњI gotta summon the will to go on. Wes: I mean, if you were immortal, maybe itвЂ™s like his daily pump-up routine. Does he just every day write about how awesome he is? And at the end itвЂ™s supposed to be from his daily journal HeвЂ™s immortal. вЂњI was acknowledged as the greatest alchemist of allвЂќ and, you know, just bragging. Illness can not touch me.вЂќ And it goes on, this guy just bragging about his life. I was making fun of The Alchemyst, cause I just did a lessons post on the Lessons from the Writing of The Alchemyst.ДЄnd it opens with this teaser, вЂњI am legend. Because someone will be like, вЂњYou know, IвЂ™m not sure if this plot point made sense,вЂќ and someone else will be like, вЂњBut itвЂ™s an unreliable narrator because it said so at the beginning,вЂќ No, gosh, why would you inflict that on your fans? Why would you intentionally cause that to happen?Д¬hris: Or what I have been seeing recently is thereвЂ™s a lot of times epistolary little snippets that are at the beginning of chapters or the beginning of the book, but like the main body of the book is not supposed to be epistolary. Oren: Sometimes people put those weird little bits at the beginning instead of the end, but either way, if itвЂ™s indistinguishable from a normal book and you just put like, вЂњHey, this was written by so-and-so,вЂќ and so itвЂ™s epistolary, the only purpose those things serve is to make fan arguments more insufferable.

And itвЂ™s like, вЂњWhat?вЂќ This is just a regular book. And then thereвЂ™s just this random, oh, by the way, IвЂ™m using Earth years to translate this document, or a standard year, which happens to be exactly the same as an Earth year, or something like that. Battlefield earth has this weird translation note, right? ItвЂ™s like a story thatвЂ™s taking place on some other planet, I think in the super-distant future or something. Otherwise itвЂ™s a cheat, and I hate it.Д¬hris: ThatвЂ™s one type of what I would call fake epistolary stories or fake epistolary narration, where it just feels like the writer wrote whatever they felt like writing and then just added a citation to it. Wes: That has to be like the unforgivable sin for epistolary narration, right? I mean you have to know that itвЂ™s epistolary from the start. Oren: ItвЂ™s a normal book that at the end of the book, I have my protagonist say, and thatвЂ™s why I wrote all this down in a book. WeвЂ™re supposed to be role models.Д¬hris: WeвЂ™re probably too late for that at this point. WeвЂ™re putting evil ideas and listenersвЂ™ heads. Oh my God, I donвЂ™t want to think about that. Wes: I also like the idea of somebody doing epistolary narration and filling it with puns. And IвЂ™m just talking the way that I talk, so this is just my character.Д¬hris: Epistolary narration needs to be credible, so we gotta ask, would somebody who talks that way credibly be on the Mythcreant podcast? Oren: Look, what are the strengths of epistolary is that you can write the way that people like actually talk and get into the character and learn them more. Oren: Did Stephen King ever write epistolary because I know that with some of his books, he wrote a-pistol-ary. Which weвЂ™ve mentioned before, but now an entire episode and epistolary episode about epistolary narration. So we are covering epistolary narration this time. Oren: Oh, no, a topic I didnвЂ™t prepare for!Д¬hris :Crash. And stop the recording, and then thereвЂ™s going to be a citation that this was from the Mythcreant podcast. IвЂ™m going to write an angry letter.Д¬hris: Okay. IвЂ™m Chris and with me isвЂ¦Д¬hris: Did you know that weвЂ™re speaking to you from an audio recording?Д¬hris: ItвЂ™s a real life piece of media that was told at a specific time for a specific real life purpose. With your hosts Oren Ashkenazi, Wes Matlock, and Chris Winkle.Д¬hris: YouвЂ™re listening to the Mythcreant podcast. Volunteer to transcribe a podcast.Д¬hris: YouвЂ™re listening to the Mythcreant podcast.

Banished cheats happen