Anansi Boys and the English/American Divide

I had the pleasure of reading Anansi Boys by Niel Gaiman this week. Just as I was turning the last few pages of the novel, the March issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction came sliding through my mail slot- and what did I find? A review of Anansi Boys by Charles de Lint.

De Lint's review addressed a very unique aspect of Niel Gaiman's writing- his voice. A writer's voice might be described as the way the reader perceives the storyteller who is telling the tale. In most modern speculative fiction, readers want as little intrusion as possible of the author's voice in their reading experience. Readers want to lose themselves in the story, they want to empathize with the protagonist, not the storyteller. And, if possible, the reader wants to forget that what they are reading isn't "real."

Intrusion of the author's voice "usually annoys me," [in other authors], writes de Lint- and a lot of readers would agree with him. So why do so many folks enjoy reading Niel Gaiman?

De Lint suggests that the "half-smile in that narrator's voice of his [Gaiman's]" is excusable because it is infused with a real love for his characters. This may be one reason, but I'd like to propose another.

Readers who like the whimsical voice found in Gaiman's Anansi Boys probably like it because they liked the whimsical voice in The Hobbit. Or maybe they enjoyed Douglas Adams's heavily ironic voice in the Hitchiker's series. Then again, maybe readers are also fond of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, in which Pratchett's authorial voice continually has its tongue in its cheek.

It's obvious what Gaiman, Tolkien, Adams, and Pratchett all have in common. Yeah, yeah, they're speculative fiction writers. Now, a little less obvious- that's right, they're English, born and raised.

So, are the folks on the other side of the Atlantic just naturally more funny when they write speculative fiction?

I'd like to suggest that English authors, unlike American authors, can admit that storytelling is a kind of playtime. English authors aren't afraid to be caught by the reader peering past the third wall. To an American storyteller, getting caught by the reader behind the third wall is something like getting caught with your pants down, or lifting the curtain to see that the great Oz is just a little old man.

For a very visual example of the difference between English and American storytelling, take a look at a few sitcoms from the BBC and compare them to Friends or another typical American sitcom. Does an episode of Red Dwarf care if you can see the wires on the alien puppet? Eh, not really. But you won't be disappointed by the episode- in fact you might get a stomach cramp from laughing. Would a slick, American sitcom allow such sloppiness? No! Was it obvious that Monica's apartment was just a set when you watched an episode of Friends? Not really! When you watch American television, you can almost forget the story isn't real.

So, our English-bred authors aren't necessarily more funny than their American counterparts, they are just better able to see the humor in peeking behind the third wall, or in the "half-smile" of the authorial voice.

Please let me know if you have other examples of authors who make the occasional intrusion into their story. I'd be especially interested in reading an American speculative fiction author who butts in from time to time.