Literature as Flattery

These trends impact how stories are written, and writers have developed tools that affirm and reinforce a way of reading that flatters the reader and valorizes membership in a parochial subculture. A Vox article about “Cat Person” chronicled how readers mistook the author with the protagonist and commented on how “readers have called it an ‘article’ or an ‘essay’ or generally treated it as a piece of nonfiction rather than as a short story.” There are two ways a writer can deliver information to the audience without the characters knowing: (1) within the story; or (2) through signals that all reasonable readers are expected to see.

Source: americanaffairsjournal.org