On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 15:23:11 EDT Samerivertwice@aol.com wrote:
"Bright Lights, Big City" was the first book I ever read narrated entirely in 2nd person. You read the book, you think the idea is interesting but after awhile you get annoyed and wish the author would stop trying to put you in the narrator's shoes. You know?
Michel Butor wrote LA MODIFICATION in 1958 and this is the style he used (known in French as "vocatif" for the plural "you").
Is anybody aware of something earlier than that?
Patrice.
For what it's worth, the Calvino book is definitely second person SINGULAR, directly addressing an individual reader of the book, rather than the plural "you" as you describe the Butor (I've only seen excerpts of the Butor a long time ago, so I don't remember it at all). For me, reading Bright Lights Big City was like being trapped in a bar listening to a really annoying twit tell me way more than I wanted to know about his life. Interesting as a strategy for a writer to use, but ultimately not a personI wanted to having talking to me at such length. -- Herb Levy P O Box 9369 Fort Worth, TX 76147 herb@eskimo.com