Conversation

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
the lion was lovely, this was a good idea. one thing that really stands out about this book compared to more modern fiction is that it was very obviously written to be read aloud by an adult to a child and it's incredibly charming
Quote Tweet
QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
·
thanks for the input everyone, gonna start with the lion. i will try imagining c.s. lewis reading this to me in a kindly grandfatherly voice
Show this thread
9:39 PM · Dec 18, 2021Twitter Web App
1
Retweet
61
Likes
QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
Replying to
@QiaochuYuan
closely related is that the narrator is an actual character - he says "i" at several points, says to the reader that he will not be telling the reader certain things, stuff like that - and i feel like modern fiction mostly doesn't do this and is worse for it
3
1
29
QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
(with the notable exception, off the top of my head, of n.k. jemisin's the hundred thousand kingdoms, where the narrator is a specific character in the story and it's a major reveal who)
4
18
QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
the narrator character is written in such a way as to establish a relationship between him and the reader, and it's a wholesome relationship - the narrator is obviously trying to teach and parent the reader, it really shines through
1
17
QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
modern fiction with a third-person omniscient narrator has a narrator who is basically a camera. not a person, doesn't have a personality or a point of view on events. there's something subtly weird about this imo. it's a kind of pretending to an objective pov that doesn't exist
6
2
24
Kaj Sotala
@xuenay
Replying to
@QiaochuYuan
I love novels where the narrator has a distinctive voice Watership Down doesn't quite get to the point of saying "I", but it has this kind of poetic description about what's going on that you also wouldn't see in a modern novel
Image
1
4
Kaj Sotala
@xuenay
While it eventually ended up being a little Too Much for me, Too Like The Lightning definitely had an entertainingly distinct narrator, to the point of occasionally needing to defend himself to a skeptical reader.
Image
1
1
Show replies