This makes me think about Alfred Hitchcock. His technique of alternating cuts between a close up of a character’s reaction with a pov shot of what they’re looking at takes you effectively into first person in what is otherwise typical detached camera-as-observer. In Rear Window, for example you can practically hear exactly what Jimmy Stewart is thinking when he’s looking through his binoculars.
Wow that is such a cool connection. I’ve always been fascinated by the use of binoculars in that film and you’re sooo onto something with it being a kind of narrative portal into his character. I love that! Thank you!
Thanks a lot for these wonderful insights! I've always had a preference for third person narration but is true that this "free indirect" is sometimes necessary to connect with the characters. However, I tend to think in rather rational terms and often, knowing more about a character, even from a distance, helps me empathise more deeply than through their limited lens. Moreover, as underlined by your husband, what I like with third person is that it allows for the authors remarks, and sometimes their wonderful sense of humour (I think about Balzac for instance, which narrative voice I love)
Great piece—thank you! So many insights and reminders for me. For instance, as a writer you do move in and out and the story can do that for you if you let it. I realize in hindsight that is what happened in the best chapters of my first novel. In my second, I am alternating first-person narratives chapter by chapter and attempting to let them zoom in on each other.
Austen is amazing. I am reading Persuasion (my first Austen) with Henry Eliot and he just talked about free indirect in his video. Strikes me so far in Persuasion that she is the antithesis of the “show-don’t-tell” school.
Severance—would love to hear you and your husband’s take on the craft/storytelling of that. Wow.
I'm a birder so it's second nature to me using a lens to switch between a focus on fine detail and monitoring activity in a wider environment. I feel like I've just been given a key that unlocks a completely new way of reading and experiencing story telling. It makes me want to go and reread everything I've read. I think even interacting with others in real life that I'm now going to have that idea of focus in the back of my mind. I feel a little like Dorothy in Oz just noticing color.
Maryann: Sean and I have been chatting about what a lovely and thoughtful comment this was since you shared it. It's such a beautiful connection and I am so happy that his words were like a trip to Oz for your reading brain. <3 thanks for being such a leaned-in reader of this space, it means the world!!
Apparently the Oxford word of the year for 2024 was 'brain rot'. Your challenging posts provide me an alternative to keep my synapses sparking. I hope you've lots more of them to come as I'm not planning on going to rot anytime soon.
I started reading Karamazov with Dana on Substack and prior to reading, I hadn’t thought much of narrators unless they were obvious. Even beginning TBK I hadn’t thought much of the narrator until it was brought up in group discussion. This sheds even more light on the narrator for me to think about and pay closer attention to. Great read, thank you!
I am also reading TBK with Dana. Those first pages left me wondering about the narrator for the first time. I was very glad to see it come up in the conversations. Very timely to see it here now too. As with you, I'll be paying more attention going forward.
I've always found it tricky trying to explain to students just how 'free indirect' style is working, when - as you (and Sean!) suggest - it's a dynamic thing, so the idea of narrative distance and a zoom in/zoom out lens being calibrated as needed is just perfect. This is really one of the best explanations I've found of this narrative style - thank you 🙏🏼
i really appreciate this dive into free indirect style! i always thought i understood it but Sean’s comments help me better appreciate how masterful and fine-tuned of a technique it is, and how much precision it requires of the writer. i love that you two can approach closely reading from different angles.
So cool, huh? As soon as he explained it like a lens for me, I was like “oh my gosh that’s what she’s doing in *pride and prejudice*!” It cracked it open for me in a whole new way!!
I love this explanation so much - many thanks to you both. I also love the examples that people have given of real life application of this technique. For me, I’m a long-time pre-school teacher and this is how the good ones work - paying close attention to an individual or small group of kiddos while also periodically zooming out and scanning the room, constantly observing and perceiving. I know I’ll be more in tune to when and how this happens in my close reading.
Oh wow. This is such a brilliant metaphor, Debbie! That ability to pay attention on multiple levels at once as a preschool teacher must serve you really well as a close reader. I wonder if it's almost like a good workout for a familiar muscle group, for you. (For some folks, it's deeply uncomfortable, because it's a whole new muscle group. But it sounds like, for you, it's a pretty familiar exercise in moving in and out, and scanning for detail as you go.) Love it!
Samantha Harvey's Orbital is a brilliant example of this narrative technique. Not only does she zoom from all-seeing narrator to the group aboard the space station to a single astronaut, but through the six astronauts we see the earth as a whole, individual places (e.g., the pyramids), a family, a single person on earth. That movement in and out IS the story's movement. Amazing.
I just finished the book today, so I am catching up on the prompts. When I was reading the book, I had the feeling several times that the narrator was somebody who was in the room with the characters, closely observing them. Sometimes intimately—as in, it was one of the characters..and sometimes a person in the room with some distance, who could look at the dance, as if watching it from above, and make comments about all of the machinations that were going on.
The Great Gatsby was on my list of “Books to Read during our 4 years on Long Island,” but I never got to it. I hope it makes it onto your bookclub reading list someday!
This makes me think about Alfred Hitchcock. His technique of alternating cuts between a close up of a character’s reaction with a pov shot of what they’re looking at takes you effectively into first person in what is otherwise typical detached camera-as-observer. In Rear Window, for example you can practically hear exactly what Jimmy Stewart is thinking when he’s looking through his binoculars.
Wow that is such a cool connection. I’ve always been fascinated by the use of binoculars in that film and you’re sooo onto something with it being a kind of narrative portal into his character. I love that! Thank you!
I think I need to reread this a couple times and sink into these wonderful thoughts! 🙏
I love that! 🥳
Thanks a lot for these wonderful insights! I've always had a preference for third person narration but is true that this "free indirect" is sometimes necessary to connect with the characters. However, I tend to think in rather rational terms and often, knowing more about a character, even from a distance, helps me empathise more deeply than through their limited lens. Moreover, as underlined by your husband, what I like with third person is that it allows for the authors remarks, and sometimes their wonderful sense of humour (I think about Balzac for instance, which narrative voice I love)
Great piece—thank you! So many insights and reminders for me. For instance, as a writer you do move in and out and the story can do that for you if you let it. I realize in hindsight that is what happened in the best chapters of my first novel. In my second, I am alternating first-person narratives chapter by chapter and attempting to let them zoom in on each other.
Austen is amazing. I am reading Persuasion (my first Austen) with Henry Eliot and he just talked about free indirect in his video. Strikes me so far in Persuasion that she is the antithesis of the “show-don’t-tell” school.
Severance—would love to hear you and your husband’s take on the craft/storytelling of that. Wow.
We *love* Severance! I’m now campaigning him to write something about it for us!
I'm a birder so it's second nature to me using a lens to switch between a focus on fine detail and monitoring activity in a wider environment. I feel like I've just been given a key that unlocks a completely new way of reading and experiencing story telling. It makes me want to go and reread everything I've read. I think even interacting with others in real life that I'm now going to have that idea of focus in the back of my mind. I feel a little like Dorothy in Oz just noticing color.
Maryann: Sean and I have been chatting about what a lovely and thoughtful comment this was since you shared it. It's such a beautiful connection and I am so happy that his words were like a trip to Oz for your reading brain. <3 thanks for being such a leaned-in reader of this space, it means the world!!
Apparently the Oxford word of the year for 2024 was 'brain rot'. Your challenging posts provide me an alternative to keep my synapses sparking. I hope you've lots more of them to come as I'm not planning on going to rot anytime soon.
I started reading Karamazov with Dana on Substack and prior to reading, I hadn’t thought much of narrators unless they were obvious. Even beginning TBK I hadn’t thought much of the narrator until it was brought up in group discussion. This sheds even more light on the narrator for me to think about and pay closer attention to. Great read, thank you!
I am also reading TBK with Dana. Those first pages left me wondering about the narrator for the first time. I was very glad to see it come up in the conversations. Very timely to see it here now too. As with you, I'll be paying more attention going forward.
Nice!! I’m glad it’s helping you glean even more insight from your reading experience!
I've always found it tricky trying to explain to students just how 'free indirect' style is working, when - as you (and Sean!) suggest - it's a dynamic thing, so the idea of narrative distance and a zoom in/zoom out lens being calibrated as needed is just perfect. This is really one of the best explanations I've found of this narrative style - thank you 🙏🏼
Yes! So happy to hear it’s helpful!
i really appreciate this dive into free indirect style! i always thought i understood it but Sean’s comments help me better appreciate how masterful and fine-tuned of a technique it is, and how much precision it requires of the writer. i love that you two can approach closely reading from different angles.
So cool, huh? As soon as he explained it like a lens for me, I was like “oh my gosh that’s what she’s doing in *pride and prejudice*!” It cracked it open for me in a whole new way!!
I love this explanation so much - many thanks to you both. I also love the examples that people have given of real life application of this technique. For me, I’m a long-time pre-school teacher and this is how the good ones work - paying close attention to an individual or small group of kiddos while also periodically zooming out and scanning the room, constantly observing and perceiving. I know I’ll be more in tune to when and how this happens in my close reading.
Oh wow. This is such a brilliant metaphor, Debbie! That ability to pay attention on multiple levels at once as a preschool teacher must serve you really well as a close reader. I wonder if it's almost like a good workout for a familiar muscle group, for you. (For some folks, it's deeply uncomfortable, because it's a whole new muscle group. But it sounds like, for you, it's a pretty familiar exercise in moving in and out, and scanning for detail as you go.) Love it!
Thank you, Haley! It absolutely is second nature in kid situations and I look for to seeing how good I am at using it in close reading.
Samantha Harvey's Orbital is a brilliant example of this narrative technique. Not only does she zoom from all-seeing narrator to the group aboard the space station to a single astronaut, but through the six astronauts we see the earth as a whole, individual places (e.g., the pyramids), a family, a single person on earth. That movement in and out IS the story's movement. Amazing.
I just finished the book today, so I am catching up on the prompts. When I was reading the book, I had the feeling several times that the narrator was somebody who was in the room with the characters, closely observing them. Sometimes intimately—as in, it was one of the characters..and sometimes a person in the room with some distance, who could look at the dance, as if watching it from above, and make comments about all of the machinations that were going on.
The Great Gatsby was on my list of “Books to Read during our 4 years on Long Island,” but I never got to it. I hope it makes it onto your bookclub reading list someday!