He's a good man...
Jul. 24th, 2005 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtran"He's a good man" (and "She's a good..."/"They are good...") is the start of a useful construction for transmitting character, because of what the next part conveys about the worldview of the speaker. Consider: "He's a good man, he always means what he says", "She's a good person, a true-bred Charipan", "They're good people, they never beat me unfairly".
Thinking about this in relation to The Silver Bowl, there are a number of instances where I've used his construction. Pom praises a Charipan hero for his wardeeds. Hissam praises the Poet for speaking truly (or at least, I think he does). The Poet may also comment about Hissam's reliability (a slightly more mundane example). All these, to some extent, convey something about the things the speaking character values. On the other hand, there are also instances where this construction may give a misleading impression. Thumee obstensibly praises Masamee for her toughness, when in truth, she might be just putting a brave face on it. There is a hint of her conflict visible to the viewpoint character though. For a more extreme effect, I could also have her subsequently praise someone else for their obedience to their parents or good standing in society, although that might be a little heavy-handed and unfair on Thumee.
Thinking about this in relation to The Silver Bowl, there are a number of instances where I've used his construction. Pom praises a Charipan hero for his wardeeds. Hissam praises the Poet for speaking truly (or at least, I think he does). The Poet may also comment about Hissam's reliability (a slightly more mundane example). All these, to some extent, convey something about the things the speaking character values. On the other hand, there are also instances where this construction may give a misleading impression. Thumee obstensibly praises Masamee for her toughness, when in truth, she might be just putting a brave face on it. There is a hint of her conflict visible to the viewpoint character though. For a more extreme effect, I could also have her subsequently praise someone else for their obedience to their parents or good standing in society, although that might be a little heavy-handed and unfair on Thumee.
