Saturday, 15 December 2018

A POV Shift

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 11.

(We are having dark and stormy weather with thunder overhead.)

There is a change of point of view in this chapter. Carl, who has been our viewpoint character until now, remembers something on p. 108 and thinks something on p. 113 whereas, on p. 115, at the very end of the chapter, the City Chief, Ronwy, is left alone watching the others, including Carl, depart and we are told what he whispers to himself. On p. 116, at the beginning of Chapter 12, we are back to Carl's pov.

Most of Chapter 11 describes actions and conversation by a group of characters without referring to pov. There is very little unclarity or slippage of pov in Anderson's works. Searching the blog for POV or pov discloses previous discussions of this narrative feature.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Are you saying Chapter 11 is a slightly weak part of VAULT OF THE AGES? If so, we should remember that novel is one of Anderson's earliest books, written during his early phase as a writer, which I would argue was a time when he was still mastering the art of writing.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Not weak. Very well written. Just an interesting change of pov right at the end.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Now I understand better what you meant.

Sean