The thing that has always confused me about POV is it assumes that the one person talking is, well only one person. Whereas we are all multiple people in fact. Jekyll etc. Are there multiple POVs books where the narrator is schizo perhaps? POV is all a bit too "pat" for me. Look at Wuthering Heights. Who is the narrator there? Who's POV are we hearing at various points. An incredibly close read of that book still leaves us confused. But the overall effect and lasting impression the reader is left with are about as indelible as any novel ever written.
I loved Belle & Sebastian’s music way back at the turn of the century but that woozy POV would drive me crazy. But maybe only because I have spent nearly 3 decades teaching creative writing at university, and picking it up in student work. When I pay for writing, I don’t want to be mentally red-penning it. (Not that we ever used red pens. Too triggering.) Plus I don’t think I need cute/cosy the way I used to.
Like a lot of debut (& unpublished and unpublishable writers, yes, hi, it’s me again) Murdoch is trying to reproduce what lived moments feel like. As my first readers on my creative writing course would say to me, exasperated, ‘I just don’t know where this is going,’ it seems to me that you’re able to give Murdoch the benefit of the doubt. This is a wonderful thing, and worth our support. I’m guessing that part of your subtext is - we couldn’t give this grace to an unknown writer - and Murdoch benefits from his ‘paw-in-a-sling’ image as much on the page as he does in his music. The frustration, is maybe in the fact that we are all hidebound into this creative writing MFA style that won’t allow us the bagginess of prose our indie kid writer has. I like that your frustration and your care has spilled over from your 600 word review into your Substack. I’m now a reformed student and stick to timelines and POV ferociously as I try to become more publishable.
That's interesting. The chapters that don't go anywhere are like songs, and it's making me think afresh about what happens when song writers write fiction, or novelists write songs. I've done both. It's not just about the use of words and the musicality you can get in prose (which a song writer would be already sensitive too if they're worth their salt) but in plot as well. A chapter that just happily exists in its own space, a moment in a life or lives, but it's really a song.
For me, The Sound and the Fury is the one book that destroys formalized POV. For the first thirty minutes, I was completely lost and considered giving up. But it was such a thing of beauty if only to have had the opportunity to consider human perspective.
"A diary entry can only run up until 23:59:59" seems very limited. What about the 1 AM journal entry detailing everything that's happened? I'm of the view, probably shaped by my insomniac mother, that it's all one day until you wake up the next morning.
The thing that has always confused me about POV is it assumes that the one person talking is, well only one person. Whereas we are all multiple people in fact. Jekyll etc. Are there multiple POVs books where the narrator is schizo perhaps? POV is all a bit too "pat" for me. Look at Wuthering Heights. Who is the narrator there? Who's POV are we hearing at various points. An incredibly close read of that book still leaves us confused. But the overall effect and lasting impression the reader is left with are about as indelible as any novel ever written.
I loved Belle & Sebastian’s music way back at the turn of the century but that woozy POV would drive me crazy. But maybe only because I have spent nearly 3 decades teaching creative writing at university, and picking it up in student work. When I pay for writing, I don’t want to be mentally red-penning it. (Not that we ever used red pens. Too triggering.) Plus I don’t think I need cute/cosy the way I used to.
Like a lot of debut (& unpublished and unpublishable writers, yes, hi, it’s me again) Murdoch is trying to reproduce what lived moments feel like. As my first readers on my creative writing course would say to me, exasperated, ‘I just don’t know where this is going,’ it seems to me that you’re able to give Murdoch the benefit of the doubt. This is a wonderful thing, and worth our support. I’m guessing that part of your subtext is - we couldn’t give this grace to an unknown writer - and Murdoch benefits from his ‘paw-in-a-sling’ image as much on the page as he does in his music. The frustration, is maybe in the fact that we are all hidebound into this creative writing MFA style that won’t allow us the bagginess of prose our indie kid writer has. I like that your frustration and your care has spilled over from your 600 word review into your Substack. I’m now a reformed student and stick to timelines and POV ferociously as I try to become more publishable.
This is a painfully acute reading. Thanks.
Let’s just say, it really spoke to me 🤓
That's interesting. The chapters that don't go anywhere are like songs, and it's making me think afresh about what happens when song writers write fiction, or novelists write songs. I've done both. It's not just about the use of words and the musicality you can get in prose (which a song writer would be already sensitive too if they're worth their salt) but in plot as well. A chapter that just happily exists in its own space, a moment in a life or lives, but it's really a song.
Very interesting. I hadn't thought about it that way. I think I'll have to do another entry about this.
For me, The Sound and the Fury is the one book that destroys formalized POV. For the first thirty minutes, I was completely lost and considered giving up. But it was such a thing of beauty if only to have had the opportunity to consider human perspective.
"A diary entry can only run up until 23:59:59" seems very limited. What about the 1 AM journal entry detailing everything that's happened? I'm of the view, probably shaped by my insomniac mother, that it's all one day until you wake up the next morning.