History Main / InfallibleNarrator

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fanfiction ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The ''Literature/ProvostsDog'' books are presented as the diaries of its protagonist, Beka Cooper. Since she writes them as a memory aid for her reports, the level of detail isn't surprising (and they are usually written on the same day as events) and there are a few {{One Paragraph Chapter}}s where she's too exhausted, sick, or upset to write a proper entry. However, there are occasions when she's writing days or ''weeks'' later, after harrowing and traumatic events, still with perfect recall and grammar. The final book, ''Mastiff'', gives this a HandWave of her "[[PhotographicMemory memory palace]]".

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Bobby Pendragon, of ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure''. Made especially glaring because writing the story down was one of the major plot points, and we're supposed to believe that in many cases he had hand-written a well planned out eloquent narrative in a single night.

A FramingDevice is set up in which the hero recounts his adventures in vivid detail. Very vivid detail. So vivid, in fact, that once the story is over and FridgeLogic has set in the question arises: why is the character, who spends his time fighting {{Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot}}s [[RecycledInSpace in Space]] an equal in writing ability to the (presumably) professional author?

Essentially the opposite of StylisticSuck. See also LiteraryAgentHypothesis, AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists.

* Interestingly averted in [[Creator/HPLovecraft "The Call of Cthulhu"]], where the narrator is not the one who experienced the events himself but rather a compiler of them. Of the journal and eyewitness account that forms the final and most important narrative he writes that he "cannot attempt to transcribe it verbatim in all its cloudiness and redundance" and instead paraphrases it. This gives the description of the final encounter with the ultimate horror a curious mix of immediacy and distance, but certainly justifies the level of detail given and the way it's written.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Kyon all the freaking way.
** It's kind of believable with Kyon (although he basically recounts events as they happen, without PurpleProse or complicated analogies or anything).
** Also, it's not clear [[UnreliableNarrator how accurate he's really being]].

[[/folder]]

** But in ''Literature/ToTheLighthouse'' it's not the voices of the characters themselves, it's Virginia Woolf being an omniscient narrator and telling us what they're thinking. Their thought processes are complicated, but they probably couldn't articulate them as sophisticatedly as Woolf does. When they actually speak out loud it's usually mundane things like "do you think the weather is okay to sail in today?"

** That's intentional; the kid's supposed to be creepy.

* ''Literature/MobyDick'': Ishmael may be better at writing than at whaling.
** Probably intentional: he's a writer and occasional "marchant" seaman, only entitled to the Pequod's 777th lay.

* Bobby Pendragon, of ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure''. Made especially glaring because writing the story down was one of the major plot points, and we're supposed to believe that in most cases he had hand-written a well planned out eloquent narrative in a single night.
** Not always. He basically writes, eats, and sleeps whenever he has any spare time. The novels take place over several years, with bursts of shit happening in-between downtime that we don't really get to see.

** Not so odd -- the sort of thing that leads you to hire a famous detective tends to stick in the memory, and they could have been mentally rehearsing it beforehand.

* While fanfic authors are not always "good", they hardly change the level of writing when having a character describe something. So, even characters will describe the MarySue in PurpleProse. Good.
* TheStoryteller in ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'' is clearly this for the most part, recalling long-past events with inhuman precision, although it is implied that she does [[UnreliableNarrator embellish certain details]].

** He also fudges some details to stay in line with [[strike:broadcast TV]] his own parental standards. "Sandwiches", anyone?
*** "Bagpiping" anyone?
*** "KISS HIM! KISS HIM!" "Kids, Barney wasn't saying "kiss"

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Fanfiction}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In many of the SherlockHolmes short stories, the famous detective would spend (usually) the first half of the tale interviewing the client, who would effortlessly provide step-by-step, word-for-word descriptions of the events that brought them to seek Holmes out. This can sometimes reach a few weeks back.

* ''TheNameOfTheWind'' features a protagonist who has since birth been trained to be a professional storyteller, so the author raises the stakes by having him orate the entire novel in real-time to a scribe, talking for an entire day with very few breaks, presumably ad-libbing the entire thing. There are a couple points when he stops to collect his thoughts, and one where Bast takes issue with his story (he describes his love interest as flawless, and Bast corrects that her nose was a bit crooked. He also takes the opportunity to point out that Kvothe tends to describe every woman he meets as beautiful, something those reading may have noticed by that point).

* The novel ChildOfTheNorthernSpring follows the story of King Arthur from Guinevere's perspective. Gwen turns out to be amazingly accurate in her narration - so much so that she (somehow) manages to recount events even though she claims to have forgotten about them.

* Subverted in the 7th {{Thursday Next}} book, "The Woman Who Died A Lot" which reveals that recurring character Jack Schitt didn't really have that name, it was a nasty pseudonym bestowed on him by Thursday.

* Fitz from Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings writes down detailed events of what happens years after the fact, although his good memory is probably justified because of the Skill. [[spoiler: His daughter takes it a step further by remembering what happens while she was in her mother's womb.]]

* The ComicBook/RedSkull remembered the details and experience of his own birth, as well as the personalities of both his parents despite his mother dying in childbirth and his father commiting suicide the next day. He lampshaded and justified both by claiming a "remarkable memory". One could, of course, take it to mean that his entire life story was [[BlatantLies embellished]], especially given that he was telling the tale to his ArchEnemy CaptainAmerica.

* Fitz from Literaure/RealmOfTheElderlings writes down detailed events of what happens years after the fact, although his good memory is probably justified because of the Skill. [[spoiler: His daughter takes it a step further by remembering what happens while she was in her mother's womb.]]

* This often happens when characters are recalling something that happened offscreen in stories; it's disturbing how they sound like professional storytellers when they definitely aren't. For example, Warren does this in The ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' novel ''Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary'', Luke does it in ''Literature/CityOfBones''...

->''"I think I'll try extra hard to remember [[http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-07-28 today's]] events and conversations, in case I someday want to recall them verbatim."''

* ''TheScarletLetter'' is somewhat disturbing, since the [[CreepyChild small child of Hester]] (only about seven years old by the end of the book) speaks as eloquently (and with the same level of vocabulary) as the adults, who all happen to share the linguistic grace of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

** The same happens in a lot of similar mystery stories by any number of authors, but is averted in one Creator/IsaacAsimov ''Litrature/BlackWidowers'' story -- [[spoiler:in "The Next Day", the solution is obscured because the guest ''didn't'' have this sort of memory and paraphrased what people said rather than using ExactWords]]. It was played straight in most of the other Black Widowers tales, though.

** The same happens in a lot of similar mystery stories by any number of authors, but is averted in one Creator/IsaacAsimov Black Widowers story -- [[spoiler:in "The Next Day", the solution is obscured because the guest ''didn't'' have this sort of memory and paraphrased what people said rather than using ExactWords]]. It was played straight in most of the other Black Widowers tales, though.

* The RedSkull remembered the details and experience of his own birth, as well as the personalities of both his parents despite his mother dying in childbirth and his father commiting suicide the next day. He lampshaded and justified both by claiming a "remarkable memory". One could, of course, take it to mean that his entire life story was [[BlatantLies embellished]], especially given that he was telling the tale to his ArchEnemy CaptainAmerica.

* This often happens when characters are recalling something that happened offscreen in stories; it's disturbing how they sound like professional storytellers when they definitely aren't. For example, Warren does this in The ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' novel ''Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary'', Luke does it in [[Literature/TheMortalInstruments City of Bones]]...

* Played with in the GotrekAndFelix series. The opening of each chapter is a page from felix's own publishing of their journeys (felix having joined up to write Gotrek's story and co-incidentally taking [[TookALevelInBadass several hundred levels of Badass]] to become on the worlds greatest heroes along the way), before it then switches into the main part of the chapter, where it's narrated at real time.

* {{Parodied}} in the early seasons of {{Family Guy}}. Peter narrates his own life out loud and some descriptive insults about Lois' looks lead to her knocking him out, only to awake hours later.

* This often happens when characters are recalling something that happened offscreen in stories; it's disturbing how they sound like professional storytellers when they definitely aren't. For example, Warren does this in The ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' novel ''Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary'', Luke does it in [[MortalInstruments City of Bones]]...

* Justified in C.S. Lewis' ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy''. Aravis recounts her entire backstory like this, and Bree explains that Calormenes are taught story-telling in school.
** She isn't entirely infallible, either; as per the standards of her culture, she colours her narrative with painful amounts of PurpleProse, even when recounting what another character, who is present, said - causing said character to comment that they didn't actually say it in nearly as fancy words.

* The ''CiaphasCain'' [[note]]HERO OF THE IMPERIUM![[/note]] novels have most of the memoirs Cain himself as a straight example, especially given how good his memory must be to remember all the fine details from sorties that happened over a century ago. The chapters taken from the memoirs of Jenith Sulla, meanwhile, [[StylisticSuck are intentional aversions]]. The fact that Cain's 'memoirs' are being critically commented on and (left slightly incomplete to be) augmented by a fictional editor goes some way towards making them seem more real, but it doesn't change the fact that the parts that are wholly his own narration are the way that they are.