Second Person Narration: Difference between revisions

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* One story in the ''Tales From the Crypt'' comics used this in the caption narration to [[The All-Concealing "I"|hide the fact that the narrator is a vampire.]]
** [[EC Comics]] stories do this a lot—in another story, it's used to hide the fact that [[Dead All Along|the narrator is dead]]. In other stories it's used for effect rather than to hide the twist; for instance, the well-known story [http://cacb.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/ec-comics-master-race/ "Master Race"] places the reader into the role of a former Nazi death camp commander.
* The narrator of Marvel Comics's ''Dracula'' summarizing the previous issue: "Your name is Frank Drake and you are having a bad day. Your girlfriend has just been killed, turned into a vampire, and you had to kill her again (or something like that). You have came to the bridge to commit suicide."
* ''[[The Sentry]]'' 2000 and 2005 miniseries apparently use Second Person Narration to represent the protagonist's internal monologue, which creates a claustrophobic effect: the Sentry is a character metaphorically and somewhat literally trapped in his own head. This is kind of weird when the perspective shifts to Reed Richards or the Hulk in the crossover issues, because it begins to feel like the author dictating to them the mental tongue baths they are giving the Sentry, but then becomes awesome again in ''The Sentry vs. the Void'', which wraps up the 2000 miniseries, when it becomes apparent that the Sentry is ''supposed'' to be a [[Canon Sue]]:
{{quote|You're the last line of defense, arriving in the nick of time with one second left on the clock.
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* On the other hand, sometimes it's used as a narrative device, with the narrator (whoever the narrator is) addressing whichever character the story happens to be about. These tend to be rather angsty for some reason.
** Usually, the narrator and the "you" are implicitly the same: the fic is the character talking to/mentally berating himself. Which is why it works so well with angst.
* The [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] fic [[And If That Don't Work?]] has a scene with 2nd-person [[Manipulative Bastard|Gendo Ikari]]. The experience is... strange.
* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5235290/1/Rising_Sun Rising Sun] is written in second person. It's a rare example of this technique being used effectively.
* ''[[The Sandman]]'' fanfic "[http://yuletidetreasure.org/archive/21/thetaste.html The Taste of Honey]" uses this kind of narration to great effect too. (In fact, even saying this is already kind of a spoiler to how the story goes, so I won't say any more on the subject.)
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* [[Roald Dahl]] dips into extended uses of this at times, notably in the nonfiction chapter "Lucky Break" from ''The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More'', when he describes what it was like to be caned at his school.
* The first chapter of ''[[The Elric Saga]]'' is written in this manner, as a way of establishing the title character and his court.
* [[David Brin]] wrote a story, "Reality Check," in which you really are the main character. You're supposedly in a [[Lotus Eater Machine]], and the narration gets increasingly frantic as you fail to snap out of it. A clever experiment in writing, but one that can be easily defused by reading the story backwards.
* Kage Baker's short story/FramingDevice "The Hounds of Zeus", found in ''[[The Company Novels|Black Projects, White Knights]]''.
* ''Damage'' by A.M. Jenkins; it works extremely well as the protagonist is severely depressed and the writing style helps underscore his disconnection with himself and his feelings.
* The first chapter of ''[[Winnie the Pooh|Winnie-The-Pooh]]'' uses a [[Framing Device]] in which A. A. Milne tells Cristopher Robin a story about himself and Pooh, so in the story, Cristopher Robin is constantly referred to as "you." This is only used for the first chapter, however, and the rest of the book uses conventional third-person narration.
* ''[[House Made Of Dawn]]'', to help give some clarity with the extremely [[Anachronic Order|non-linear]] narrative, describes all of Abel's childhood in this fashion, though it's blatant obvious the "you" is just Abel.
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== Live Action Television ==
* The introduction to most episodes of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' is in the second-person; this, along with the hypnotic visuals (which include a floating eyeball, a swinging pendulum, and a hypnosis spiral) and the weird snake-charmer music, are intended to bring about a real or simulated hypnotic state in the viewer. "You are entering a dimension not only of sight and sound, but also of the mind..."
 
 
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* "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits. "You get a shiver in the dark/it's raining in the park but meantime/south of the river you stop and you hold everything"
* Ricardo Arjona's "Si usted la viera(el confesor)" recounts to you a conversation between the narrator and a priest during confession, the whole discussion is about you ("you" being a woman of doubtful reputation).
* The song "Mineshaft 2" by rapper/singer Dessa.
{{quote|''He knows how bad he acted, knows he can't have you back''
''But the fact is he can't be happy when you're angry''
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== Radio ==
* Used in the [[World War II]] radio series ''The Man Behind the Gun''.
* The radio version of ''[[Dragnet]]'' uses this in the opening narration: "You're a Detective Sergeant working out of Robbery Division..."
 
 
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== Video Games ==
* The chapter-opening narration in ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' uses this, as do the dreams- not surprising, given the [[Dungeons and& Dragons|provenance]] of the game.
* Duncan from ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' provides some opening narration and at the end of the game in this style.
* The narrations at the end of each episode in ''[[Doom]]'' are in second person.
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* ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'', as a parody of the style of adventure games and gamebooks, uses this format.
** As do [[Original Flavour|a large portion of its fanfics.]]
* ''[[Silent Hill: Promise]]'' borrowed this format from ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]''.
* [[Interactive Comic]]s in general.