Tuesday 18 February 2014

Points Of View In 13,211 B. C.

Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991).

The chapter headed "13,211 B. C." has fifteen subdivisions written from diverse points of view:

I         Aryuk.
II-IV  Wanda.
V        Conversation, Answerer and Running Fox.
VI       Aryuk.
VII     Ralph Corwin.
VIII    Red Wolf.
IX      Wanda.
X       Aryuk.
XI     Red Wolf.
XII   Answerer.
XIII  Conversation, Aryuk and Tseshu.
XIV  Conversation, Wanda and Aryuk.
XV   Wanda.

Aryuk, Wanda, Corwin, Red Wolf and Answerer are five viewpoint characters.
Three conversations are described as if observed, although one sentence in XIV expresses Wanda's thought.
In the original four Time Patrol stories, we read the point of view of a single Unattached Agent whereas here, instead, we read two Specialists and three inhabitants of the Pleistocene.

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