Lost in the Funhouse

This story undermines the notion of autobiography, not chronicling events in a person’s life and, rather, exploring what it means to have consciousness. The story suggests the narrator lives despite having a Father who tried to turn him off. Barth wants readers to wonder if the story is literal or figurative.

Another self-reflexive story, the first sentence may or may not be addressed to the reader. “You wholisten give me life in a manner of speaking” (33). This self-examination sets the tone and continues through the entire story: “My first words weren’t my first words. I wish I’d begun differently” (33). The narrator probes his dissatisfaction, asking, “are you there? If I’m so blind and dead to you, or you are me, or both’re both. One may be imaginary; […] I hope I’m a fiction without real hope. Where there’s voice there’s a speaker” (33). We’re left to wonder who the narrator addresses. It’s possible he is addressing himself. This identity game is Barth’s goal. The narrator says it’s possible his Mother was a novel device created by his father “when he found himself by himself with his pointless pen” (34). This points to the title, which suggests this story is simply something written, entirely imagined, and not autobiography.