i love you, gérard (gerard genette)
Feb. 22nd, 2004 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321I am still reading Genette. I read one chapter, I summarise it, and then I apply his ideas to two slash fics, one by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
azewewish and one by novanumbernine. It is tremendous fun, and I'm learning heaps, both about narrative and about fic.
Here's another reason why I love Genette. On p. 198, he writes:
Narrative always says less than it knows, but it often makes known more than it says.
My reading of this:
Says less than it knows: narrator always knows more than what is written on the page. It's the tip of the iceberg principle, which I have often discussed withazewewish and others.
Makes known more than it says: much is implied. As readers, we complete unfinished sentences, fill in ellipses, understand the import of someone's words or actions (he turned away without a word) even when the main character doesn't, and so forth. It is, for example, the wonderful (and difficult, as I'm finding) challenge of first-person pov: sometimes the "I" doesn't get something or misconstrues things, but we, the readers, are clued in -- how to make known more than is actually on the page: one of the wonders of fic.
Give me a few more days and I'll have this narratological analysis of fanfic ready and posted!
I also must, simply must, finish Boring!Orli...
azewewish and one by novanumbernine. It is tremendous fun, and I'm learning heaps, both about narrative and about fic.Here's another reason why I love Genette. On p. 198, he writes:
Narrative always says less than it knows, but it often makes known more than it says.
My reading of this:
Says less than it knows: narrator always knows more than what is written on the page. It's the tip of the iceberg principle, which I have often discussed with
azewewish and others. Makes known more than it says: much is implied. As readers, we complete unfinished sentences, fill in ellipses, understand the import of someone's words or actions (he turned away without a word) even when the main character doesn't, and so forth. It is, for example, the wonderful (and difficult, as I'm finding) challenge of first-person pov: sometimes the "I" doesn't get something or misconstrues things, but we, the readers, are clued in -- how to make known more than is actually on the page: one of the wonders of fic.
Give me a few more days and I'll have this narratological analysis of fanfic ready and posted!
I also must, simply must, finish Boring!Orli...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-22 11:05 pm (UTC)I read Boring!Orli for the first time about a week ago - you simply MUST continue...
Re:
Date: 2004-02-22 11:57 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 12:06 am (UTC)*frantically tries to think up some feedback*
Um, it was good?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-22 11:09 pm (UTC)Madonna checked her email again. Nothing. She sipped her Evian and stared out of the window. Outside, the bland Californian sun beat down, slowly frying the garden to a crisp.
There seemed to be something stuck in her eye.
Bitches.
Why wouldn't Ents call each other 'Babe', anyway?
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 12:01 am (UTC)*falls over*
Yes. I see that you have interpreted Genette to mean 'make the reader work really hard at filling in the gaps.'
Madonna! Ents! Somehow and perversely, I need more. Especially more of that "bland" (nice word!) sunshine.
I love the way hi-falutin' narratological theory and fanfic converges! Here we were all thinking we were just a bunch of pornographers and all the time we were being neo-Aristotelian narratrixes!!!!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 12:07 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 02:21 pm (UTC)The dangers of attributing to others the meanderings of one's own primitive mind...
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 12:02 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 12:09 am (UTC)*waves hi to Karl*