I read Lethem's story "The King of Sentences" and noticed the emphasis on the first-person plural voice, the point of view of an inseparable couple. There's of course Then We Came to the End. And other stories. Millhauser apparently has done it in some stories. This feels to 2010 what the first-person present tense was to 1983. Who started it? What makes it work?
― gato busca pleitos (Eazy), Monday, 19 July 2010 14:52 (sixteen years ago)
Pohl did this in "Man Plus", if I'm not misremembering (oh, yes, a look on Amazon confirms it)Then there was that Eugenides book, "The Virgin Suicides", which I haven't read.
― Øystein, Monday, 19 July 2010 15:38 (sixteen years ago)
Toby Litt did this in Deadkidsongs - bits of it at least, I've got rid of my copy so can't check. It's about a gang of boys taking vengeance on certain adults in progressively hideous ways. 'We' works both to emphasise the gangness of them, but mostly because it's so damn creepy to see kids talking that way.
― Ismael Klata, Monday, 19 July 2010 18:07 (sixteen years ago)
i believe there was also a point where second-person was a thing
i think i default to first person present tense rather than past: i think it's a function of writing shit on message boards and in chat windows. it doesn't seem even slightly defamiliarising when i encounter it these days
― thomp, Monday, 19 July 2010 23:24 (sixteen years ago)
Doesn't the play 'Our Town' do this? That's from the 1950s, I think (too lazy to check)
― The great big red thing, for those who like a surprise (James Morrison), Tuesday, 20 July 2010 01:31 (sixteen years ago)
bright lights big city was a big one xp
― dyao, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 01:32 (sixteen years ago)