In the opening sequence, a narrator identifies the protagonist, "Steve Austin, astronaut; a man barely alive."

The song's narrative alludes to mockery of the lonely or suicidal, whom the narrator identifies with and champions in an exchange in a parked car.

The narrator then identifies himself as Borges (one of Borges's many forays into metafiction), and recounts a story that his grandmother had told him.

The narrator identifies himself as "a man with a mission in two or three editions" and tells his paramour "your compliments and your cutting remarks are captured here in my quotation marks."

In the opening sequence, a narrator (series producer Harve Bennett) identifies the protagonist, "Steve Austin, astronaut.

NOTE: The narrator, who remains nameless, identifies himself as a young engineer.

The narrator, a schoolteacher identified only as "K," pines for a beguiling young woman named Sumire - a bohemian writer who calls him from phone booths at 4 a.m. to share her latest deep thoughts.

In referencing the tale of a woman about to be hanged for existing outside of marriage and rejecting motherhood, the narrator identifies women writers such as herself as outsiders who exist in a potentially dangerous space.

The narrator identifies him as the hero of the novel in the opening chapter, as does the author in the preface.