From a very helpful IM exchange with John this evening:
J: each stage, you think you have reached Henry's true core
M: right!
J: only to realize the view is limited by Alice's understanding to that moment
M: yeah
M: exACTly
M: which is how humans are
M: look at the ex-family situation
M: today i know it
M: and last week i knew it
M: and they are not the same answer
J: right
M: and it is not because i have changed
M: or they have
M: but because the complicated mix of knowledge and reality has changed
J: yessss
M: i'm cutting and pasting THAT
J: what you want (we want)
J: is a reality that IS the narrative (i think) and that stretches and grows and changes with all the elements of narrative (scene, plot, etc., and esp POV) --- with half-questions and half-answers woven throughout, that spring from the curiosity and needs and pain of the characters, not from the writer's interest in telling a story.
