Withholding Tax

Some time ago, I wrote, "The other thread I am particularly curious to explore is the idea of Withholding from the reader. Especially withholding information about the hero. This is a form of reader-torture that is parallel to hero-torture. (This parallelism brings me back to my obsession with the idea of the Reader/Book ship.) Withholding access to the hero (to his mind or heart, to important facts about him, to a clear sense of his identity, his moral position, etc.) is a kind of UST."

And I gave a small list of examples of Withheld Heroes here.

So here is a chunk of a much longer ramble on this ever-fascinating subject. In general, I think the technique of Withholding is fascinating, because it artificially heightens the reader's erotic hunger to possess the book. But just how the Withheld Hero works within this mechanism, I am not sure. So:

( The Withheld Hero--mega cut )