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Do any of you have examples of SF novels that are written as chronicles? The only example that I can think of right now is World War Z. I am considering this approach for this years writing.
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Not sure of how World War Z handles it; haven't read it.
But the appendices of The Lord of the Rings contain some of the most interesting things in the book---and they're nothing but chronicles.
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I can't give you lists of Science Fiction chronicled stories, but Bernard Cornwell did some of them well in Historical Fiction with the Warlord Chronicles. Some could argue the Richard Sharpe books are chronicles, as well as the "Saxon Stories" with Uhtred of Bebbanburg(which were originally titled the Saxon Chronicles).
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I wouldn't've thought Time Enough For Love was in chronicle form...thought it was a selection of diverse narratives (and shifting viewpoints) along with collections of aphorisms...maybe it should've been sprayed before reading...
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quote:Originally posted by Robert Nowall: I wouldn't've thought Time Enough For Love was in chronicle form...thought it was a selection of diverse narratives (and shifting viewpoints) along with collections of aphorisms...maybe it should've been sprayed before reading...
That's right, but IIRC the excuse for Lazurus telling all his stories was so that the chronicler could write them all down; we got it from the horse's mouth so to speak. I've always thought it was a clever way to tell his long story.
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A chronicle conventionally is a historic account without analysis or interpretation. A war chronicle, for example, rigidly conformed to those conventions is bereft of emotionally charged terminology. A battle tactic, for example, might be neutrally described as strategic; however, terms like brutal and cruel are emotionally charged and analyze and interpret the tactic.
Fiction's, and prose generally, dramatic needs, though, mandate a degree of emotional expression and subjective analysis and interpretation. An emotionally detached narrator who chronicles a history might be a narrative point of view strategy consideration that distinguishes a narrative as a chronicle. Emotionally charged content might then come through from character expressions (direct dialogue and recounted thought), amplified though neutral event, setting, and character descriptions, and subtly touch upon emotionally charged content related to moral disapproval through subjective understatement.
A neutral, detached narrator signals objective, unbiased, reliable reports. Subjective content rings of emotionally charged reactions. A convention of history-telling is objective reports of subjective experiences. A crime blotter reporter might interview a victim, for example, and objectively report the victim's subjective, emotionally charged report.
Never mind "news" no longer reports objectively, every news event report anymore overloaded with emotional charge and subjective analysis and interpretation. The news is more about the correspondent and the correspondent's opinions and less about the event. This is New Journalism: a reporter is self-involved in events, like the Gonzo Journalism of Hunter S. Thompson.
If this objective narrative-point-of-view structure is considered, that model emulates chronicles. The narrator's identity, though detached, should nonetheless be developed. This is matters of ethos, appeals to credibility, and kleos, appeals to reputation. Thompson's ethos, for example, appeals based on a countercultural credibilty, a street credibility, so to speak. Thompson's reputation, kleos, as a countercultural journalist emerged along with his self-involvement aesthetic.
Walter Kronkite's ethos and kleos were for unbiased reports though colored by a mainstream ethnic social-moral value system: WEIRD, White, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic ethnic nation social-moral value system.
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