: Re: How to present a human protagonist from a narrator who does not know what a human is? My protagonist is an average human as we know it in a world populated by different animal-like species.

@Barnes643

Vote Up Vote Down

There are two levels of complexity, in my opinion.

The first one is linguistical and philosophical. That means, how could someone describe something without any points of references? What is an arm to someone without arms? What does it mean "to walk"? The cognitive processes are different if the body is different, so probably you need to invent a new language to express the different view world of this different being. This is a complex but fascinating issue.

The second issue is simpler. Just find out what the two beings (man and animal) have in common, and describe the differences: my thick bear fur, and his thin human hair; my crouched heavy gait and his standing slim one; my sharp teeth and his little mouth, and so on.

Examples of this are found in Cujo by Stephen King, which has some parts written with the PoV of the dog. Also read Sentinel by F. Brown, a short sci-fi which plays with the twist between the human and alien point of view.

(0)

Login to post a comment!