the third horse of this troika
might be the first time I've seen this used to refer to something other than the IMF et al, lol
Updike must work to establish the quiddity of his character
I totally forgot the meaning of quiddity :(
a truly awful excerpt from Terrorist follows
His stories, through written technically in authorial third person, seem to emanate from a community of Sicilian peasants; they are thick with proverbial sayings, truisms, and homely similes.
Might 'stupid' reflect a slight asperity or distance on the part of the author? Or does the word belong wholly to the character, with the author, in a rush of sympathy, having 'handed' it, as it were, to the tearful fellow?
on the sentence 'Ted watched the orchestra through stupid tears'. an example of free indirect style
A novelist's omniscience soon enough becomes a kind of secret sharing; this is called free indirect style, a term novelists have lots of different nicknames for--'close third person', or 'going into character'.
