[PREV - WHOS_ON_FIRST]    [TOP]

POV

                                              February 19, 2005


Once upon a time, I conceived a simple,
universal rule about how fictional           I'm the kind of
narrative should be handled.                 person that likes
                                             simple universal
The rule is that all fiction must            rules.
have a single point-of-view, and                              It's too bad I
you must stick to this "pov"                 In this case,    like to insist
rigorously.                                  the rule was     on the rules
                                             based on what    actually being
The reader should know nothing               I suspect is     correct.
that the main character does                 a mis-reading
not know.                                    of Blish/
                      WHOS_ON_FIRST          Atheling
   Identification of                         criticism.
   the reader with the
   fictional hero is                            Blish was complaining
   central to the                               about writers that
   function of the                              abruptly shift pov
   story.                                       from paragraph to
                                                paragraph (or even
                                                sentence to sentence).

                                                   I don't think that
                                                   a clearly indicated
                                                   shift of pov between
                                                   chapters (or even
                                                   scenes) would have
                                                   bothered him.

  There's the question                                BLISH
  of whether the
  narrative is allowed
  to jump around in        A single pov in
  time.                    a single virtual
                           moment?



The modern style is to                      Or is the narrative supposed
maintain a pretence that                    to be an account written down
the reader is riding along                  in retrospect by the main
inside of the narrator's                    character, in which case they
head from moment to moment.                 might even address the reader
                                            directly.
   Despite the vestigial past
   tense, which itself is an                Once that was
   odd historical remnant of                the standard
   the older narrative style.               narrative device:
                                            Doctor Watson is
      The modern style is a                 sitting down
      pseudo-present tense,                 discussing why he
      written in past form.                 feels he can now
                                            tell the tale
                                            which will follow.

                                               The fiction of the
                                               fiction was that the
                                 A story       author was pretending
                                 thus          to be presenting an
                                 begun         actual historical
                                 rules         document, something
                                 out use       written by a person
                                 of an         involved in the story.
                                 omniscient
                                 narrator.
                                                The -- otherwise execrable --
Creative writing                 So there's     critic Darrel Schweitzer named
classes seem to place a          some virtue    this well, calling it a story
lot of emphasis on the           to it...       with a "frame" in analogy to
choice of the "person"                          pictures presented in a frame.
of the narrative: first          ALL_WRONG
person (past tense) and                              A framing narrative
third person (past                                   around the narrative.
tense) being the two         Second person is
most common choices.         always discussed,
                             though it's rare.

"I walked down the street";         "You didn't realize,
"He walked down the street".        did you, as you walked
                                    down the street, that --"
    (Or "She walked --"
     of course.)                         Other, even rarer choices are
                                         possible... a friend once
A point that often seems                 suggested as a joke writing
overlooked, though it seems              a story in plural future tense.
obvious enough, is that all
these "persons" are connected.               It struck me as very easy
                                             to do... e.g. as a prophecy:
   "I am telling                             "One day you will all rise up
   you about him."                           and become The Great People --"

             (or her)


      There isn't any reason a
      coherent narrative can't
      switch between persons --
      e.g. in using a framing         Examples of contemporary
      narrative, the story            writers that make good
      might start in first,           use a shifting pov?
      then shift to third.
                                      Geoffrey Household
                                      comes to mind.


            There's no shortage of
            modern examples of the
            kind of problem that
            Blish/Atheling was
            complaining about,
            though.

               The influence of the movies:
               no one can resist rapid
               cutting.



--------
[NEXT - THE_QUESTION_OF_ESSAYS]