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Narrative Voice Quotes

Browse 21 quotes about Narrative Voice.

Narrative Voice Quotes

“It's not so much that history is written by the victors, as the old saying goes, but the powerful do often have the capacity to make themselves heard and to erase the voices of others.”

EducationHistoryPowerVictoryAuthorityStorytellingControlNarrative VoiceMedieval HistorySilencing Others
Book:Fierce Appetites: Loving, Losing and Living to Excess in My Present and in the Writings of the Past
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“Why are you running? You know he won’t be there. You KNOW he won’t be there. If you forgot, check your pocket. Pull out your phone and look at the last message in your inbox. What does it say? Oh yes, it says ‘I won’t be there’." "Fantastic timing for you to become the voice of reason, Shadow," I pant. "Are you trying to make me change my mind?" "Not at all, this is a thrill for me. I just didn’t know there would be running involved. Can I change your mind about that?”

MysteryMetaphysicalSupernaturalCharacter DevelopmentPsychological FictionShadow SelfNarrative VoiceDialogue Quotes
Book:We Are Everyone
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“JADE: picture that this is all you have ever known of this story. the only way it would ever occur to you that the story could be understood by another. JADE: and then, one day, you meet me. JADE: you look me up and down, and regard me as the discrete, specific individual that i am. JADE: and i decide to tell you this story again, using my own voice. JADE: and it sounds exactly like this: JADE: a martyr died and said fuck. ARADIA: huh... JADE: does this change the way you perceive the story you were originally familiar with? ARADIA: i guess a little bit ARADIA: it’s certainly a different way of hearing it ARADIA: but at least you didnt change any words so i guess its not all that different JADE: exactly. JADE: i didn’t change any words. JADE: but then, it was a very short story i told, wasn’t it? ARADIA: sure was JADE: now imagine it was much longer, and that was only the first line. ARADIA: thats easy to imagine ARADIA: his was a long story JADE: quite true. JADE: a story as short as the one we’ve been using cannot accomplish much when it comes to guiding and manipulating one’s awareness and emotions. JADE: it is compact, ostensibly commanding a simple and meditative moment of reflection, as a short poem might. JADE: the narrative it delivers is freighted with inference. it is a pattern imprinted upon the imagination consisting solely of cognitive dark matter, or a sort of notional negative space. JADE: but longer stories have the power to draw consciousness into them. they possess arresting and hypnotic qualities which can be used by their tellers to alter the awareness of the listener. JADE: again, i’d like you to imagine this is the only way you’ve ever known this story. JADE: but then it continues... JADE: a martyr died and said fuck. JADE: his final howl of profanity reverberated through the ages. JADE: it inspired his devotees during the darkest times of a brutal regime. JADE: his lessons were guarded, kept secret, espoused in the shadows of tyranny. JADE: a vision of peace would inspire those who’d never conceived of it. JADE: and though his death was gruesome, it opened the world to a feeling of hope. JADE: this hope echoed through the ages. JADE: it gave his disciples the strength to persist as they perished in droves. JADE: it was the only light to shine on a dark planet for millions of sweeps. JADE: and if you are one so devoted to his teachings, who sees truth in his words, JADE: it may be said with great authority that you are wrong. JADE: you are foolish to believe his lies. his martyrdom is false, his sacrifice hollow. JADE: repent for your adherence to this illusion now, and perhaps leniency will be your reward. ARADIA: 0_0 ARADIA: what just happened there JADE: i brought to your attention that the story you were listening to had a speaker with a specific identity. JADE: and where there is an identity, there can also be an agenda. JADE: i gained the power to bend your consciousness to become more amenable to my narrative agenda by lulling you into a more receptive state through the established rhythm of the story’s telling. JADE: this was only possible because you were not initially questioning the identity of the teller, or even considering that there was an identity to consider. ARADIA: i guess youre right JADE: hence, we may view any story as speakerless, or spoken, so as to bring designations to the duality i have just presented.”

Narrative VoiceMetanarrative
Author:Andrew Hussie
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“I entered the literary world, really, from outside. My entire background has been in sciences; I was a biology major in college, then went to medical school. I've never had any formal training in writing. So what I know about writing, I know from my own instincts, and whatever the narrative voice is in my own head.”

KnowsWorldWritingHas BeensSchoolVoiceMy OwnCollegeMajorsTrainingInstinctMedicalBackgroundsNarrativeBiologyFormalMedical SchoolNarrative Voice
Author:Khaled Hosseini
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“With the adult ones, I feel I need to get as deep inside the psychology of a character as I can, and that needs to be first-person. In the children's books, I feel I need some distance. I don't want to be the nine-year-old at the center of the story. I need to have some type of narrative voice.”

WantNeedsFeelsYearsFirstsChildrenPersonsI CanBookCharacterStoriesVoicePsychologyTypeAdultsDistanceNineNarrativeFirst PersonDeep InsideNine YearsChildren's BooksNarrative Voice
Author:John Boyne
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“We find in the novella a seamless interweaving of at least two narrative voices, one of which is that of an observer so sympathetic that his language appears to be Aschenbach's own, the other of which is superficially celebratory (except at the moment of moralistic condemnation) but undercuts Aschenbach by means of an ironic detachment.”

MeanTwoMomentsLanguageVoiceNarrativeIronicObserversDetachmentSympatheticCondemnationSeamlessNarrative Voice
Author:Philip Kitcher
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“Critics who perceive the first level of Mann's irony recognize that the second voice is giving us reasons to be dubious about various aspects of Aschenbach's life and work. But many of them don't appreciate the second level of irony, the one exemplified in setting this narrative voice alongside the more sympathetic one, and inviting us to choose.”

GivingFirstsReasonVoiceLevelsAspectAppreciateCriticsVariousSettingSettingsNarrativePerceiveIronySympatheticInvitingDubiousNarrative Voice
Author:Philip Kitcher
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“Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay is a stylistically daring writer in love with surrealism, credited with being 'the woman who reintroduced hardcore sexuality to Bengali literature'. But though the (male) establishment used this label of erotica to dismiss her work, the sex scenes have exactly the same transgressive function as her use of chronology and narrative voice.”

UseUsedLiteratureSexVoiceSceneFunctionMalesSexualityLabelsNarrativeEstablishmentDaringSurrealismHardcoreBengaliChronologyNarrative Voice
Author:Deborah Smith
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“It's actually not very hard to re-set between the adult novels and the ones for younger readers. The narrative voices are very similar, the smartass attitude, the environmental battles. Kids love books that are irreverent and challenge authority, when authority is arbitrary, greedy or foolish. They also love it when you make fun of grownups, and I've spent my whole life as a writer doing that.”

BookHardWholeKidsFunVoiceChallengesAttitudeNovelReaderBattleAuthorityAdultsEnvironmentalWhole LifeFoolishNarrativeGreedyArbitraryGrownupsKids LoveIrreverentSmartassNarrative Voice
Author:Carl Hiaasen
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