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Old 11-27-2010, 05:21 PM   #17
roseprose
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Chicago, IL
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It all goes back to Aristotelian unity. A single POV simply has more unity. As authors add more POVs, they need to add other unifying devices to make good the loss. Examples of multiple POV that make good the loss might be Gail Godwin's short story, "Interstices", with its repeated and governing image of rot (frozen food melting everywhere from the basement fridge)--or the sun (time) beating down on the family reunion in John Updike's "A Family Meadow".
The biggest drawback to character switches is that sense of interfering author sticking his or her thumb in to manipulate things; such switches risk making the work seem contrived, (while implying that it is fate). Such writing risks shlock. Ah, yes, the heavy hand of fate.
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