(no subject)
Mar. 5th, 2011 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatI failed. Started re-reading the Kim Harrison books and posted to her blog. (embarrassingly enough).
I hate doing that - because normally if you get a response, the writer can be a bit - patronizing.
But I had to ask if she was a Buffy fan, because she does something in Pale Demon that I haven't seen done since well Buffy with a character arc. In that series it was with Spike - where you think the character and his relationships mean one thing, then the writer reveals something we didn't know and suddenly you realize it's something completely different. So you go back and re-watch the series and think, damn! I totally see that now. The whole series changes and becomes something new. I'm not saying I couldn't predict bits of Harrison's story, some plot points I did. But what surprised me where small details, much like in Buffy - little things. Such as the fact that Spike would allow someone to torture him. Or how he chooses to use the Buffy bot (not how I expected at all - was expecting something more twisted and horrifying). I saw the character one way. The writers pulled back a layer, set me in his pov, and I realized wait - the main characters pov's are unreliable.
When a writer does this - I cheer. It's hard to do and even harder to pull off well. But realistic.
Because this happens in life too - we muck along thinking Jane Doe is our best bud and Mary Sue is a bitch from hell, then one day we find out that Mary Sue is actually a great gal, and would be there if we fell on our butt, while Janey would totally blow us off. People aren't predictable at all. There's so much we don't know about each other. And most of our assumptions are incredibly wrong. The unreliable narrator is my favorite technique. It's why I loved the flick Black Swan - because you think one thing is going on, and then you realize no - it's something else. Or Sixth Sense or The Others.
I hate doing that - because normally if you get a response, the writer can be a bit - patronizing.
But I had to ask if she was a Buffy fan, because she does something in Pale Demon that I haven't seen done since well Buffy with a character arc. In that series it was with Spike - where you think the character and his relationships mean one thing, then the writer reveals something we didn't know and suddenly you realize it's something completely different. So you go back and re-watch the series and think, damn! I totally see that now. The whole series changes and becomes something new. I'm not saying I couldn't predict bits of Harrison's story, some plot points I did. But what surprised me where small details, much like in Buffy - little things. Such as the fact that Spike would allow someone to torture him. Or how he chooses to use the Buffy bot (not how I expected at all - was expecting something more twisted and horrifying). I saw the character one way. The writers pulled back a layer, set me in his pov, and I realized wait - the main characters pov's are unreliable.
When a writer does this - I cheer. It's hard to do and even harder to pull off well. But realistic.
Because this happens in life too - we muck along thinking Jane Doe is our best bud and Mary Sue is a bitch from hell, then one day we find out that Mary Sue is actually a great gal, and would be there if we fell on our butt, while Janey would totally blow us off. People aren't predictable at all. There's so much we don't know about each other. And most of our assumptions are incredibly wrong. The unreliable narrator is my favorite technique. It's why I loved the flick Black Swan - because you think one thing is going on, and then you realize no - it's something else. Or Sixth Sense or The Others.