Point of View

The novel is told in the first-person point of view by an unnamed narrator who claims to periodically feel as if his name was Philboyd Studge. The narrator is traditionally interpreted to be a fictionalized self-portrayal of the author and in fact the narrator claims to be the author of the meta-fictional construction. The narrator is, or at least claims to be, omniscient and also apparently nearly omnipotent. For example, the narrator causes Kilgore Trout, another character, to travel to the surface of the sun and other unlikely places simply by desiring it to be so. The narrator is also able to reveal the inner thoughts of other characters and, from time to time, actually creates those thoughts. The narrator also functions within the text as a character of sorts.

Needless to say, all of these narrative functions are not particular to this novel. Narrators routinely...