“Did Jason Actually Write Black Swan Green?”
“Metafiction” is the word used to describe literature that intentionally references its own creation and fictionality. It has become increasingly popular for stories to admit to you that they aren’t real and to carry that notion with them as they progress. But like all things, metafiction comes in different tiers. On the one hand, you have stories that don’t take themselves seriously at all, where the prospect of realistic immersion is completely nullified by the absence of a fourth, third, second, and first wall. On the other hand, there are some stories that function, for the most part, as totally self-contained narratives, but that have a couple cheeky pointers sprinkled between their pages. Authors tend to get very creative when inserting these small metafictional nods into their stories. The nods themselves may not even be fourth wall breaks in the traditional sense. In fact, I have found that there are many more interesting implications to...