It's interesting that we see this through Riis' eyes, again, a more or less silent observer. Would he be present during such a session? How reliable is his recount? Would the brother/sister dynamic and emotional bond be a boon or a hindrance to getting the subject into the trance? For it to work, the reader needs to suspend their disbelief as well.
One observation, if I may. The split into separate posts, results in Riis not being mentioned in Part V. I commented about the dominant voice before. A minor point here, since Riis is starting off the dialogue in Part IV. I keep asking myself, though, why is Riis there? What does he do? Does he not have a job? Maybe he took some time off, be there for support, then again, he wouldn't be in the session with them?
Yeah, good point. That's the one chapter of the novel where Riis is "the fifth wheel". I could justify him being there cuz a hypnotized subject might lose control of himself. Francis has already lost control of himself in different ways. But my novel has a single narrator, so he's present in every scene.
Well, Riis is present for every scene in the novel except when someone else tells a story. But I'm not sure Carmen recapping the sessions to him would have been better.
I understand, he's the narrator. I merely wonder why he would be there in this instance, in what capacity? I am not an expert on hypnotherapy for war veterans and what that scenario and process would look like at that time, but all that aside, it struck me as odd that he would be in there with them, is all.
After reciting all these horrid memories, he's almost become robotic, repeating them faithfully in consciousness. I'm waiting to see how he reacts after this powerful therapy ends. As I read this, Mike, I couldn't help but visualize scenes from the film, "1917." It was brutally honest and brought the whole scene of killing fields to reality. Your prose here does the same.
It's interesting that we see this through Riis' eyes, again, a more or less silent observer. Would he be present during such a session? How reliable is his recount? Would the brother/sister dynamic and emotional bond be a boon or a hindrance to getting the subject into the trance? For it to work, the reader needs to suspend their disbelief as well.
One observation, if I may. The split into separate posts, results in Riis not being mentioned in Part V. I commented about the dominant voice before. A minor point here, since Riis is starting off the dialogue in Part IV. I keep asking myself, though, why is Riis there? What does he do? Does he not have a job? Maybe he took some time off, be there for support, then again, he wouldn't be in the session with them?
Yeah, good point. That's the one chapter of the novel where Riis is "the fifth wheel". I could justify him being there cuz a hypnotized subject might lose control of himself. Francis has already lost control of himself in different ways. But my novel has a single narrator, so he's present in every scene.
Well, Riis is present for every scene in the novel except when someone else tells a story. But I'm not sure Carmen recapping the sessions to him would have been better.
I understand, he's the narrator. I merely wonder why he would be there in this instance, in what capacity? I am not an expert on hypnotherapy for war veterans and what that scenario and process would look like at that time, but all that aside, it struck me as odd that he would be in there with them, is all.
It is a bit odd. For Carmen's safety, is the only reason I came up with when I wrote it.
After reciting all these horrid memories, he's almost become robotic, repeating them faithfully in consciousness. I'm waiting to see how he reacts after this powerful therapy ends. As I read this, Mike, I couldn't help but visualize scenes from the film, "1917." It was brutally honest and brought the whole scene of killing fields to reality. Your prose here does the same.
Ah yes, Sue, that was a good film. Went to see it in the theater twice. Yeah, I'm not endorsing hypnosis. Just all they had to work with in the 1920s.
Wow...very well written...what horrors he saw!1