Rather a dismal opening to the class last night with confessions that will hopefully turn into good news for all eventually. It seems the smaller the group, the more intimate and the more willing we are to relate, admit, open ourselves to others.
Working over Raymond Carver’s phenomenal Cathedral and learned so much more than even all my close reading dug out of it. Focused on the intricacies of Carver’s skill with first person pov, a much more difficult story to pull off than the third person. Carver is a master at not saying what he says, at showing through language the more accurate thoughts of his narrator than what he’s recounting.
One of the important points is the necessity of all story being in past tense–related to us after it has happened. The change in voice and character relating an experience after the experience has happened.
Carver’s story is clearly character-based and the techniques he uses to explore those characters force the reader to form an opinion based on how the story is told rather than what is being said. Need to practice this–particularly with my own tendency to overexplain.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology