WAIT A SECOND PERSON

WHY WRITING STORIES IS IMPORTANT

Chris Hedges: 

''The assault of global capitalism is not only an economic and political assault. It is a cultural and historical assault. Global capitalism seeks to erase our stories and our histories. Its systems of mass communication, which peddle a fake intimacy with manufactured celebrities and a false sense of belonging within a mercenary consumer culture, shut out our voices, hopes and dreams. Salacious gossip about the elites and entertainers, lurid tales of violence and inane trivia replace in national discourse the actual and the real. The goal is a vast historical amnesia. ''

SECOND PERSON

“You”

—who is actually being addressed?

Second person: can use “you” or just imply.

“Go outside. Look at the sky. Now look at the beach,” 

1. 1. Can really be a stand-in for an “I”
   “you wake up and you’re covered in sweat. You don’t know what’s going on.
   
2. 2. Or it can actually be a second person that is being spoken to, a specific person.

In Kafka’s “Letter to My Father” he’s actually addressing his father.
“Dearest Father,
You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you. As usual, I was unable to think of any answer to your question, partly for the very reason that I am afraid of you.”

A letter form: epistolary novel: letters to someone, or letters back and forth.

What is the use of using the you? (i.e. second person)
It does give a sense of urgency, or urgent address, and/or intimacy

C. But more complex use of the “you” exists, complicating the relation between the narrator and the “you.”

EXAMPLES

Calvino: If on a winter’s night a traveller

By foregrounding the reading experience, Calvino makes you aware of the artifice and the pleasure of reading, of the book, of story.

Diaz: 

-the “narrator” — takes the sensibility of the protagonist — the “you”

—uses the language.

—there’s an intimacy, a kind of empathy — even though the guy is a jerk

Lorrie Moore—“How to Become a Writer”

—using self-help language

—addressing the reader, but providing specific details from another specific life— but the reader might imagine the parallel details from their own life

—why second person here? To make relatable. 

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Leopard by Wells Tower

—11 year old protagonist 

—second person which knows what the character thinks.

-“Don’t open your eyes. Stick out your tongue.”  

-the voice is like both 1st and 3rd person combined. Not exactly in the voice of the protagonist, but seems a bit closer than 3rd limited.

[Jennifer Egan: A Visit from the Goon Squad-

-Different chapters of the book use different forms or POV

-This one is in second person: Access to inner life of character

-Why 2nd person: creates urgency, but also makes the kind of  3rd person limited type of details and knowledge of character more believable, maybe making the narrator more intimiately part of the action, part of the crew.]

You shouldn’t do these You things.

-avoid beginning every sentence with “you.” 

-vary the length and structure of the sentences.

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WRITING ACTIVITIES

1. 1. Text describing what someone else did or how they felt.

  To teacher, to partner/date, police, doctor, parent, brother, dog.

A parent telling their child what they were like as a small child. Peeping Tom decribing what
someone was doing.

Imagine giving eulogy: “You were always there for me. Your piano. Playing late in the night, you…”

Breakup letter, or love letter.

“It was always about you. First thing in the morning, you made coffee just for you. Toast. Eggs….”

“In that blue shirt, you looked…”

Or accusing someone (police, doctor, person on street):

“You looked at me like I was dirty. Dangerous. A thief.”

2. Self help story

“How to go on a date.” “How to difuse a bomb” “How to cook a goat.” “How to make someone love you.” “How to talk to my mother.”

-in describing “how,” you’re really describing how a particular character did this thing or should do that thing. “

or Instructions in a ransom note, an accusation.

3.  Address the reader. “Dear Reader, you’re

4. A short piece that is a letter (or text, or IM, etc.)
—why else do people write letters?