Timeline for Do modern readers believe the first person narrator can't die?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:15 | comment | added | ggiaquin16 | @Andrey I am not so sure on that. Definitely I have found myself thinking "oh this character is one of the main guys, he won't die here" I wouldn't say though that it takes away the thrill. For me, the thrill isn't so much wondering if they will live or not, but rather in the thrill of the journey itself. Even if you know they won't die, if you ahve a friend telling you a story about how they almost fell off the side of a cliff. You will be entertained and feel emotions in reaction to it and glad they are okay. | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:13 | comment | added | user16226 | @AndreyIn the vast majority of novels we know from the start if the hero is going to die or not (usually not). Will the hero survive is not the greatest source of tension in a story. All stories are fundamentally moral, and the greatest source of tension is, will the hero make the right choice. The right choice may involve the hero's death, which would make that death a good thing (that is, a satisfying resolution). Mere physical peril is of little consequence by itself. Its role is to introduce moral peril. | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:12 | comment | added | ggiaquin16 | @MarkBaker good point, and I am not saying it's so rare that it should be avoided. You are certainly right that you do what works! Thanks for pointing that out. | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:10 | comment | added | user16226 | @ggiaquin, well there are certainly cases of novels that change narrators, sometimes more than one. Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is told by several different narrators. Bleak House switches back and forth between two, as does No Country for Old Men. It might not be common, but it is not so exotic that you need to avoid it if it makes the story work. | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:10 | comment | added | Andrey | I understand that it's possible, and I am the writer and can do anything. In this specific case I have no intention in killing the narrator, I just want to know if first person takes the thrill out of the action as the reader goes :"oh it's the narrator, he will be fine" | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:08 | comment | added | Andrey | @ggiaquin you don't have to switch. The narrator can just say "and then I died" and continuing to narrate in third person | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:06 | comment | added | ggiaquin16 | Good point... at least from a 3rd person perspective. I just find it really hard to think that a first person narrator dying mid story would be appealing. It would be too hard of a switch to then get into the mind of someone else after spending the whole story from one view. Of course this is my humble opinion and I very well could be in the minority. | |
| Oct 31, 2017 at 18:00 | history | answered | user16226 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |