Just came over here to tell Mr. Card that he's one of my favorite writers. Whenever I need to take a break from my chosen genre, horror, he's one of the writers I turn to because his stuff is so good. And hell, he even excels in horror (Homebody)!
The last two books I took off my TBR pile, in fact, were The Crystal City and Ender's Shadow. It spurred a long technical discussion with another writer this morning about the necessity of italics when quoting a character's thoughts. I'm on the fence now, as Mr. Card's prose demonstrates that it's not strictly necessary. I'll just have to experiment.
Anyway, since I know you're reading this: thanks again, Mr. C! I love your books, and it's nice to discover that the man behind them is just as interesting.
Matt
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Italics to show thoughts are so 1935.
Why not just put them in quotation marks, the way Jane Austen did?
Posted by Michiel (Member # 7649) on :
A certain Dan Brown keeps doing it. And look where it got him! Posted by Matthew Warner (Member # 7702) on :
But but but . . . (crackle of Matt's brain cells frying) . . .
Actually, I'm considering showing thought-quotations in the way that you do. For example, from page 451 of Ender's Shadow:
quote:There was no way, at the beginning of this battle, to predict that the Buggers would make such a mistake. Yet throughout history, great victores had come as much because of the losing army's errors as because of the winner's brilliance in battle. The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life. We don't throw our forces away because every soldier is the queen of a one-member hive.
I'm referring to the switch from the narrative voice to the character's internal voice that occurs at the sentence, "The Buggers have finally, finally . . ."
I would normally italicize the thought-quotation, but I realize this risks annoying the reader with the font change. That, or I'd recast the quote as indirect discourse . . .
quote:The Buggers had finally, finally learned that humans valued each and every individual human life. Humans didn't throw their forces away because every soldier was the queen of a one-member hive.
. . . which is normally just fine, but I liked how showing Bean's thoughts your way (and the passage went on for two more pages in his 1st-POV present-tense voice) gave more of a sense of immediacy than filtering it through the narrative verb tenses. I couldn't normally do that because I'd have to cast all those pages in italics, which would simply look too yucky.
Anyway, I'm just in a minor quandary now, trying to figure out what to do. What's worrying me is that not all readers will be able to follow the transitions, especially if they occur inside the same paragraph, as in the example given above--or that I won't have the technical skill to pull it off as smoothly as you.
Any words of wisdom you have time to give would be deeply appreciated!
Matt
[ April 04, 2005, 10:46 PM: Message edited by: Matthew Warner ]
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
You're a WARNER? Ahem, from THE Warner family - sorry - brothers' family?
Edit: Proof, Jonny, PROOF.
[ April 05, 2005, 12:45 AM: Message edited by: Jonathan Howard ]
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
That's the nice thing about using a deeply penetrating third-person-limited point-of-view in the novel - I can drop in and out of the viewpoint character's thoughts at will. Just one of the tools in the toolchest.
Paraphrasing it restores it to narrative from dramatic mode, which is fine, but "cooler" (as in more distant); italicizing the thoughts can be offputting.
If Dan Brown is somebody's model, why in the world are you asking me <grin>?
Posted by Verily the Younger (Member # 6705) on :
Someone once wrote a book called "Character and Viewpoint" that dealt with this sort of thing rather extensively. Now, who was that again? Can't think of the fellow's name. . . .
[ April 05, 2005, 01:50 AM: Message edited by: Verily the Younger ]
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Hey, I remember that book! It was really helpful...
Posted by Jonathan K. (Member # 7720) on :
I would have to say that my two favorite writers are Orson Scott Card, and Kurt Vonnegut.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
You have to? Who's holding a shotgun to your head? Posted by Jonathan K. (Member # 7720) on :
My two favourite writers are Kurt Vonnegut and Orson Scott Card, quit nitpicking and just read.
Posted by Matthew Warner (Member # 7702) on :
JONATHAN H.: I wish. There's also Senator Warner and Governor Warner. Actually, my family's claim to fame is through people like James Arkell, reputed to have invented the paper bag about a century ago, and then through Beech-Nut Packing Co. (I know, I know. Big whoop.) I'd rather be famous through my writing.
MR. CARD: Thanks. I guess I just need to experiment and practice. There's always something to learn. By the way, I bought Lost Boys a couple days ago; looking forward to delving into it.
JONATHAN K.: What books did Q. Nitpicking and J. Read write? Posted by Jonathan K. (Member # 7720) on :
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
What's worrying me is that not all readers will be able to follow the transitions, especially if they occur inside the same paragraph, as in the example given above--or that I won't have the technical skill to pull it off as smoothly as you.![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
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![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
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Actually, my family's claim to fame is through people like James Arkell, reputed to have invented the paper bag about a century ago, and then through Beech-Nut Packing Co. (I know, I know. Big whoop.) I'd rather be famous through my writing.