"Did you know that you keep switching between pronouns when you refer to Veda?" One of the three people reading my fantasy story (current work in progress) asked me.
When I spoke to the second person on this list of three a few days later, I was asked the same question.
"Yes," I said and proceeded to explain that it was Nathan, the main character in the story through whose eyes we see the world, who keeps switching between pronouns. Not ME.
Veda is neither masculine nor feminine, you see. He or she is a perfect balance of both. On his or her planet, there is a word for people like Veda. There is a set of pronouns to use when talking about them. Our language is quite simply insufficient. Nathan struggles with this. He doesn't know what to call Veda. Most of the time, he cannot choose and he does what I just did: he uses both pronouns. Sometimes, when Veda seems feminine to him, he refers to her as a "she" and at other times when Veda appears masculine, he calls him a "he."
Potentially confusing?
Undoubtedly.
So the question arrises:
How does a writer communicate the confusion inside the character's head without hitting the reader over the head with the explanation?
Where is that sweet middle ground between "Did the writer make a mistake here?" and "I get it already! I'm not an idiot!"?
Some of my favorite writers, those whose stories stay with me for years after reading them, have an enviable way of communicating confusion and allowing me, as a reader, to become witness to the mysteries of the situations the characters face with just the right amount of explanation. They do so without drawing my attention away from the character and his struggle. The writer remains invisible and what I hear as I read is the voice of the character. Confused. Oblivious. Frustrated. Out of control. You get the drift.
When thinking of intentional confusion, one of the books that comes to my mind is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The effect that Charlie Gordon's progressively refined voice had on me when I first read Flowers for Algernon still lingers. Daniel Keyes creates a character in this haunting story who is surrounded by situations he cannot fully comprehend or effectively explain. In some instances, it is Gordon's later journal entries that shed light on the truth behind previous situations.
Like Gordon, Nathan will attain the answers he's seeking. Until such time, however I'll have to make sure that his confusion remains his confusion and not my mistake.
What intentional confusion have you encountered in stories lately? Did you think the confusion was really intentional? Or did you think the writer had made a mistake?
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