The Light Fantastic | Style

The Light Fantastic Style

Point of View

Pratchett tells the story in the third person. This point of view is mostly omnipresent, and Pratchett switches between scenes with Trymon and Rincewind. In terms of seeing the story through a character's eyes, Rincewind is the protagonist and Trymon the antagonist, and we understand the other characters through their thoughts. Even when Twoflower and Rincewind split up and Pratchett switches between these two characters, he delves very little into the mind of Twoflower. From this point of view, the narration is unreliable as we often only get the cynical opinions of Trymon and Rincewind. However, this cynical tone works to parody the more fantastical elements of the novel. For example, each time some magical part of the world fascinates Twoflower, Rincewind usually shrugs it off as just part of life.

Occasionally the narrative is self-reflexive and Pratchett talks directly to the reader. He does this to explain things about...
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