"...happened shortly after the Satan episode..." (p.639)
- and ends by observing that, a decade later, van Rijn's extended cruise with his granddaughter made his competitors hope:
"...that he was slowing down to a halt." (p. 640)
In the immediately ensuing paragraph, Coya herself reflects that:
"...those money-machine merchant princes..." (ibid.)
- are mistaken. And thus, by this roundabout route, we get into Coya's pov. We have already met her in Mirkheim if we have read the Technic History in its original order.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course "he" is a perfectly legitimate pronoun for cases like this. English lacks a sex neutral term for unknown, omniscient narrators. So "he" is often used in a gender neutral sense.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes but the omniscient narrator is not a person and indeed is a very mysterious entity.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True. It does make me wonder when the unknown, omniscient narrator technique was invented.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Early modern novels. Authors learned to withdraw from the text, not to treat it as personal correspondence between them and their readers. The narrator withdrew to the point of nonexistence but the narrative remains.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I did wonder. Perhaps beginning with the works of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens? And the earlier writer Jonathan Swift, in works like GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, does seem to treat his story like a correspondence between himself (or rather, Lemuel Gulliver) and his readers.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Somewhere in that period. Jane Austen writes ironically, "It is a truth universally acknowledged...," not "We all agree, don't we?..." (But I think she does make one brief 1st person intrusion into one of her novels.)
Paul.
As late as the 19th century, it was still common for the author to stop the action, "turn", as it were, and address "the reader", but the trend of literary fashion was against it.
Modern styles would seem very staccato and telescopic to one of Austen's readers.
And my God, how Henry James does drone on!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Contemporary literary styles would not only seem staccato and telescopic to readers in the 1850's, but TERSE. One thing I noticed about 19th century writers, some of whom, like Kipling, also wrote in the 20th century, was of how verbose they were. The minimalism which became fashionable seems to have been due to Hemingway's influence.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
In some chapters by Sir Walter Scott, it is several pages before the conversation gets off the ground.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Which reminds me of complaints I've seen from some readers about how the care taken by Tolkien, Anderson, and Stirling for describing background and characters kept "slowing" down the ACTION. And I disagree with such complaints while conceding some writers, like Scott, can take too long to get the story moving.
Ad astra! Sean
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