Second Person Narration: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Spider Girl]]'', though they dropped it with the last relaunch a couple years ago. Very annoying, too, since it addressed the ''protagonist''.

* 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.]]

* ''Man-Thing'' has this due to his limited understanding of human ways.

 

* There's a whole genre of [[Fanfic]] like this. In those fics, "you" tend to be a [[Mary Sue]]. Mostly it occurs among people who think they're being truly original by saying "then you put on your sparkly ballgown and you asked out Draco and then you made out for a while", not realizing that there's more to writing in the second person than just calling your character "you". Pottersues has [https://web.archive.org/web/20080525053724/http://pottersues.livejournal.com/tag/you-sue an entire category] devoted to these.

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3322324/27/A_Million_Ways_To_Say_I_Love_You This one] in particular is rather amusing.

* Jbern's ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fics ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2889350/1/Bungle-in-the-Jungle-A-Harry-Potter-Adventure Bungle in the Jungle]'' and its sequel ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3759007/1/Turn-Me-Loose-A-Harry-Potter-Adventure Turn Me Loose]'' are both written (and written ''well'') in the second person.

 

* ''Brief Encounter'' is presented as Laura's confession of her affair to her husband who she refers to as "you" throughout the film.

* The 1961 film ''Blast Of Silence''.

 

* Any number of poems.

* ''[[If on a winter's night a traveler]]'' by Italo Calvino has a frame story (about "the Reader") as well as descriptions of the novels the Reader is reading. The Reader is referred to as "you"; the narrators of the internal novels are referred to as "I". Then there's an interesting section where the Other Reader (the love interest of the Reader) becomes the "you" for a brief while.

* The entire genre started by the ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' series is based on this.

 

* 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..."

 

* "Creepy Doll" by Jonathan Coulton.

* "Ballad of a Thin Man" by [[Bob Dylan]], for the purpose of disorientation: "Something is happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?"

** The chorus and first two verses are entirely in second person, with only the last verse switching to first person in a way that makes it clear the song is about Dessa herself.

 

* Several creepypastas;

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20100808163056/http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-orchard This one].

** [[The Holders Series]].

* Central gimmick of the podstory "[http://pseudopod.org/2008/03/14/pseudopod-81-its-easy-to-make-a-sandwich/ It's Easy to Make a Sandwich]."

 

* 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..."

 

* [[Dungeons & Dragons]] from 3.0, wrestling with [[Gender Neutral Writing]].

** And many of the [[Follow the Leader|followers]], of course. The disadvantage being that specifically in RPG it invokes the image of posers claiming they are "SO in character" to the point of split personalities.

 

 

* The chapter-opening narration in ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' uses this, as do the dreams- not surprising, given the [[Dungeons & Dragons|provenance]] of the game.

* Duncan from ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' provides some opening narration and at the end of the game in this style.

* [[Warlords Heroes]] uses this for its entire storyline, placing you in the minds of the characters themselves.

 

* ''[[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.]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Poetry Tropes]]

[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]

[[Category:Literary Tropes]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]