Bruce Beckham's Blog - Posts Tagged "dickens"
Past Imperfect
A small case for the present tense.
I recently re-read Great Expectations, and in starting out it soon struck me that I had entirely forgotten the plot. Would Pip realise his hopes? Would he get the girl? And which girl?
Writing in the first person, Dickens repeatedly points out that here is an autobiographical memoir, recounted omnisciently with the benefit of broad hindsight and lofty maturity.
Things seem to run smoothly, until – maybe three-quarters of the way in – Pip finds himself in mortal jeopardy. You may recall the scene – the drunken vengeful monster Orlick has him trussed up for a brutal execution out on the lonely Kent marshes.
The reader is on tenterhooks. All those hours invested with Pip and his long climb to glory, only to crash to an ignominious end.
But – hold your horses (I thought). Pip’s the narrator. There’s a hundred pages to go. Ergo he lives to tell the tale!
This logic rather killed the tension. The question became not would Pip escape, but how would Pip escape? I could rest easy.
I’m not sure this was the effect that Dickens desired – but he had written himself into a cul-de-sac. Past tense, first person – there was no way out.
Now, I’m always ready to suspend disbelief – there has to be some author’s license – but this technical paradox has long troubled me. Just how do you construct a credible mystery when the reader knows you know the outcome?
Now, the present tense is much maligned, but it does offer a solution. And while some readers find it too elementary, I would point the open-minded to the first chapter of John Updike’s Rabbit is Rich.
You can find it on Amazon by clicking Look Inside. See if you agree with me: the live-action filmic quality is spine-tingling, and the growing sense of anticipation palpable. (And a Pulitzer Prize to boot.)
I recently re-read Great Expectations, and in starting out it soon struck me that I had entirely forgotten the plot. Would Pip realise his hopes? Would he get the girl? And which girl?
Writing in the first person, Dickens repeatedly points out that here is an autobiographical memoir, recounted omnisciently with the benefit of broad hindsight and lofty maturity.
Things seem to run smoothly, until – maybe three-quarters of the way in – Pip finds himself in mortal jeopardy. You may recall the scene – the drunken vengeful monster Orlick has him trussed up for a brutal execution out on the lonely Kent marshes.
The reader is on tenterhooks. All those hours invested with Pip and his long climb to glory, only to crash to an ignominious end.
But – hold your horses (I thought). Pip’s the narrator. There’s a hundred pages to go. Ergo he lives to tell the tale!
This logic rather killed the tension. The question became not would Pip escape, but how would Pip escape? I could rest easy.
I’m not sure this was the effect that Dickens desired – but he had written himself into a cul-de-sac. Past tense, first person – there was no way out.
Now, I’m always ready to suspend disbelief – there has to be some author’s license – but this technical paradox has long troubled me. Just how do you construct a credible mystery when the reader knows you know the outcome?
Now, the present tense is much maligned, but it does offer a solution. And while some readers find it too elementary, I would point the open-minded to the first chapter of John Updike’s Rabbit is Rich.
You can find it on Amazon by clicking Look Inside. See if you agree with me: the live-action filmic quality is spine-tingling, and the growing sense of anticipation palpable. (And a Pulitzer Prize to boot.)
