khiemtran | A Dream of Red Mansions

I've been learning this week about building tension through control of viewpoint. I'm up to Chapter 6 of the abridged version of _A Dream Of Red Mansion_ (translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang). In the first forty pages, nothing happens. In the second forty, one character has a dream and a succession of pampered, spoiled aristocrats throw parties and drink wine and tea in different locations within a mansion.

It's riveting.

There are good lessons here in the use of omni and the things you can achieve by being carefully controlling the distance the characters are shown at. There are moments when we dip into the characters' heads, but they are rare and selective. For the most part, the reader sees the characters only from the outside and what tension there is is magnified largely because it is never mentioned directly. The characters are compelling because we want to see what they will do next, or want to know what they are thinking. The slow, steady trickle of information has an addictive nature of its own, without the narration ever appearing contrived or misleading. You feel as though you are spying on them, not living among them, which means you can be also aware of the dangers that they are unaware of, and feel the suspense of the bomb under the card table.