Diary Of A Madman by Lu Xun, 1918
The magic trick:
A supremely creepy unreliable narrator
There is little scarier in literature than an unreliable narrator, right?
Even if you know from the start of the story what you’re dealing with, it’s still just a difficult and disconcerting way to spend 20 minutes. There is an assumed trust in reality and logic when a reader sits down to open a story.
Here, that assumption turns very quickly as the narrator launches into accusations of cannibalism. Unfounded accusations, of course. Or are they….?
And that’s quite a trick on Xun’s part.
The selection:
Tonight there is no moon at all, I know that this bodes ill. This morning when I went out cautiously, Mr. Chao had a strange look in his eyes, as if he were afraid of me, as if he wanted to murder me. There were seven or eight others, who discussed me in a whisper. And they were afraid of my seeing them. All the people I passed were like that. The fiercest among them grinned at me; whereupon I shivered from head to foot, knowing that their preparations were complete.
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