POV Question

[qimissung]

What is considered to be the POV of a novel with multiple points of view, such as the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin? Are they considered limited omniscient or simply books with multiple points of view? I haven't been able to find a direct answer to this in my (somewhat limited) research.

Thanks!

[kiki1982]

I'd say it's just multiple. Omniscient is the classical narrator who knows everything and is the the minds of all the characters (the classic 19th century narrator, they hadn't developed third-parson yet or not really).

[qimissung]

Thanks Kiki. After doing some further research on the web (various blogs mainly) I found two that referred to Third Person Limited/Multiple, so that's what I'm going with.

If anybody's interested, I found information here:

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/02/12/25-things-you-should-know-about-narrative-point-of-view/

and here:

http://www.scribophile.com/academy/using-third-person-omniscient-pov

[kiki1982]

Yes, it depends what kind it is. If it's a epistolary novel, then it would be First person multiple. Otherwise it would be Third Person.

[qimissung]

No, it's not an epistolary novel, but thank for the information.

[kiki1982]

I think I was a bit in a hurry there. I meant to say: if it is comparable to an epistolary novel (same story, but with different characters telling one aspect of it = their side). IMO that's an extreme version of the First Person multiple. You have no narrator to guide you and you wholly depend on the various characters' tellings (like in real life). They could be lying to you, for all you know. The Third Person multiple would then be like several versions of one story, but obviously told in the Third Person (though from that Third Person's point of view). Essentially it's like Jane Eyre, but in the third person (I think you could easily make that a 'she'-story. At first sight, you'd maybe come across as an omniscient narrator, but you wouldn't have the impartiality of that one.
The typical omniscient narrator chooses to go into the thoughts of one character, but 'hovers' over all the characters and happenings, so to speak. Some omniscient narrators are kind of absent (they never speak to their public, although they may address them in the beginning), I think like Vanity Fair and some of them tend to put in little remarks like Saramago or Trollope.

[qimissung]

That's a very good description, Kiki, thank you. You know, until this question arose, I always thought of POV as rather cut and dried and somewhat boring, even. I have enjoyed multiple perspective novels and movies, but I usually focus on dynamics. This has all been rather interesting, and it isn't at all cut and dried-or dry.