Best Use of Foreshadowing? (spoilers, lol)

[Holsety]

This really doesn't belong exclusively within the domain of literature, but I thought it would be best to post it here since the example I'm using is a work of literature.

Earlier today I set forth to re-consult the works of John Barth, or more specifically a work which goes by the name Chimera. I would have to say that the death of the Chimera in the book constitutes the best/silliest example of foreshadowing I have seen in a work of literature. The entire writing of the work is reconstituted as Bellerophon, a Greek hero for those who don't know, slays the Chimera with a leadened spear (see pencil) tipped with paper inscribed with "magic runes" - that is to say, letters unreadable to the narrative voice which itself is disembodied, though mostly attributed to Bellerophon, whose identity is confused - most likely intended to be a copy of the novel itself (an anachronism in a book with frequent use of anachronisms, which might be a sort of twisted way of vaunting the book's status internally by harping on its timelessness, existing not only after but before its creation chronologically in the "false history" within the novel as well as in the true chronology without it).

This has an effect reminiscent of Leibniz's claim in the monadology that each indivisible particle of the universe reflects the whole of the universe - the translation of the book, unreadable to the people of the time, into the narrative flow such that it becomes a piece of itself. The reason why it serves as foreshadowing is that, at the book's end, we find ourselves in a conversation (literally, the father and son chiefly responsible for the conundrum conversing regarding the nature of their experiences) regarding the narrative's structure that ends with the words "It's not a Bellerophoniad, it's a -" leading us to close the book and again view the cover, Chimera by John Barth - the middle of the story, the appearance of the Chimera and of the work within the work, mimics the ending, the appearance of the cover of the book as we close it. There is something of the Ouroboros (tail-devouring world snake) to it.

Now that I've ruined its best tricks for you, go buy it! Anyway, does any foreshadowing of future events that you remember strike a similarly holistic chord with the entire work? A better question might be whether any use of foreshadowing does not, with enough careful reading, have the same effect?

[Avatar]

I don't think I really like foreshadowing. Gods know I hate it when King tries, but he's usually very bad at it anyway.

For me, foreshadowing has to be so subtle that you only know it was foreshadowing when whatever was foreshadowed actually happens.

--A

[Vraith]

I don't think I really like foreshadowing. Gods know I hate it when King tries, but he's usually very bad at it anyway.

For me, foreshadowing has to be so subtle that you only know it was foreshadowing when whatever was foreshadowed actually happens.

--A

Agreed, along with the variation where the foreshadowing comes with a twist, a subtler/external/reader version of internal prophecy that happens but was misunderstood by those pursuing/following a path/destiny.

Sometimes I like it when the reader knows "oh man! X is going to happen, why can't the character see it!"...but that only works for me when the characters are very well drawn, have sucked me in, and with good reason not to see, instead of just seeming dumb for not seeing.
Too often foreshadowing positively reeks of predetermination/unalterable destiny/fate. And I hate that.

[TheRegan]

I enjoy foreshadowing most whenever I re-read a book and realize a sentence I accidentally skipped said something important. I speed read a little to fast sometimes, I once skipped half a page and it took me 5 more sentences to realize it.

[Avatar]

Too often foreshadowing positively reeks of predetermination/unalterable destiny/fate. And I hate that.

Yea, or deus ex.

--A

[Holsety]

I enjoy foreshadowing most whenever I re-read a book and realize a sentence I accidentally skipped said something important. I speed read a little to fast sometimes, I once skipped half a page and it took me 5 more sentences to realize it.

Ya, that's what got me about this one, I didn't catch it till the second time around.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

The bible, by far.

That rapture thing is gonna happen and we are all gonna be like whaaaaaaat

Bam! Supernecrotrollbump. I am going to find something else to do now. In my defense I was looking for good book suggestions in earlier posts!

[Avatar]

Supernecrotrollbump.

Pffft, this thread is only two years old. Scarcely supernecro. Go find one from 1970 if you really want to practice Necromancy.


--A

[Vraith]

Supernecrotrollbump.

Pffft, this thread is only two years old. Scarcely supernecro. Go find one from 1970 if you really want to practice Necromancy.


--A

I'm not at all sure necromancy is something you can "practice."
I mean...seems to me it either mances or it doesn't.
[Bet you didn't see THAT coming!]

[Avatar]

Quite.

--A