POV
From Fan History Wiki
POV is an abbreviation for the literary term "point of view," a metaphor borrowed from projective geometry where it is a synonym for "perspective."
In internet contexts such as Wikipedia , it is also used to mean biased or agenda-driven or lacking in neutrality. It is also used by fanworks creators.
As a literary term, there are several distinct types of point of view:
- the first person, in which a character in the narrative tells the story (as in "Call me Ismael.")
- the second person (as in "You may already have won!")
- the third person (as in "He was under the bandstand, doing something awful.") The third person may or may not follow a single character. This may also be called "limited omniscient."
- and the omniscient point of view, in which the narrative voice dips in and out of the point of views of the various characters.
In genre fiction, the first person is well-suited to mystery and detective fiction, where there is a need to withhold information from the reader. Science fiction and fantasy fiction are most often written written in the third person because of the need to get through large amounts of exposition. The second person is rarely used.
Point of view works differently in film, where POV is largely defined by camera angles. Often, fiction influenced by media falls into patterns of camera-angle-like POV with varying degrees of success.
Another aspect of point of view is the choice of verb tense. Most genre fiction is written in the past tense, as the present tense is more difficult to manage.
The choice of POV can radically influence the meaning of a story.
There are also other complicated point of view choices such as frame stories, in which a story is told inside another story in a way that influences its veracity, or unreliable narrators (most often seen in the first person).
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[edit] Historical definitions in fandom
The following term dates to June 11, 2001 in video game fandom:
- POV:
- Abbreviation for Point Of View [1]
The following definition dates to the Roswell fandom on June 27, 2001:
- POV: character Point Of View, written in first person (or third person, but focusing on one character's thoughts and feelings) [2]
The following definition dates to September 2003 in the Kingdom Hearts fandom:
- POV: Told from a character's Point Of View. [3]
The following definition dates to November 2005 in the A-Team fandom:
- First Person / Point of View (POV) - Story narrated from a character's point of view. [4]
The following definition dates to December 2005 in the Harry Potter fandom:
- POV: Point Of View. The HP books are generally written from a Harry POV, though, never in the first person. Some fics have a single POV, while most shift through out. Some people add a header that indicates who's POV, some people just let you discover it on your own. ("I wrote 6 pages of Draco POV, I'd better write the Snape POV now.") [5]
The following definition dates to March 2007 in the Pokemon fandom:
- POV - POV is an initialism for Point Of View, the reference frame from which the author describes the events of the story. POV is discussed in more detail in CHAPTER. [6]
[edit] History
This section needs more information.
[edit] Kerfuffles
The issue of POV played a role in Race Fail 2009 in the context of controversy over Elizabeth Bear's posts about "writing the other."
[edit] Examples
This section needs more information.
[edit] External Links
- Narrative Mode on Wikipedia
- Point of View: Two Heads Aren't Always Better than One by Robert J. Sawyer
[edit] See also
This section needs more information.
