"Elsewhere aboard, folk slept, Frieda and Dozsa together, the rest by themselves: Broderson and Weisenberg peacefully; Joelle heavily, under sedation; Rueda rolling about; Susanne with a smile that came and went and came again. Under robot control, Chinook drove on toward the transport engine." (p. 313)
This paragraph concludes a chapter. But is it noteworthy? Why quote it? Double spaces between paragraphs divide this chapter into four narrative passages:
(i) an objective account of Broderson and Caitlin together;
(ii) Caitlin's pov (point of view) as she visits Weisenberg;
(iii) an objective account of Caitlin and Leino together;
(iv) an objective account of everyone in the ship other than Caitlin and Leino.
The omniscient narrator enters Caitlin's pov in (ii) although even that is mostly an objective account. In (iv), he relates what no one else knows, what is happening in each cabin. This is less usual. (Does the omniscient narrator have a gender?)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Most times readers don't need to know the sex of an omniscient narrator. I never thought of that point before this blog piece.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Nor did I, I don't think! I only thought of it here because I inevitably used the masculine pronoun because of a limitation in the English language. The omniscient narrator has to as invisible, as behind the scenes, as almost non-existent as possible. The question of gender certainly does not arise.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It doesn't bother me if English uses masculine pronouns for generic purposes.
I agree with what you said about omniscient narrators.
Ad astra! Sean
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