Thursday, March 30, 2006
Theory # 18: Readerly Theories: It's all about POV
Yes, I'm just now getting it. What can I say? Some days, I'm slow.
Okay, maybe it's not all about POV, but in my reading, a good deal of what irritates me, pulls me out of the story, makes me throw the book across the room, or just doesn't feel right comes down to violations of point of view.
In a book I just read, there's a sentence listing toppings to put on the "cool dessert." If you've read the rest of the paragraph, you can surmise that said "cool dessert" is ice cream. But nobody is looking at the fixings for do-it-yourself banana splits and thinking of the ice cream as a "cool dessert." They're thinking of it as ice cream.
It does help explain the things that irritated me back in Theory # 16. And I think it may even be part of why sometimes I enjoy lush, flowery language and sometimes it makes me want to take a hatchet to the book and chop out all the extraneous words: some characters would look out the window and think that the gold in the meadow still shows signs of the long winter, but the fresh green of new grass and the delicate buds on the cherry tree's stark branches against the relentless gray of the sky are bringing the promise of warm and verdant spring. Other characters would look out the window and think it looks too muddy to go for a walk out there. I'd better stick to the sidewalk. Of course, that definitely has something to do with the writer's skill (I'm not good at flowery), but I suspect character and POV plays a part as well.
...more
Categories: Theories, Reading
Okay, maybe it's not all about POV, but in my reading, a good deal of what irritates me, pulls me out of the story, makes me throw the book across the room, or just doesn't feel right comes down to violations of point of view.
In a book I just read, there's a sentence listing toppings to put on the "cool dessert." If you've read the rest of the paragraph, you can surmise that said "cool dessert" is ice cream. But nobody is looking at the fixings for do-it-yourself banana splits and thinking of the ice cream as a "cool dessert." They're thinking of it as ice cream.
It does help explain the things that irritated me back in Theory # 16. And I think it may even be part of why sometimes I enjoy lush, flowery language and sometimes it makes me want to take a hatchet to the book and chop out all the extraneous words: some characters would look out the window and think that the gold in the meadow still shows signs of the long winter, but the fresh green of new grass and the delicate buds on the cherry tree's stark branches against the relentless gray of the sky are bringing the promise of warm and verdant spring. Other characters would look out the window and think it looks too muddy to go for a walk out there. I'd better stick to the sidewalk. Of course, that definitely has something to do with the writer's skill (I'm not good at flowery), but I suspect character and POV plays a part as well.
...more
Categories: Theories, Reading
Comments:
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Hmm. I'll bet my manuscript is giving you plenty to scream about.
THANK YOU for recommending Bet Me, by the way. I'm blogging on it for Smart Bitches Day.
THANK YOU for recommending Bet Me, by the way. I'm blogging on it for Smart Bitches Day.
# posted by 
: 4/03/2006 6:46 AM
: 4/03/2006 6:46 AM
Hah. No, it's not. The only thing that I'm screaming about re: Nest is that my printer died and I can only read it in bits & pieces on the computer.
Glad you liked Bet Me. I knew you had good taste. :)
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Glad you liked Bet Me. I knew you had good taste. :)
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