"The problem, of course, with throwing people away is that they don't go away"- Octavia E. Butler.

I just read Parable of the Talents, and am still processing it. Although, I wonder who originated the literary device of having several people tell the story from their own perspective? I've always admired that device, as it really gives the reader a good sense of many different sides of the same story, and also, the different subjective interpretations of the different characters are interesting as the reader has to decide who is right, and who to believe. Of course, I tend to side with the primary narrator, especially in this book, but in other books, the narrators are given more equal weight.

I, who seem to be unable to even write a simple straightforward story, am shocked at the literary devices that people with a high level of craft are able to do. I mean, it sounds easy to say you are going to write a story, but with all the bad stories in the world, it certainly isn't that easy. And these are just straight forward stories, not using any 'special effects'.


In other, unrelated news, a person talks about mail order brides.