Episode 224 – A Matter Of Perspective
This week the Robots (with new co-host Paul E Cooley) talk narrative points of view, and at the end we review David Drake’s HAMMER’S SLAMMERS and Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT. We hope you enjoy.
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Hi guys. I recently read a short story in 2nd person, which I normally hate (weren’t all the choose your own adventure books in 2nd?). But this one was done really well. Here’s a link to the interview of Junot Diaz, the authorknow in question, and it also has a link to the story. Free to read on the New Yorker.
http://m.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/04/this-week-in-fiction-junot-diaz.html
I think most of the nonstandard forms do better in a short story format than a longer one.
For a great second person story I would recommend “Just Another Perfect Day” by John Varley over at Light Speed. You can get it here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/just-another-perfect-day/ or the audio version here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/podcasts/podcast_another_perfect_day_john_varley.mp3
I think it’s a perfect example of 2nd person because it really couldn’t be told any other way and have the same impact.
Hey guys, love the show! Just to clarify about the Dresden Files, the vampire you brought up was Bianca, a Red Court Vampire. And yes, as Paul said, you haven’t seen anything yet. Justin if you want to give the series a chance, definitely read Fool Moon and Grave Peril then let us know what you think. Great show, keep up the good work.
An epistolary (short story) that you /will/ enjoy: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/08/wikihistory
If you don’t laugh, please seek professional help.
A couple books to bring up
Epistolary (letter) book – Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (which started as a game involving writing letters back and forth, and when they were done, they edited it down to a young adult novel)
Epistolary (blog post) book – Alison Hewitt is Trapped, by Madeleine Roux. Zombie novel that came out last year. Not only is it blog posts (on a magical version of the internet that didn’t go down), but it even has comments, and responses to the comments.
A present tense book that worked well: Changer, by Jane Lindskold. I was half-way through before I even *realized* it was present tense (which I normally hate). When well done, you shouldn’t even notice the tense.
And I could see using second person in a short story where it’s half a conversation. (“And you did what next? Really, when you went into the room you saw x? Incredible!”) In fact, I’m tempted to write one, just to see.
Oh, and a book that has a really interesting point of view is Synners, by Pat Cadigan. The book is from the point of view of a character with multiple personality disorder. What the publisher did in laying out the book was that they used a (subtly) different font for each of the characters, so you could always tell whose POV it is based on the font.
(and wow! I’m almost caught up on episodes. Sad to see Eliyanna go, but Paul was a lot of fun)
Make that last one “different font for each of the personalities” for Pat Cadigan’s Synners