Storyteller, Teacher, Enchanter

       
        Nabokov argues that a writer must simultaneously embody three identities in order to effectively appeal to readers: storyteller, teacher, and enchanter. The storyteller appeals to a reader's need for excitement and simple entertainment. The teacher provides at least factual and at best moral education to his or her audience. While important, these two aspects are shadowed by the third and most important, Nabokov argues, persona: the enchanter.
        The enchanter appeals to readers' fascination with fiction, and infuses his or her writing with an irresistible magic. Nabokov argues, the enchanter makes one "a major writer." Regardless of his or her individual style, be it simple and factual or elaborately Dickensian, it is this quality of magic that elevates any author's writing. It is this quality that merges "science and poetry"-that coordinates deliberate mechanical decisions with the art of a story.
        Similarly, a reader must approach a piece of writing from both scientific- mechanical, analytical- and poetic- artful, emotional- points of view in order to fully appreciate the work. The teacher appeals to this scientific view, the storyteller to the poetic, and the enchanter enlivens any piece of writing with a touch of magic.