Welcome to episode infinity of Anna cannot depict metaphors or understand the meaning of creative writing choices:
Can anyone describe to me in immense and clear detail why Wayward son begins with an epilogue and More Importantly - ENDS with a prologue???
I honestly don’t get it- like maybe it is a reference to the end of Carry On? But that only explains the “epilogue” not the prologue.
Also the epilogue is in third person while the prologue is in first person. I just don’t understand and my autism brain is wired to the point where I cannot trust my own gut when it comes to metaphors. Also, I can point out minor details but can’t string them together.
@rainbowrowell I would love your reasoning behind this but also if anyone else has any thoughts please add them.
Okay, so the EPILOGUE/PROLOGUE thing is to show that this a BETWEEN story. A middle chapter. But also kind of a LIMINAL chapter. A transition.
So we have a big, epic-feeling story in Carry On, and we have an even bigger story coming in Any Way the Wind Blows. And between them, in Wayward Son, the characters leave the map.
Wayward Son has a different structure. More of a road trip, an odyssey, a series of meetings. And it’s more about how the characters wander than what they do. (Think The Hobbit versus LOTR.)
The prologue is in a different voice because it’s meant to sound like a traditional narrator. An announcer who comes in at the beginning and says, “And now for something completely different.”
Everything was a story. And Simon was the hero. He saved the day. That’s when stories end—with everyone looking ahead to “happily ever after.”
This is what happens if you try to hang on after the end. When your time has come and passed. When you’ve done the thing you were meant to do.
The theatre goes dark, the pages go blank.
So Wayward Son is a story that happens after the end. After the epilogue.
The Simon Snow books have always been a real experiment for me. I feel like I’m taking apart the stories I love and spreading out the parts, so I can see them.
So anytime I have the urge to try something weird, I lean into that. This is an inherently weird story. I like making it weirder.























