Thanksgiving Themed Edition

After taking a break so I could regain my composure after dealing with Donald Duck's antics, I'm back here to now take a look at some interesting points by my beloved Cynsation's blog. Now since I won't be posting on Thanksgiving, I figured I should at least add a shallow Thanksgiving theme to this post and add a few unflattering pictures of Donald. Yay!

I don't know where this picture came from or who uploaded it originally...I don't want to know.

Upon reading some of the interview with Ron Bates on October 23rd (on Cynsations), I wondered about some of his points: he asserted that first person allowed his main character the most freedom to showcase his personality, and thus, much easier to insert humor into it rather than in third person, where it relied on an unknown voice. This struck me, because in many works I've used third person from an unnamed point of view. It was very interesting, especially since I had just read over many parts of one of my favorite stories, Daisy Miller by Henry James. In this book, though it primarily focuses on Winterbourne's thoughts and attitudes towards the world around him, the account of the story is told by a gossiper who is sharing with the audience this 'scandal' that unfolds. I think this kind of storytelling is effective because it adds an extra layer: the reader doesn't know how much is truth, yes, much is assumed to be truth, but it also adds more 'wood to the bonfire' so to speak because it enforces the haunting nature of gossiping and making judgments from it. 

Of course, this is a different scenario than Ron Bates, but it does make me wonder how much of the narrator's identity should be made known in third person, or how much it can be 'played with' as in the novella Daisy Miller. Ron writes: "I let my main character, Howard Boward, tell his story...it changed everything...Howard was someone I knew--I could see his face, I could hear his voice." Upon reading this quote, it made me almost experience the excitement Ron must have felt when he was able to channel the voice of Howard by using first person. Now, after reading this quote, I did disagree with it somewhat: I thought that voice could still be utilized in third person, but it did get me wondering how much authors can 'twist' the conventions of each perspective, and if third perspective could be freshened in different ways. While I'm not sure if third person 'characters' are necessary, or first person is necessary even for comedic pieces, it did make me wonder about the liberation there can be in shifting perspectives. 

Now, to enjoy some Thanksgiving feast...