Charles Lock, for example, following ideas formulated by the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, emphasizes the polyphonic or multiple-voiced nature of A Glastonbury Romance: "The characters' voices are not subject to the author's voice, bur all speak on equal terms". The narrator is not Powys, "Even when the narrator voices opinions known th have been held by Powys ... he must not be taken 'literally' or too seriously", his "voice [is] on the same plane as all other voices in the book Powys's narrator, according to Lock, is "unreliable, protean, deceptive, ambiguous, and Zany".
Charles Lock, following ideas formulated by the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, emphasizes the polyphonic or multiple-voiced nature of A Glastonbury Romance: "The characters' voices are not subject to the author's voice, bur all speak on equal terms". The narrator is not Powys, "Even when the narrator voices opinions known th have been held by Powys ... he must not be taken 'literally' or too seriously", his "voice [is] on the same plane as all other voices in the book. Powys's narrator, according to Lock, is "unreliable, protean, deceptive, ambiguous, and Zany".