Quote:
Originally Posted by LyricalAura
Clearly I've had the characters establish that there was a specific culprit, but I as the author didn't establish who it was. The story is consistent both with Dick being the killer and Jane being the killer. So tell me, which of them should I write into the ending of the story? Who should I kill, and who should I condemn as the culprit?
How about if I replace "Dick and Jane" with "Renall's mother and father"?
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None of this makes any sense. There would be no vagueness or ambiguity
within the world of the story. As soon as the police arrive, the identity of the killer and victim is clear. The mere fact that your story does not state who it is does not mean that, within the world of the story, it is nebulously possible that either of them is the killer. It merely means that one of them is a killer, and
the audience does not yet know who. It is possible, indeed, that the audience is never told. However, to say that no one inside the fiction knows is absurd; of course they do. And, one hopes, so too does the author.
To say otherwise is either to make no point at all, or to admit that totally ambiguous plotting is acceptable.
So basically I really don't understand what you're railing against, because it's a pointless argument that has nothing to do with anything.