Editing Talk:Golden Time (section)

== Narrative Perspective ==

The novel is completely narrated from a third person perspective. It has to do with the story, Banri had an accident where he loses all his memory. Then the character split in two. The original Banri who "died" at 18 with that accident, and the one who lived and spent 1 year in rehab (thus being a rounin for 1 year). The best way to take it is like the story is completely written by a ghost who "says what the living Banri does" or "may be thinking", li. The japanese grammar make it confusing to know who is the agent of the action so its confusing until you take it as a third person narrative AT ALL TIMES.
-Zell [[Special:Contributions/186.56.179.92|186.56.179.92]] 02:09, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

:Thank you for the comment.  I had been wondering about that for quite some time, but it had not become completely obvious that I should be doing that.  I guess I will have to spend some time going through the translation and adjusting it where necessary.  If you've been reading the various forum posts, you will see we've been talking a bit recently about the nature of narrative and how it should be translated.  --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 11:06, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

:Actually, it appears at times though the ghost appears to be the narrator, he's not a truly intrusive narrator.  That is, it isn't always obvious.  Most of the time he's a quiet narrator who doesn't insert his opinions into the story, and simply tells us what is going on.  When he starts speaking in the first person, it's pretty obvious.  Not from the grammar so much as from the things he says.  So far, he's started each chapter, and I know from having skipped ahead that he speaks up in the epilogue.  --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 00:05, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

::For the grammar I meant that in japanese agents are omitted, 「○○と思っていた」 has no information of the person or agent who does it. For example p47. "「…ていうか…」　そして気がつけば、結局、また一人だ。". That could fit both Banri first-person or the ghost' narrative. But as the flow of the context, is the ghost all the time. I don't remember a single sentence where an action on the story is using a verbal phrase in first person as Banri. It's no different from the common narrative where the protagonist relates other actions, but in this novel Banri actions are related on the same way (e.g. p16. この声が万里に届くなら). The most clear example is on the very Banri' quotes, when the ghost narrates Banri' state. Ah, you remembered me the epilogue. I got confused with the story there, specially with the drunk man on the bridge with the れ sign. Later Kôko and Banri go to a club and get stamped that sign and Banri recalls it. I got lost at that point. Was the epilogue a dream, a time paradox idk.[[User:Pmt7ar|Zell]] 00:43, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

:I agree 100% that the first part of each chapter, and the epilogue (not the prologue) are narrated from the point of view of the ghost.  After that, though, the ghost becomes less intrusive, to the point where it seems a normal narrative story, not told from the point of view of any of the characters, but from the point of view of somebody watching it all.  Of course, that is exactly what the ghost is doing: watching it all.  He says as much many times.  --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 00:48, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

:The prologue was not a dream sequence at all, but rather an introduction to the character of Banri as he was before his accident.  I have no idea at this point what is going on with the man with the symbol stamped on his hand.  --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 00:48, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

:FWIW, on page 70, we have the narrator (the ghost) making a quiet reference to himself, when he declares that nobody deserves the treatment that Mitsuo was giving to Banri.  "...even somebody unseen attached to him..."  --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 00:56, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

I must say that this novel is really confusing. First of all there is this weird narration perspective and then there is a lot of jumping around. The scene switches too suddenly and I have no idea what's going on. Especially that part SPOILER<small>[with Banri dumping Kaga]</small>SPOILER, my brain started malfunctioning because it was so sudden, and I can't tell what the hell Kaga is thinking either...so very difficult to read but the plot is very interesting. --[[Special:Contributions/203.218.82.107|203.218.82.107]] 02:35, 10 May 2012 (CDT)

:Between the author and my own sometimes stilted translation, yes, things can be confusing at times...  --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 11:50, 22 June 2012 (CDT)