What person are you?
November 22nd 2006 02:12
Most of us are, if you're a blogger that is, acquainted to writing in the first person. That's when we go "I did this, I did that, we don't care, blah blah blah". When I was in my younger days (at school) I had a great aversion to first person narrative. I hated writing in it, and I absolutely detested reading books written in it.
I was used to reading books written in the third person, EG. "He did this, he did that, they don't care, blah blah blah". Whenever we got assigned a book at school that was written in the first person (one that comes to mind is 'So Much to Tell You' by John Marsden) I would GROAN. Audibly, loudly, a big deep groan to get the teacher's attention.
"Missssssssss" I would complain. Some other students would too, but mainly because they didn't want to read anything, full stop.
"What? What is it?" the teacher would invariably ask.
"It's in first person!!!!!!"
These kind of conversations go nowhere, of course. But they do waste valuable teaching time for the teacher, and it gets you out of doing stuff in class.
Anyway, getting back to the point. I was never a fan of first person narrative. It took a long time for me to warm to it but now I can safely say that I'm probably more comfortable with it than I now am with third person narrative. I recently read Robin Hobb's excellent Farseer trilogy, and the entire thing is written in first person from the point of view of a character called Fitz, and oh - my - god, it was so good. Then I read her follow-up trilogy, The Liveship Traders, and that one is written in third person, and I found it a little jarring after having walked around inside the head of Fitz for so long.
As for second person, EG. "You did this, you did that, you don't care, blah blah blah" - I'm yet to come across a serious piece of literature or storytelling written in such a narrative convincingly. I've read plenty of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books in my time (more on that in a future blog methinks) but I don't think anyone would really argue they should be eligible for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
So what do you prefer? Do you like to mix it up? Do you hunger for a really good second-person narrative book? Do you groan at first person tales?
I was used to reading books written in the third person, EG. "He did this, he did that, they don't care, blah blah blah". Whenever we got assigned a book at school that was written in the first person (one that comes to mind is 'So Much to Tell You' by John Marsden) I would GROAN. Audibly, loudly, a big deep groan to get the teacher's attention.
"Missssssssss" I would complain. Some other students would too, but mainly because they didn't want to read anything, full stop.
"What? What is it?" the teacher would invariably ask.
"It's in first person!!!!!!"
These kind of conversations go nowhere, of course. But they do waste valuable teaching time for the teacher, and it gets you out of doing stuff in class.
Anyway, getting back to the point. I was never a fan of first person narrative. It took a long time for me to warm to it but now I can safely say that I'm probably more comfortable with it than I now am with third person narrative. I recently read Robin Hobb's excellent Farseer trilogy, and the entire thing is written in first person from the point of view of a character called Fitz, and oh - my - god, it was so good. Then I read her follow-up trilogy, The Liveship Traders, and that one is written in third person, and I found it a little jarring after having walked around inside the head of Fitz for so long.
As for second person, EG. "You did this, you did that, you don't care, blah blah blah" - I'm yet to come across a serious piece of literature or storytelling written in such a narrative convincingly. I've read plenty of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books in my time (more on that in a future blog methinks) but I don't think anyone would really argue they should be eligible for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
So what do you prefer? Do you like to mix it up? Do you hunger for a really good second-person narrative book? Do you groan at first person tales?
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Comment by Keira
Keira's Blog
In other news, I used to cheat at those choose your own adventures... I read it through the frst time properly, then, when I would undoubtedly get a crap ending, I would read all the endings and then work my way back and find out which way I should have gone.
I was a sad sad child... cheating with myself?
Comment by Luke
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