Hmm.

[katallison]

OK, I'm still trying to write a Vividcon con report, with marked lack of success, but in the meantime -- I'm very curious about something I've come across a couple of times lately in LJ comments, and that is the issue of the name you use to refer to a character when you're writing a close-3rd-person-POV story about that character.

Ahem. Let me see if I can be clearer. Say I'm writing a story in 3rd person about Fraser, where he's the POV character. I always refer to him as "Fraser" because that's, y'know, what I call the guy. But I've seen a couple of people lately saying that in such situations the name used should be the one that the character himself uses when he thinks about himself, so the question is does he think of himself as Fraser, or Ben, or Benton, or whatever?

See, in my head this is kind of, sort of, related to the issue flambeau was talking about a while ago (here, to be specific), where you can't sneak in descriptive stuff by having the POV character musing about his own tautly muscled abs or emerald eyes or whatever, or on the other hand providing detailed descriptions of scenes he regularly moves through and is familiar with to the point of obliviousness. You have to maintain the authenticity/integrity of the character's own awareness. And one could argue, I guess, that using the name the character would use about himself inwardly is part of that authenticity-maintenance, except -- I dunno, I just have never thought of it that way. It feels strange to me, and I'd love to hear others' views.

Comments

[hesychasm]

Instinctually, I'd say referring to him as "Fraser" is okay because it's still third person. It's from his POV, but even so there remains a bit of omniscient distance from him for both writer and reader.

This is kind of related to a question I've always had about people who write Mulder. In XF fic, whenever he's thinking to himself about something, or addressing himself in his own thoughts, more often than not authors would still have him use his last name. As in, "Mulder thought to himself, Mulder, you should really quit yanking Skinner's chain."

It always threw me off -- for all the show made a habit of "Mulder this" and "Mulder that," it was still, in a way, third person. So wouldn't the character, talking to himself in second person, at least address himself as "Fox"? Or did fanfic writers consciously choose to portray him as that dysfunctional?

[zoerayne]

So wouldn't the character, talking to himself in second person, at least address himself as "Fox"? Or did fanfic writers consciously choose to portray him as that dysfunctional?

I don't know how dysfunctional it is, but I firmly believe that Mulder thinks of himself by his last name. He makes it clear early on that he really hates his first name and that no one uses it (except maybe his mother). A story where he thought of himself as "Fox" would throw me out so fast that I'd probably never finish it. YMMV.

[hesychasm]

Yeah, I know, I do try to take into account the name-hating thing, and I do believe he makes sure everyone else calls him Mulder, but just...when it comes to Mulder talking to himself, I'm still on the other side of the fence.

Albeit not religiously. (g)

[zoerayne]

Based on experience, when you change your name the way he did (even if it's just making everyone use your surname instead of your given name), after a while you don't think of yourself by the "old" name anymore.

Though, as was pointed out elsewhere in this thread, sometimes it can depend on the time period. I changed my name over 12 years ago. I no longer think of myself by the old name; I don't even react to hearing people call it in a crowd. That point took me a few years, though, to get to. When I first changed my name, I went by a diminutive version of the new name almost exclusively. Over the last 2-1/2 years, though, everyone at my job has used the full version of my name, so I've actually started signing posts and introducing myself that way; I no longer think of myself using the diminutive.

[bluster.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the episode, but there is a scene between Mulder and Scully in the car where she calls him Fox. He interrupts her and says that after awhile he even asked him parents to call him Mulder. So fo him I definitely think he would think of himself that way.

As for Fraser...I have to admit that I can go either way with this one. As someone else said, there's a distance in third person that allows for the use of "Fraser." Plus, I'm not so sure he wouldn't think of himself that way at times since it's what he hears most of the time. But at the same time it makes more sense for him to think of himself as "Ben."

It is interesting that it's not something that's come up before.