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Date: | Mon, 28 Oct 2002 09:59:16 -0600 |
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Vicky Woodward wrote:
> I recently finished reading a Tom Robbins novel, Half Asleep in Frog
> Pajamas, that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's written in second person
> present tense.
Thanks, Vicky, for exposing yourself to this crowd!
Vicky touched on a subject that comes up frequently, one that engenders
lots of points of view: person and tense.
The "classic" choice is third person, past tense. It's the
story-teller's voice. By convention, mystery/detective fiction these
days is almost always first person, past (except when it's not....)
Experimental writers seem to be in love with the third or first,
present. But I don't know that I've seen a whole book done in second,
present.
Whattya think? How do you react when there's a shift from the expected
-- mainly to present tense. What does that do for (or to) the story?
Anyone tried it? And with what results? Pains? Madnesses?
Discuss it among yourselves.
Scribite!
kg
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