Re: For Our Toolbag
Dramatic irony (DI) is an interesting topic, because I tend to write automatically in first person. Given that one experiences the plot in real time with the protag, there is little if any scope for dramatic irony (there are exceptions; i.e. to continue the Lord High Plotmeister's example a biography of Pickett told in 1P, or perhaps alternating 1Ps between protag and antag, etc.).
I have always been a huge fan, for example, of the styles of Chandler and Parker.
Part of my dislike of 3D person and dramatic irony is that there are some genres where it gets so over-used that I feel like I am getting plot hints beaten into me with Nerf bats. For instance, I went through a period of reading too much Clancy and I became tremendously annoyed with his plot tricks. There seemed to be too much "Aren't I clever? Look at all of the plot lines I can handle simultaneously! Look at my scope of intellect and my ability to research excrutiating details on so many different locales, social groups, and technologies! Isn't this rich and multi-textured?"
No. It's overwrought, pointless, confusing, tedious, egocentric, unfocussed, and ultimately dull.
It seems to me that many genres that apply DI with a spackling trowel do it badly. The high-tech thriller seems to be particularly guilty of this; I would say that most teen slasher horror flicks are equally guilty (No! Don't open that door! We know that the mutant killer monster cousin psycho vampire misfit nerd loser with the nuclear-powered cattle prod is hiding there!).
As far as the SF genre goes, one novel that I recall reading that had a multitude of viewpoints, quite a few plot threads, and all sorts of inter-thread dramatic irony, was "Startide Rising." And it was not a bad one, either.
Enough.
Jeff
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