aria: ([due south] smirky fraser)
valinor spider party ([personal profile] aria) wrote2009-07-01 12:00 pm

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!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20


When reading a Fraser POV story, I like/don't mind him referring to himself as

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Fraser
11 (57.9%)

Benton
14 (73.7%)

Ben
3 (15.8%)

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

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Fraser
12 (63.2%)

Benton
11 (57.9%)

Ben
9 (47.4%)

When reading a Fraser POV story, I really don't like him referring to himself as

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Fraser
4 (28.6%)

Benton
2 (14.3%)

Ben
12 (85.7%)


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.
arrow00: (blue)

[personal profile] arrow00 2009-07-04 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
yeah, "Ben" really doesn't work for me. maybe because people called him that as a childhood name (his father in his journal, Quinn) or they weren't very good people (Victoria, Mark.) I can't remember if Eric called him Ben. Mostly, he called him "Mountie," which is very telling, actually, and to me spoke to the divide that must have appeared between them when Fraser decided to follow in his father's footsteps.

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.