Re: Third person


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Posted by Peter H on October 12, 2007 at 19:07:18 from 86.130.136.31 user Peter_H.

In Reply to: Re: Third person posted by Peter Ceresole on October 12, 2007 at 10:12:27:

If I'm wrong about this, I'm sure somebody will tell us...

Let me be the first. The Hugh Lofting 'Dr Dolittle' books, written in the 1920s and undoubtedly familiar to AR, are nearly all written in the first person, through the eyes of 'Tommy Stubbins', the Doctor's young assistant. The only one I can find which is 3rd person is 'Dr Dolittle's Caravan'. First person works very well, although Stubbins has obviously to be inseparable from the Doctor. This means that he has to smuggle himself aboard the giant moth when they go to the moon. Stubbins is sent back before the Doctor, which means that when Dr Dolittle returns he has to tell of his later moon experiences in quotes. However, in general, Lofting did not sprinkle the pronoun I throughout his text, and Stubbins, despite being the narrator, is rather in the background.

The point here is that the outstanding hero of these stories is one person, Dr Dolittle. Most of the other characters are animals. In AR's stories there is no one 'hero', which is surely part of their attraction, and they are about a co-operative effort by groups of children. A first person approach simply wouldn't work. How would AR have handled the 'war' in S&A in the 1st person, where there are 3 groups all active in separate areas?

I don't think this issue is anything remotely to do with literary fashion - it's horse for courses, or if you like, different strokes for different folks. I am very fond of both Lofting's and AR's works.

BTW, Jenny Berki - nice to have you back!


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