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what the hell kind of name is benton
Okay, BURNING QUESTION TIME, because I'm trying to write Fraser POV things and I keep tripping over and second-guessing the damn pronouns. When in doubt, consult the internet!
Me personally, 'Fraser' is invisible to me when I read it but I kind of feel weird having the guy refer to himself by his last name inside his own head when I'm writing him. My default is 'Benton' because I assume that's the name he uses in his head, and at this point when I read it, it also comes up invisible. I actually hate 'Ben' except in exceptional circumstances ie when the narrative starts when he's a child, because plenty of old friends call him Ben without it making me twitch. ('Benny' is not even an option, although if you're writing Vecchio-POV I find it mad charming.) The problem is that this makes sense to me but I imagine that 'Benton' is not invisible to other people and possibly even annoying, and having some raw numbers might be nice.
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When reading a Fraser POV story, I like/don't mind him referring to himself as
When reading a Fraser POV story, I will allow, under certain circumstances and depending on the skill of the writer, him referring to himself as
When reading a Fraser POV story, I really don't like him referring to himself as
Me personally, 'Fraser' is invisible to me when I read it but I kind of feel weird having the guy refer to himself by his last name inside his own head when I'm writing him. My default is 'Benton' because I assume that's the name he uses in his head, and at this point when I read it, it also comes up invisible. I actually hate 'Ben' except in exceptional circumstances ie when the narrative starts when he's a child, because plenty of old friends call him Ben without it making me twitch. ('Benny' is not even an option, although if you're writing Vecchio-POV I find it mad charming.) The problem is that this makes sense to me but I imagine that 'Benton' is not invisible to other people and possibly even annoying, and having some raw numbers might be nice.
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In any event, it doesn't throw me so much that I can't enjoy a good story, and I do really like the name Benton. But it isn't invisible to me.
Similarly, in Starsky and Hutch fandom, no one ever writes Starsky POV fic as "Dave." That would be...wrong on the scale of infinity. He's just not a Dave. Also, he addresses himself on phone calls and such as "Starsky." Does Fraser, on the show, or does he always say, "This is Benton Fraser" because he's such a formal guy?
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And I'd have to go through paying attention to make sure, but I think Fraser always introduces himself by full name, even before s3 and the killers-of-my-father speech turned up.
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Looking at the above threads, I'm not so sure about the 3rd-person issue. I think we in fandom are creating a new issue here that traditional literature really doesn't cover. It didn't need to, since the characters were all original.
hmmm. thinking out loud...3rd person limited is still 3rd person. We don't include mental verbal slang. e.g., you won't see this (hopefully):
Fraser won't fuck Ray up the ass. Ray isn't sure if it's because Fraser is a prude, or because he ain't done this before with another guy.
OTOH, sometimes with 3rd person limited it's fun to let slip in some curses or thoughts...it's a very fuzzy line we smear around. that's how tight we pull the camera in. maybe that's the difference between Benton and Fraser?
just burbling.