Inventing Reality: A Guide to Writing Science Fiction
First-person objective
When the main character narrates your story, you’ve selected the first-person point of view. But when the narrator gives only the cold, hard facts as telling us what people said and did, you have a specific kind of first-person, known as first-person objective.
An excellent example of first-person objective is Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. The story’s main character/protagonist, Dr. Pierre Aronnax, tells what occurs to him as he goes on an expedition to the ocean and his subsequent capture by Captain Nemo. Here’s an excerpt:
What had he seen? Then, I know not why, the thought of the monster came into my head for the first time! But that voice? The time is past for Jonahs to take refuge in whales' bellies! However, Conseil was towing me again. He raised his head sometimes, looked before us, and uttered a cry of recognition, which was responded to by a voice that came nearer and nearer. I scarcely heard it. My strength was exhausted; my fingers stiffened; my hand afforded me support no longer; my mouth, convulsively opening, filled with salt water. Cold crept over me. I raised my head for the last time, then I sank.
Notice how Arronax sticks to a blow-by-blow, almost detached account of what occurs, even when he is a frightening, perilous situation. “Cold crept over me” suffices where other narrators would be more prosaic in their description. Because of this, first-person objective sometimes is called “detached autobiography”.
First-person objective is suitable to science fiction because of the types of main characters that usually appear in the genre. Scientists, for example, often describe the world around them in a detached manner when writing journals. Indeed, Aronnax is a naturalist. The “tough guy” character also often thinks in a similar way when observing the world. For such a character, there’s little room for sentimentality and metaphysical reflection, just the hard reality of the here and now.Because of this, first-person objective offers a major disadvantage: the detached, objective narration can undercut the intimacy readers feel with the main character. Because of this, characters like Arronax are hardly as memorable as H.G. Wells’ The Time Traveler, who tells his tale in the more congenial first-person limited.
Still, first-person limited offers a number of advantages. First, it creates a sense that the narrator is more reliable. A risk of first-person limited is that the narrator may come off as unreliable (and a few “sequels” to Wells’ story often present The Time Traveler as an obsessed, borderline madman). Secondly, first-person objective allows for a unique narrative voice that some readers find appealing. The tough guy character, for example, often is memorable, especially to male readers, because he represents American culture’s ideal of maleness. Because of this, first-person objective is a great voice to use if parodying the tough guy.
You Do It
Look back at one of the piece you wrote for the “Inciting Incident” entry. Rewrite the piece so that it is in first-person objective. How does this change the feel and flow of the story? Is it a more appropriate perspective than the one you originally chose? Why or why not?