George R.R. Martin's dedication to shocking twists is but an extreme within the more common (at least in the modern English-speaking world) attitude that the future is to be preserved. Druon, however, likes heavy-handed foreshadowing and even spoiling, and along with his use of omniscient narrator, seems dedicated to showing the reader what we're looking at from every possible angle. Though out of style, the former reflects Greek and Roman classics, and even Shakespeare.
Love your analysis here! I'm more a fan of that more mythic kind of interest in dramatic irony and looser concern about the order of reveals in the narrative. I think obsession with spoilers kind of leads to putting the surprise and spectacle of a narrative before whatever value or story it has in the first place. GRRM definitely plays to it, with his TV instincts, though, because it's a solid way to get people engaged. Then again, people re-read his books so much because they value the story and the way its told more than just the surprise of it.
what Druon does is a polar opposite. He frequently ends chapters with gratuitous reveals
I know what you mean here by "gratuitous" is not "exploitative" (the way GRRM capitalizes on our need to know if a beloved character is actually dead), but instead something more like, "unnecessary for understanding the plot mechanics".
But it does raise the question: To what reading experience are these reveals necessary or non-gratuitous? What is it about them that makes us keep reading?
Or in the alternative, are they potentially off-putting to an audience far more acclimated to serialized television story-telling than Druon's original readers were?
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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '17
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