PART THE FIRST, In Which I Lay Out Terms and Background

[barbarienne]

It’s well known to those who spend even five minutes talking about writing with me that I am moderately anti-1st person (despite a plethora of enjoyable books written in it, including at least one of my absolute favorites, Nine Princes in AmberSo I said, “Self, let’s do some analysis of it and see if we can figure out where your problem is.”

Comments

[sartorias]

One of the problems I find with some first person narratives is a lack of awareness of space. First person gains its strength in intimate or private space, and loses it in public space, i.e. at a distance: the narrative can fall into summary, journalese, or judgment (telling the reader what to think without showing it).

[barbarienne]

A good point; those are definitely traps.

First person talking about wider space can work well if the point is something relevant to the character. If a story is about how a person is coping with a large-scale thing, there will be times when a summary of the large-scale thing is necessary.

This is where intrusive 1stP becomes a benefice, I think, as it's obvious why they would be filling the reader in on a quick bit of background; whereas if a 3rdP narrator tries to do that, it can stop the story dead. There's a reason a lot of readers skip all the history blather in LOTR the first time they read it.

[sartorias]

I think when the third p narrator slips into journalese tone it definitely becomes skippable.

[barbarienne]

Sometimes a book can carry it off, but it requires a very strong, interesting narrative voice. HHGTTG has that--I think the most interesting parts of the book are when Douglas Adams drops the main story entirely and dumps a chunk of the Guide on the reader.

The Guide excerpts are narrated with such a snarky Britishness that they're highly entertaining, even when they're basically potted history.