How Fiction Works, James Wood

This article written by James Wood focuses on narration and fiction. The key points that strike me include one that mentions the narrator takes on a godlike and authorized status. I completely agree with this statement as the narrator is the person who is telling this story and hence everything comes from his/her perspective. There was always something I questioned in many books which was about the narrator’s character and whose side he/she would empathize with. For example in We, the narrator was D-503 and when I was reading that book, I wondered whether D-503 could be the mentally ill person and we as readers would be reading Zamyatin novel through D-503’s eyes hence acquiring a different perspective from say a member in the Office of Guardians or the Benefactor. Perhaps the world was completely normal and the problem did not lie with the Benefactor and the One State but rather D-503. I feel that the narrator plays the most important role in a novel and Wood also mentions that the narrator can merge into the character he/she is talking about. For a narrator to not do this would be extremely difficult. Of course the narrator is actually played by the author and it would be likely to assume that the author would be bias in certain aspects hence expressing some things more opinionated then others.

The next focal point that this article revolves around is “free indirect style”. The example he provides readers with is: “Ted watched the orchestra through stupid tears.” Where is the word “stupid” coming from? Who owns this word? This is an example of free indirect style in which the author incorporates his emotions and opinions into how the character may be feeling. Without the word “stupid” it would be a standard neutral comment. Free indirect style allows the reader to view things from the character’s eyes as well as the author’s eyes. There is a gap between the author and the character and free indirect style fills in this gap!

In more serious novels, authors make it more difficult to find the gap which allows the reader to view three different perspectives. For example, Woods gives an example from Henry James novel, What Maisie knew, in which three perspectives are seen: “official parental and adult judgement on Mrs Wix; Maisie's version of the official view; and Maisie's view of Mrs Wix.” (15) Overall, fiction and narration together creates many interesting thoughts to blossom in the reader’s mind.