# A story about a writer who writes a story about a writer who writes a story about a writer who... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001 "2011-09-12T00:38:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001/21 "2011-09-13T14:42:43Z")
In the book _At Swim-Two-Birds_, author Flann O’Brien is writing a novel in which an unnamed character is writing a novel (in part) about a novelist whose own characters rebel against him and write him into their own story where he is put on trial. So a recursive layer. The only things Flann O’Brien was tripping on was whiskey and Guinness. Not as many layers as _Cloud Atlas_ (which I loved), but not all of the layers there are being written by characters further up, if you get my drift. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001/22 "2011-09-13T14:54:13Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > In the book _At Swim-Two-Birds_, author Flann O’Brien is writing a novel in which an unnamed character is writing a novel (in part) about a novelist whose own characters rebel against him and write him into their own story where he is put on trial. So a recursive layer. I read that as “a recursive **lawyer** ”, which I find amusing. Presumably he’d need one. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001/23 "2011-09-13T15:05:34Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > A few years ago, I was _unbelievably_ high I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe you. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001/24 "2011-09-13T17:28:11Z")
“The Simpsons” did an episode like this about a treasure in a cave. It seemed like every time a character made an entrance, he/she immediately had to go into his back story for this episode, which would introduce another character who would explain his back story, etc. Not exactly the same thing, but “Bender’s Big Score” (Futurama) involves numerous time travel paradoxes and keeping track of the relationships between all the narrative threads gets to be a real challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001/25 "2011-09-14T14:36:42Z")
Paul Auster does this in several of his books; writing written for writers about writing. As a reader, I found this quite dull. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001/26 "2011-09-14T18:05:06Z")
You’re very clever, but it’s [writers all the way down!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down) 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who-writes-a-story-about-a-writer-who/596001.md?page=1)