Sto leggendo "The Windup Girl" di Paolo Bacigalupi (no, non è italiano). Molte parti sono raccontate usando il presente. Solitamente questo stile è usato solo per racconti brevi con molto discorso diretto, ma qua è usato normalmente:
Bacicoso usa anche il passato, ma per raccontare eventi che succedono appunto nel passato, di cui magari il protagonista si ricorda:Anderson turns the fruit in his hand, studying it. It's more like a gaudy sea anemone or a furry puffer fish than a fruit. Coarse green tendrils protrude from all sides, tickling his palm. The skin has the rust-red tinge of blister rust, but when he sniffs he doesn't get any stink of decay. It seems perfectly healthy, despite its appearance.
"Ngaw," the peasant woman says again, and then, as if reading his mind. "New. No blister rust."
Anderson nods absently. Around him, the market soi bustles with Bangkok's morning shoppers. Mounds of durians fill the alley in reeking piles and water tubs splash with snakehead fish and red-fin plaa. Overhead, palm-oil polymer tarps sag under the blast furnace heat of the tropic sun, shading the market with hand-painted images of clipper ship trading companies and the face of the revered Child Queen. A man jostles past, holding vermilion-combed chickens high as they flap and squawk outrage on their way to slaughter, and women in brightly colored pha sin bargain and smile with the vendors, driving down the price of pirated U-Tex rice and new-variant tomatoes.
None of it touches Anderson.
"Ngaw," the woman says again, seeking connection.
Questo contrasta abbastanza con lo stile classico, in cui tutto quanto viene raccontato al passato, e solo grazie al contesto si capisce cosa avviene nel presente e cosa prima.To distract himself, he fishes for his pack of cigarettes and lights one. He draws on the tobacco, savoring the burn, remembering his surprise when he first discovered how successful the Thai Kingdom had become, how widely spread the nightshades. And as he smokes, he thinks of Yates. Remembers the man's disappointment as they sat across from one another with resurrected history smoldering between them.
* * *
"Nightshades."
Yates' match flared in the dimness of SpringLife's offices, illuminating florid features as he touched flame to a cigarette and drew hard. Rice paper crackled. The tip glowed and Yates exhaled, sending a stream of smoke ceilingward to where crank fans panted against the sauna swelter.
"Eggplants. Tomatoes. Chiles. Potatoes. Jasmine. Nicotiana." He held up his cigarette and quirked an eyebrow. "Tobacco."
Cosa ne pensate? Quale stile preferite?
Chiedo perchè, a tempo perso, ogni tanto mi metto a scrivere qualcosa che mi passa per la testa... l'idea sarebbe di prendere le idee che mi vengono nei momenti prima e dopo il sonno quando sono più creativo (me le scrivo in un libricino che tengo sul comodino) e tirarne fuori qualche genere di racconto di senso compiuto. La (poca) roba che ho scritto finora è in stile classico usando il passato, ma sono tentato di modificare tutto e usare il presente...