Well, it's been a busy week and I did not catch up with reading the book. I'm still at around 100 pages in. (And I might have gotten distracted reading a new gen-fic.) Probably won't get to the rest of the book for a bit yet.
I can understand your frustration with the person/voice. I think it takes a lot of skill to pull off that sort of pov. I, personally, love the 3rd person, omniscient pov. I don't feel like the omniscient narrator is obligated to tell everything that's in everyone's head. That would be ridiculous, but one does need to change their tone and personality in regard to the character who is the primary pov of the moment. An omniscient narrator voice would be non-judgmental and would likely fall easily into a passive voice. That might take away from feeling the as being part of the story rather than an observer. For me, as long as I'm not confused, the character of the moment is 'in character' and the story moves along in an active voice, I'm good with it.
Voice and POV in JK's writing
anonymous
February 14 2013, 09:08:46 UTC
I believe she's done similar things in the Harry Potter books, although I don't know the technical term to describe it. Most of the time the books follow Harry around in some kind of third-person way, but there are a handful of chapters and sections that are completely outside Harry's realm of experience. I first noticed it while re-reading the first book. On page 186 (American hard-cover edition), we abruptly shift from following Harry around in his first quidditch match to a conversation between Harry's friends in the stands. The shift was so jarring that at first I wondered if Harry could actually hear them- but it soon became clear that he was too far away. Here, take a look at this section
( ... )
Re: Voice and POV in JK's writingcelestlynFebruary 15 2013, 00:22:06 UTC
When the Harry Potter series began, JKR was unknown and basically a new author. Although college educated, she may not have been particularly savvy in regard to some of the finer points of writing. POV, voice, tense and general consistency seem to be rather random. In my opinion, it is the job of her editor to address these issues. These people are paid to ferret out the inconsistencies and the things that disrupt the flow of a story. I'm not sure where her editor was during the HP series, but by the time she has written seven books and launched into her adult book, she should have those kinds of things figured out. I can only assume that her style in The Casual Vacancy was intentional because her editors would likely have been extra cautious, making sure that her writing was up to speed in the adult world.
Re: Voice and POV in JK's writingdarkironyFebruary 15 2013, 00:48:09 UTC
I don't think she had a very firm editor. I just ran into "seemed" two sentences in a row. (I hate the word "seemed" so I notice it.)
I do find the moments of boners and boyhood sexual fantasizing amusing after HP. It's hard enough to get sections of that nature into a work smoothly at the best of times. They have an extra cold bluntness in this piece.
What I keep coming back to, and is probably the main reason I started the book is, say you have this impossibly unlikely situation where you can write whatever you want and millions of people will read it without you having to do anything. What are you going to write about? What a concept!
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I can understand your frustration with the person/voice. I think it takes a lot of skill to pull off that sort of pov. I, personally, love the 3rd person, omniscient pov. I don't feel like the omniscient narrator is obligated to tell everything that's in everyone's head. That would be ridiculous, but one does need to change their tone and personality in regard to the character who is the primary pov of the moment. An omniscient narrator voice would be non-judgmental and would likely fall easily into a passive voice. That might take away from feeling the as being part of the story rather than an observer. For me, as long as I'm not confused, the character of the moment is 'in character' and the story moves along in an active voice, I'm good with it.
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I do find the moments of boners and boyhood sexual fantasizing amusing after HP. It's hard enough to get sections of that nature into a work smoothly at the best of times. They have an extra cold bluntness in this piece.
What I keep coming back to, and is probably the main reason I started the book is, say you have this impossibly unlikely situation where you can write whatever you want and millions of people will read it without you having to do anything. What are you going to write about? What a concept!
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