At Reads for Keeps, you can see some of my pet peeves with regard to books....at least, the peeves that were foremost in my mind when I was asked last week!
One pet peeve (that I go into in more detail over there) is a dislike of intrusive narrators--which, thinking about it more, is not just knee-jerk hostility on my part, but hostility arising from a very good reason--I don't want to be reminded that I am reading. I want to be dead to the world. And someone coyly sticking their head around the page and saying "isn't this a wonderful journey we're having together, dear reader?" is almost as bad, viz achieving total immersion, as one of my children needing help pouring the milk but not asking me for it in time.
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I'm fascinated by the differing opinions on narrators talking to the reader (which I think is what you mean here...maybe?) I know people who hate it for just the reason you mention, because it reminds them they're reading.
ReplyDeleteI actually quite love it, for the opposite reason--I feel like the narrator is talking to me, and that draws me IN to the book, like I'm sitting somewhere and being told the story. Of course, it has to be done right...mostly I'm thinking of J. M. Barrie, who had a wonderful charming trick of remarking to the reader.
I am usually with you on this. This was done a lot in the German lit I read in school and I developed a real dislike for it. I still cringe when it happens in a book I am reading.
ReplyDelete*usually* should read *totally* Lesson to be learned: stop writing when someone asks you a question.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... read your pet-peeve list. The first two are irritating, but the second two I don't mind. In fact, I LOVE intrusive narrators (I'm also VERY introverted). I wouldn't want to read every book with an intrusive narrator, but they add whimsy, which I like. (Examples of favorites: The Nutcracker, Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, & the Lemony Snicket books.) The Intrusive Narrator is really just an extra character to me, a character that talks to me and makes me feel like I'm not going on the journey alone. :)
ReplyDeleteA really good post may I say :) By the way, I wrote a post about my own fiction pet peeves on my blog so I hope you will read and comment with your own! http://nynyonlinex.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/fiction-pet-peeves/
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