• Member Since 9th Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen Dec 29th, 2022

Visiden Visidane


Is that a terrorist?!?

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Jul
7th
2014

Am I the Second Person? · 12:07pm Jul 7th, 2014

When you go through some of the fics on this site for the day, you'll often spot one of those things again. It's a fic done in the second person point of view. It's usually a clop fic where the writer tells you how you fucked Twilight Sparkle in the ass for three hours or some such thing. You've never seen it work. You try to read it and you feel like you're a perp in a crime drama. David Caruso's sitting you down and telling you how you committed the crime of the episode "You sneak into her house while she's taking a shower, you ambush her when she gets out and tie her to the bed, you close the curtains and get your toys ready..." You don't feel like you're the character presented in the story and you're halfway to calling your attorney before you remember you're just reading a fic.

Why is this a thing? You ask yourself. Of course, the answer is obvious. Someone tried it in literature a long time ago and got away with it successfully. Now, a bunch of writers are trying it out, hoping they'll strike gold. Which they often don't. This PoV has nothing to offer other than how unusual it is, and that trait lasts about a sentence into the story before "unusual" turns into "annoying". It doesn't have the grand, panoramic view that the third person is capable of and it's no more immediate and personal than the first person. In fact, after the initial sentence wherein you think 'Oh, this is a second person PoV thing', you just replace all those you's with I's anyway. All the writer's efforts to depart from the norm have done are to give you an extra chore to go with your reading and to remind you that, underneath that writing, there's an author desperately trying to impress you with gimmicky writing.

You're often portrayed as "anon" in this story: a department store dummy given life then thrown into Equestria. You think that this persona is the equivalent of easy-mode mockery in fiction. Awww, what's the matter, reader? Can't project yourself into a character because there's an established personality and appearance? Well, let's get rid of that hard stuff and slip you into this faceless husk of a character. Now, you're ready to go!

Except you're not ready to go. This sort of gimmick belongs in really old RPGs and Choose Your Own Adventure books. Most fiction, even ones involving fucking Twilight Sparkle in the ass for three hours, ought to drop the clunky pretenses.

Report Visiden Visidane · 343 views ·
Comments ( 15 )

I've read a couple of second persons that worked well, though they weren't clop fics.

2264106
In reference to this guy, there's one I do particularly like called Room 213: it's a romance-but-not-quite featuring you (as a pegasus) and Octavia, by Whirring Gears. It is excellently done.

But yes, for the most part I completely agree with you about second person. It's insanely hard to pull off well and if not done so, begins to become boring or disconnecting rather quickly. It worked with R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series, not so much with other things these days.

Maybe you aren't looking hard enough. I suggest reading even more porn to find a good one :pinkiecrazy:

2264116
one of them's called "I Can't Help" (can't link because it's mature/sex and is against the rule).
Can't remember the name of the other one.

And before the inevitable "But, Stiggerzz, that fic is mature/sex, you said the ones you read weren't clopfics"
Well observed, dear user. This is hardly a "clop fic" because it's 14 chapters and 56k words in and the sex hasn't happened yet.

I agree. The whole "Anon" thing just irks me to no end. I mean... okay, the point of 2nd person is to be able to self-insert, yeah? That's why they don't say names, so you can imagine Twilight is crying out for "Jim" or "Bob" when... well, you said it, not me. :pinkiecrazy: But, calling the character "Anon" is literally no different than calling him "Chuck." You gave him a name that is not mine, so when Twilight cries out a name, it's not might, thus defeating the purpose.

Oh, and I have only read one 2nd person story that I actually liked. Every other one I bail out after the first paragraph when the author says that "I" do something, and I simply say, "No, I wouldn't do that."

It's all personal preference.

Cold in Gardez wrote one recently that was quite well done, but yeah, for the most part it's a technique that seldom works out well.

Comment posted by Jiray deleted Jul 7th, 2014

I have a few triggers for skipping fics without a second view, and the first on the list is 2nd person POV. I can't stomach it at all.

It is just pointless, because it really is just a 1st person POV with the I's replaced and with nearly all the appeal, like internal monologue or unreliable narrator, stripped out.

I can never take stories written in the 2nd person seriously because it feels like I'm reading some banal tourism advertisement. That and as you pointed out, it has some obvious limits when compared to the other perspectives.

Plus I'm always out of character.

Hey, Vis, be glad it's only second person you've been subjected to. Second person is often horrible, but at least it's a style that occasionally works in the hands of someone skilled. At least it's a style that was meant to be readable. A while ago, I actually read a story that was both first-person and second-person at the same time. No, not switching styles midway through. Literally, at the same time. The narrator was one character, narrating their own actions and feelings, and the reader was a second character whose actions and feelings were also narrated to them. It was like a text roleplaying session adapted into a story.

It can be done, the key bit is that you are not you and were never you - but another character.

So none of the HiE crap or turning into a pony, then its still you. If you are someone clearly not you but relatable ( preferable likable too ) then its a different matter.

http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/343727/oops-story-is-up-now-and-a-little-bit-about-2nd-person-perspective
A recent story example and somewhat interesting blog on the subject.

I have seen Crowley use this concept to great effect. It can be done, it just takes a skilled writer.

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