[PREV - CHEAP_SUSPENDERS]    [TOP]

WHOS_ON_FIRST

                                              February 18, 2005

Need a language of narrative that
doesn't presume a medium.

Typically, a story has an author,
and it has a

  main character
  viewpoint character
  hero

And the story is directed at one or
more human beings, the...

  reader?
  viewer?
  audience?

I'd really like a more
general term for the            
"consumer" of the            The narratee that 
narrative.                   recieves the      
                             narration from the
                             narrator.             
                                               
                                 
In practice I often suddenly          
shift between terminology,           
one moment I say "reader"             
envisioning a written story, 
another moment I say "viewer"         
or "audience" envisioning a  
movie/teleplay/play...       
                                  
Maybe there's a pronoun dodge
of some sort?  "And then one wonders           A related problem in
what the main character is thinking."          narrating a narrative
                                               is clumsy jargon like
                                               "main character" and
                                               "point-of-view".

                                     You can't just say       Usually these
                                     "the viewpoint",         are the same,
                                     because that makes       though there
                                     it sound like you        are cases where
                                     mean the viewer.         they aren't --

                                     Pretty frequently        Though typically
                                     in writing about         that's a sign
                                     writing writers          that the author
                                     resort to the            is being
                                     acronym "pov"...         excessively
                                                              clever...
                                            POV






--------
[NEXT - POV]