Chapter 3 : Mystérique Sign

[jedlionheart]

well, i dunno if I'm qualified to point this since, I'm not an official editor...

but there are a number of lines which I really find confusing, Its not just in this chapter, I'm pretty sure

that I've read several lines like this in past volumes..

Here are the lines in question :

These people might have the means to defend themselves, but I didn't. It looks like Asahina-san also didn't, as she was hiding behind me. This was just the right time to want to bring out a futuristic item, though. Don't you have a ray gun or something?

"Carrying weapons is prohibited. It's dangerous."

Okay, my issue is with the last part. I think it should be seperated from this paragraph and be inside quotations. As you see, the last sentence is directed to Asahina, it was a question meant for Asahina ( considering the answer she gives), I've read this line again and again and I really think that its part of a dialouge between Asahina and Kyon. If it was part of kyon's narration then there should be at least "I told her" or "I asked her" at the end of the sentence, which will show that he really asked asahina something.

Okay, maybe this really isn't a biggie, because all of us know that, he was askin' Asahina, I just wanted to point it out cause, It really bugged me.

[Smidge204]

Kyon's "inner narration" constantly bleeds through. The original novels don't separate the dialog, so neither do we.

This is as it should be. Keeps you (the reader) on your toes
=Smidge=

[TheGiftedMonkey]

It's exactly as Smidgums said it. Kyon's inner monologue sometimes represents what he says as well. I had a bit of a problem with it at first, but got use to it. Just the way Tanigawa likes to write, and it is fairly unique so I wouldn't want it changed.

[Dan]

I was bothered at first, too, but it really lets you fill in yourself how Kyon would ask or say various things throughout the story. Kinda like instant reader input.

[onizuka-gto]

kyon is a freak. be glad you don't find this normal.

[Rectifier]

Does talking to myself while I'm alone count?

[onizuka-gto]

Does talking to myself while I'm alone count?

nope. perfectly normal.

just watch out when there are other people talking to you, when your ALONE.

[jedlionheart]

I see. Well, I was kinda bothered by his narration, even my sensei ( a literature student from a prestigious school in my country) said that the novel's POV in narration/dialogues are kinda messed up. meh.

I'll just ignore this disturbing narration and move on. lol

[Rectifier]

That monologue/dialogue bleeding occurs in the anime as well, it makes alot more sense in that medium than in simply reading it and going wtf!?

[jedlionheart]

Now that you mention it, it does happen in the anime.

It makes me wonder, if it was intended or was just an unseen flaw in the novel. hmmm.

[Rectifier]

If your writing a book, what's easier (more logical) for the author, keep dialogue and narration seperate, or intermix the two at important times to remind the reader that Kyon is telling and remembering/experiencing these events as they occur?

I find that if something doesn't make sense when reading a book, just ask yourself, what's easier, how they did it, or another way? If it's harder to write the way the author did, which it tends to be with good writers, then they wrote it in a less user-friendly way on purpose to point something out.

[ainsoph9]

I just take Kyon's narration as part of Taniguchi's style and leave it at that. While the style is different to say the least, it allows for a lot of freedom in some ways that you could not get from other points of view. In any case, it is better in a way than, say, Martian Successor Nadeshiko's propensity for breaking the Fourth Wall.

[shichinanatsu]

hmm.. it's not just with this particular volume, the blurry boundary between kyon's inner and outer dialogue is a running theme of the story. a somehow twisted rendering of the omniscient POV.. which is most odd, considering haruhi is the title character and all, so much so that if you were to read the story sans title, you would think it was a story about kyon.

[TheGiftedMonkey]

hmm.. it's not just with this particular volume, the blurry boundary between kyon's inner and outer dialogue is a running theme of the story. a somehow twisted rendering of the omniscient POV.. which is most odd, considering haruhi is the title character and all, so much so that if you were to read the story sans title, you would think it was a story about kyon.

Well the whole story is told first person through Kyon's perspective, and does not always involve Haruhi. So really Kyon IS the main character and it IS about Kyon and his experiences.

[Smidge204]

Well the whole story is told first person through Kyon's perspective, and does not always involve Haruhi. So really Kyon IS the main character and it IS about Kyon and his experiences.

The best way to think about it is that Kyon is writing a series of books about Haruhi and the SOS Brigade, several years after the fact. If you keep this perspective everything makes sense. This is why nothing seems to happen without Kyon around, and with the benefit of hindsight Kyon seems to "know about the future" in his writings.
=Smidge=