"The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us."
-- Paul Valery
As I peruse other web sites, looking for other writing circles or other writers, I notice that at least 80% of writers employ first person narration. I have the impression that people think first person narration is easier. It sounds easier, doesn't it? The author needs to know only one person, one point of view, one story, so to speak. I don't think people realise the difficulties of first person, and hence 90% of that 80% is terrible.
It is because it is narrow that to write it well is so difficult.
First person needs to be undercut, to be done ironically, to be faulty, to be unreliable, etc. So many mistakes, so much bad writing, comes in the complete trust that the author has in his character. That is a general statement, but to say that you need third person "to show his folly" ignores the possibilities and difficulties of first person, or perhaps succumbs to them. You can write him first person, but it won't (shouldn't) be easy. To dissolve his truth (well) you must not simply present a morality or ideology which the reader would take instantly to be faulty, but to develop its dissolution inside the narration and ultimately have the reader understand something that the author does not, to make the narrator persuasive and sexual and likeable and still have the reader pull away from him, and through the strain of separation so much can be delivered. The display of folly is, relatively, easier in third person.
But I don't think we need the immediacy of third-person contrast. Contrast will happen naturally. Do not force the character. There needs to be a sense of breathing -- first person stories need to be slowed down to allow the narrator to inhabit the space better and allow him more room. I think we need more, not less. Staying with first person may seem easiest, but I think there are a few differences between what you write him as and what you think he is. Seeing and fixing the chasm between is what makes or breaks a story.
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