I've always loved it, and use it quite often, maybe because I read it so often in poetry that the voice just stuck with me, and I'm comfortable with writing it. I think of it as the pov of deception and self-deception; more overtly concealing and revealing than first-person, even; of suppression and repression; someone who feels rather outside of herself, detached and dissociated; sometimes, it's the voice of trauma. So, characters I've used it for: Mina Harker, Simon Tam, Thomas Tallis, Adam Monroe (but only in certain contexts), and Castiel (after 5.18).
That said, for the same reasons that I love it, I think it's a hella difficult pov to sustain for long pieces, not only from a grammatical point of view, but from an emotional one, because it can be so intense and involving.
I want to write (and read) so much 2nd person pov Castiel, you have no idea.
I'm intrigued by your perception of distance in 2nd person narrative. I agree with it in part - mostly with regards to poetry because it's something I do myself when the subject is too close to me/too dark/too painful and I need to be someone looking on from far away instead of in it. I don't think it works that way for prose fiction, though? Unless you're viewing it as the character being both protagonist and narrator, which is an interesting perspective. I tend to view second person more as the merge of the authorial and narrative voice, if that makes sense, where any slant in the narrative is the character's. For me second person is about the absence of distance. Then again I didn't finish my literature degree, so.
Unless you're viewing it as the character being both protagonist and narrator, which is an interesting perspective.
Yes, that would be it. I don't recall ever reading an entire novel that was consistently written in 2nd person - a short story maybe? In prose my encounters with it have been mainly in fan fiction, and then, usually my own, so my perception of 2nd person pov is mostly based upon the way that I choose to/prefer to use it. And I've always felt that it holds a lot of tension - as a pov that both maintains a certain distance from the reader, and, at the same time, as you said, closes that distance. Economics major here, so I'm just going by instinct.
Bright Lights, Big City was my first experience with second person POV. It's technically a novella, not a novel, but still. It's excellent, and it's the reason why I have such faith in second person and longer narratives.
Tension - yes. It just lends itself so well to plunging into the dark recesses of someone's mind, contrasting thought with action. I like that there is absolutely not a shred of objectivity in a second person narrative. Those are stories I'm interested in, because, natch, when you cut me I bleed postmodern.
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Date: 2010-05-19 12:16 pm (UTC)That said, for the same reasons that I love it, I think it's a hella difficult pov to sustain for long pieces, not only from a grammatical point of view, but from an emotional one, because it can be so intense and involving.
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Date: 2010-05-19 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 01:38 pm (UTC)I'm intrigued by your perception of distance in 2nd person narrative. I agree with it in part - mostly with regards to poetry because it's something I do myself when the subject is too close to me/too dark/too painful and I need to be someone looking on from far away instead of in it. I don't think it works that way for prose fiction, though? Unless you're viewing it as the character being both protagonist and narrator, which is an interesting perspective. I tend to view second person more as the merge of the authorial and narrative voice, if that makes sense, where any slant in the narrative is the character's. For me second person is about the absence of distance.
Then again I didn't finish my literature degree, so.no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 02:06 pm (UTC)Yes, that would be it. I don't recall ever reading an entire novel that was consistently written in 2nd person - a short story maybe? In prose my encounters with it have been mainly in fan fiction, and then, usually my own, so my perception of 2nd person pov is mostly based upon the way that I choose to/prefer to use it. And I've always felt that it holds a lot of tension - as a pov that both maintains a certain distance from the reader, and, at the same time, as you said, closes that distance.
Economics major here, so I'm just going by instinct.For example: Castiel, Rory Gilmore, Adam Monroe, Mina Harker, Simon Tam.
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Date: 2010-05-19 02:25 pm (UTC)Tension - yes. It just lends itself so well to plunging into the dark recesses of someone's mind, contrasting thought with action. I like that there is absolutely not a shred of objectivity in a second person narrative. Those are stories I'm interested in, because, natch, when you cut me I bleed postmodern.