In a spaceship of her own making...

[azurelunatic]

Having now read both Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, I understand what norabombay said about Catherynne Valente's writing.

There is an extremely strong narrative voice. The narrator is talking to you. The narrator is omniscient and has opinions.

I imagine that for people who are accustomed to only a nearly-invisible third person narrator, this is jarring. I was raised on enough old-fashioned books to be comfortable with this kind of narrator, so I don't find it excessively precious. I enjoy it.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

There is an extremely strong narrative voice. The narrator is talking to you. The narrator is omniscient and has opinions.

I take it people don't read Narnia anymore.

[cosmolinguist]

I have a friend who bounced off Space Opera really hard, I think partly because of this, but I loved it.

[silveradept]

I enjoyed the narrator in both cases. Space Opera really reminds me of H2G2 on narrative styles, and the Fairyland story was in the vein of Sir Pterry, both of which have that strong narrative voice.

[kore]

Yeah, I knew someone who said the Fairyland voice really reminded them of Kingsley's Water Babies, and after looking it up now I can't unsee it.

[ljgeoff]

Confession: I've heard wonderful things about Valente but haven't read any of her stuff because I was on a panel with her maybe 10 wiscons ago and found her kinda rude and dismissive. *shrug* Maybe she's delightful and funny and I was having a bad day. But I can't get past it.

[azurelunatic]

Alas, that sounds like a bad experience to have on a panel.