I wondered if the reason we can't work it out as we are in Arnold's head. With him as he is looking at the ground (?), his mind focused forward to the ducks, listening to E talk about going in to get the duck if A shoots one. The gun snaring on the fence registers only as resistance, weight in his hand, A pulls at it without looking. He …
I wondered if the reason we can't work it out as we are in Arnold's head. With him as he is looking at the ground (?), his mind focused forward to the ducks, listening to E talk about going in to get the duck if A shoots one. The gun snaring on the fence registers only as resistance, weight in his hand, A pulls at it without looking. He knows it's gone off by sound, not by sight, but doesn't even know in what direction the shot is fired. He waits to be yelled at, still not really looking. Until E doesn't yell at him, and then he realises something is wrong. Like him, we are left surprised, shocked, confused... my mind accepts A's POV- I only know what he knows, thinks, sees, hears. Guns aren't common where I live, and I know little about them, but I accept A's confusion as someone who didn't see what happened and can only guess.
Emma, having read several posts now about how the firing of the gun actually occurred, your post has resonated with me the most. We are inside A's head and he is not fully focused on the gun, therefore we are not focussed on it either, Arnold is trying to follow Eugie deftly through the fence, and on living up to his brother's "almost a man-ness."
This thread has been quite an education! As someone who doesn't know guns at all, nor the one in the story, the mechanism question didn't occur to me. It has helped me understand as per comments above, that a writer will convince some people with the way they handle an object, the description of it and how it is used, how much detail they add; and they will not convince others. A question of life experience?
A great lesson in any case: as a writer you will not please everyone.
I wondered if the reason we can't work it out as we are in Arnold's head. With him as he is looking at the ground (?), his mind focused forward to the ducks, listening to E talk about going in to get the duck if A shoots one. The gun snaring on the fence registers only as resistance, weight in his hand, A pulls at it without looking. He knows it's gone off by sound, not by sight, but doesn't even know in what direction the shot is fired. He waits to be yelled at, still not really looking. Until E doesn't yell at him, and then he realises something is wrong. Like him, we are left surprised, shocked, confused... my mind accepts A's POV- I only know what he knows, thinks, sees, hears. Guns aren't common where I live, and I know little about them, but I accept A's confusion as someone who didn't see what happened and can only guess.
Emma, having read several posts now about how the firing of the gun actually occurred, your post has resonated with me the most. We are inside A's head and he is not fully focused on the gun, therefore we are not focussed on it either, Arnold is trying to follow Eugie deftly through the fence, and on living up to his brother's "almost a man-ness."
This thread has been quite an education! As someone who doesn't know guns at all, nor the one in the story, the mechanism question didn't occur to me. It has helped me understand as per comments above, that a writer will convince some people with the way they handle an object, the description of it and how it is used, how much detail they add; and they will not convince others. A question of life experience?
A great lesson in any case: as a writer you will not please everyone.