SOURCE: Phelan, James. “Self-Help for Narratee and Narrative Audience: How ‘I’—and ‘You’?—Read ‘How.’” Style 28, no. 3 (fall 1994): 350-65.

In the following essay, Phelan discusses theoretical aspects of second-person narration, derived from narratological and rhetorical analysis, and the application of second-person narration in Moore's short stories in Self-Help.

1. How Are You?

A voice addresses you. Not from clouds, a mountaintop, or a burning bush. From this page. It asks how you are and what you're up to. It is a friendly, though unfamiliar, voice. You are unsure of how to react. You have an impulse to shout out that you're fine, you're reading, you'd be grateful not to be disturbed. But you also don't want to be rude, so you just say “OK” and “studying second-person narration.” The voice wants to know if you've read Lorrie Moore's Self-Help. Oh yes, you say, in fact, you've just begun reading...