wrassles and hassles ~

[lookingland]

The March is proving a struggle to read. i dunno if i'm just not focused, but Doctorow's writing feels really uneven in this (some of his words just astonish me: murderousness? are you seriousness?) and the way time bops around between characters has got me a wee confused as to who is who. And some of the characters I just don't like (either that or their immediate story) and feel like I am skimming. i get that sense that some of these things will dovetail and many of them won't, which i find frustrating. i don't want really cotton to novels that are really novellas masquerading as novels (this was my frustration with how Kantor's Andersonville devolved toward the end).

all this and i'm only on page 57. hahahahaha ~ slow reading, all right. i'm sure it'll pick up once i get into it.

~ * ~

yesterday i wrote an essay on how technical and managerial discourse is befouling the waters of critical thinking in education.

i must be back in school. i think it's dawning on me now.

~ * ~

i need a new device.

in the frist book of From Slaughter's Mountain i got away with just using quotes at the start of each section that were indicative of who was speaking. i think it mostly worked, unless you tend to just read and ignore quotes and notes at the tops of chapters. of the few people who've read the book, more than once i've been told that it "takes a while" to get a handle on which character is which. i think this is why it's so important to really get States's voice "right". he's not distinct enough from Lewis except in his proper grammar usage. Sharp is easy. no problem separating Sharp from the other two, but even though i can see the wall of difference between Lewis and States, i can see how someone coming in cold would need more time to acclimate.

so i've been wondering if there's some other device that would supplement the quotes, perhaps. i'm seriously considering using the portraits. on the one hand, it seems intrusive (the repetition of the pictures would get old, wouldn't it? on the other hand, it seems the most obvious way to clarify a split first-person narrative. here: here's the person speaking.

eh ~ when i put it that way, it sounds downright facile and pedestrian.

does anyone know of any split first-person narratives that are successful? (but not epistolary ~ the whole letter/diary-writing thing makes me crazy and that's not what i'm doing).

: o p

Comments

uh huh and nuh uh

[inkidink.livejournal.com]

Doctorow is always challenging (for me). It took me forever to get through Ragtime. In that book some of the challenge was worth it (added to the story) some of it felt unnecessary and that makes me want to smack him (Doctorow).

I had The March on my To Read List when I read a very negative review of it that made me think "bleh" and move it way down on the list --so I'm interested in what you think.

About the split narrative (re:F.S.M.), I can't think of a good example (but there must be some)I agree with you that the portrait thing would get boring--but I was thinking (rough preliminary think) that maybe an object or a symbol from the previous chapter narrated by that character would identify each in the following chapter narrated by them and would change (from chapter to chapter) so not get dull-- but that assumes the reader will remember the object or symbol in relation to that character ...would they? Does anything I just said make any sense --I'm honestly not sure ...ha.

We're supposed to get snow here tonight or tomorrow--it's being deceptively periwinkle but the temperature's dropping so we actually MIGHT.

Gads! yak yak yak --I'm shutting up. I'm going now.

Re: uh huh and nuh uh

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i'd be curious to read the reviews when i'm done ~ i never read reviews beforehand because of the problem you just described: i then won't bother to read the book.

i get what you're saying about the symbol thing and it's a cool idea. i don't know, however, whether it would be any more recognizable than the quotes (maybe visually perhaps). and then picking the symbol would be hard (or the variety of symbols). relating it to the text would just be illustrative rather than indicative, and if i tried to pick symbols relating to the characters that would be hard (and maybe distracting from the context ~ i dunno). moments like this, i feel like slapping tags at the top that say: and then so-and-so says ~

hahahaha ~ ah well.

i'll be keeping a snowy thought for you!

: D

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I never read the book so I am just guessing about what you mean here. You could always use an extra line space inbetween? Split first person narrative sounds like a good idea and is pretty curious, but I can see how it can get very confusing. You could use different fonts or italics for one...or lead with dialogue in third person and then go to first person for the action/thought portion. But using a line space might work the best.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

the narratives are completely segregated by "scenes" or "chapters" (for lack of a better word) so you're idea of white space is a good one and one i'm already employing. i think it's still confusing however, because it's not always immediately evident who is speaking ~ and maybe that's the trick; somehow making each opening line more obviously distinct ~

thanks for the thoughts ~ gives me something to work with.

: D

[geckobird.livejournal.com]

Maybe instead of portraits, a drawing of the character that relates to the content of the chapter (or maybe the previous chapter the character narrated or something), and so each image will be different, but it'll be obvious as to who is speaking in each chapter, for each character looks different. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Hahaha ~ :D

Oh, and the symbol idea would probably work if its the same symbol each time for the respective character... I know that I always look at the quotes/images at the beginning of each chapter, so for me the quotes could work (though a symbol would also help clarify whose narrating this chapter even more). My younger sister also reads/examines the beginnings of chapters (well, the ones that have quotes and pictures). Don't know if that reassures you at all. :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

it does ~ !

: D

i'm still toying with the idea of symbols, but maybe the quotes are enough if i'm clever enough to get the voices so distinct that there cannot be any question as to who is talking.

thank you!

split first-person narrative

[daregale.livejournal.com]

Maybe Faulkner's your man? As I Lay Dying is first person narrative split up among a bunch of different people, each with a very distinct voice.

Along similar lines, Mariette in Ecstasy had some wonderful effects with bits from a later dialogue woven in among earlier scenes. At first, you think it's her internal conversation with herself.

I guess that really isn't similar at all. . .

Re: split first-person narrative

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

As I Lay Dying is so far the only other example i could come up with myself ~ the way Faulkner solves the problem is to put the person's name on each chapter. maybe i'm just overlooking the obvious ~ hahahahah ~

funny you mention ron hansen's book ~ while you say it's not similar, i actually think it is in a way: the way he weaves time through pov (present vs. past) is very much like what i'm doing here as well, so the model isn't that far off. it's just not first person.

thanks for the reminders!

: D

[la-vita-nuova.livejournal.com]

Maybe the different diary excerpts written in different handwriting?

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i thought of that, but as a reader who finds it personally hard to vascillate between fonts in a book (let alone "script-style" fonts), i know i would absolutely have a hard time reading that (and i can't fathom writing something i myself couldn't or wouldn't read).

also, it gives the wrong impression (i feel) that the narrative is written rather than spoken. it's a good idea for an epistolary work, but wrong for what i'm trying to do here. i really want a distinct "spoken" voice ~ which makes me feel more and more it's got to be in the way it sounds even moreso than the way it looks.

: D