cpatti

Comment Threads

• Moderator Alan commented on Brief announcement
  It can work, but usually only when the reader ends up unsure whether Zhuangzi was dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly has been dreaming he was Zhuangzi. (In popular culture, there is the Buffy episode 'Normal Again', in which Buffy wakes up from her delusions to discover herself in the lunatic asylum. That one works because Joss Whedon was also careful to make it ambiguous as to which was the dream, which the reality.) However, in neither case is the story actually ended with the waking up. Doing that is about as acceptable IME as the first person...
• Moderator Alan commented on Brief announcement
  Ah yes, eXistenZ was the other example I would have given of it working well....
• Charlie Stross commented on Brief announcement
  Doing that is about as acceptable IME as the first person PoV character in a story being killed, permanently, half way through. (That actually occurs in one of this year's Hugo novel contenders, in a real display of stunt writing.) Ahem! <smug>I got there first!</smug>...
• Moderator Alan commented on Brief announcement
  Indeed so. But there there was at least a continuing character, another version of that PoV, which tempers it considerably in my opinion. And Budrys was a pretty good writer, able to do it. It's when there aren't multiple copies, or resurrection, or any other way for the reader to ever encounter that character again. Doing that halfway through a novel is pretty sneaky....
• Moderator Alan commented on Brief announcement
  And the contenders for the Hugo do count? (Remember that this is the first year in a while in which none of Charlie's works were shortlisted for the mentioned award.)...