Joyce Carol Oates

上下班耗在地铁公车，被迫过上很有规律的生活，早晨如果不六点半起床就赶不上七点十五分的地铁，就赶不上八点的公车，就不能在八点半之前到公司，哦不，政府机构。今天下午因为开会而差一点错过了一趟公车，飞奔出去喊着让司机停下来，总算没有搞到老晚才到家。

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Today's reading material: Outdated New Yorker magazines. Reason for reading them: I'm trying to get rid of some papers at home.

I have seen Joyce Carol Oates' short stories in TNY before --- perhaps they have some kind of a publication deal. I'm no judge of short stories, but I can see why she is widely praised. The story is more or less an exercise in a particular voice: that of a 13-year-old girl from a working class family living in Atlantic City. There is a somewhat dramatic element in the story, but that is not the point. The point is to present the distinctive voice of a 13-year-old girl, not 9, not 16, not 21, and definitely not a boy. Clear and authentic, without cliches.

Hence an important difference between an trained, experienced, credentialed author of fiction and an amateur --- the voice. Although the story is written from the 3rd, rather than the 1st, person point of view, the voice is undoubtedly that of the main character. She is walking on the brink of puberty. About the world she knows more than a child but less than an adolescent. This must be conveyed through the details --- what is said and what is not. No exposition.

I've often found the first-person perspective to be the most comfortable in both writing and reading of fiction, perhaps because I am most interested in the revelation of characters' psychological processes. Pseudo-first-person, ie, the third-person perspective that clearly sticks to one character for at least a substantial duration, works just as well, minus the excessive I, I, I and me, me, me. A pure ominous perspective works better for complex, plot-driven stories with a large cast of characters and plenty of allowance for exposition. The drawback is a lack of psychological intimacy with the main character(s). Of course, one could also play the game of multiple perspectives, a la Wilkie Collins.

A common mistake I have seen in a lot of amateur novels is unstable and confused perspective, shifting from one character to another frequently and casually. It bothers me a lot.