Here's John Mullan in this week's Guardian discussing use of the present tense:
A history of the present - John Mullan, Guardian, 25.09.10
He's responding to Philip Pullman's piece last week objecting to use of present tense in fiction:
Philip Pullman calls time on the present tense - Guardian, 18.9.10
Pullman can't really mean that he objects to narration in the present tense full stop. I'd take a more moderate view, which is that you need to think about the effects of different kinds of language and use them when they help you to do what you're trying to do. As Pullman says:
'...if every sound you emit is a scream, a scream has no expressive value'
Pullman's right that the more film-makers use hand-held shaky camerawork, the less impact particular shaky camerawork has. The problem writers have, of course, is that they can only affect what they themselves do and so they need to think about how their particular choices relate to everybody else's and what that will mean for the effects their writing has on readers.
Billy
