Monday, March 4, 2013

A Nested Perspective

The final chapter that follows the happenings on the Istyuli Plains in The White-Luck Warrior has a lot of perspective switching. Beyond showing the rising action of the book, it also puts another literary element of the book on display.

Those sections about the Army of the South aren't told so much as they are delivered. These parts, concentrating on the acts and struggles of King Umrapathur as he battles the Sranc Horde following the Great Ordeal, are written in third person unlimited. It's a clever way to avoid another perspective character, but thrown into the midst of sections from Serwa's and Proyas' viewpoints, it's textbook quality is very apparent.

In context, however, what might be a dry way of delivering a part of the story, is anything but. Those sections told from certain perspectives have a certain elasticity to them, as if the people through which we're reading them have a capacity to change their fate, or have yet to have their fates decided. The parts dealing with the Army of the South, however, are given the tone of a foregone conclusion. Since their struggle is very much a futile one, this tone buttresses that sense of futility excellently.

No comments:

Post a Comment