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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
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
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From:
uh huh and nuh uh
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.
From:
Re: uh huh and nuh uh
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