How common is the omniscient narrator these days?

[nancylebov]

From an essay about post-modernism:
One rarely sees the universal, omniscient narrator any more; one expects to ride the "novel" inside one of the character's heads.

I've noticed that getting inside the character's heads is more common-- first person is typical for urban fantasy-- but has third person omniscient actually become rare?

I don't know if there's an important difference between being inside one character's head, or in many characters' heads, as in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

Link from haikujaguar.

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

So I'm reading kids' books with my kids these days, and Lemony Snicket has started a trend of chatty omniscient narrators that I strongly dislike. This Book Is Not Good For You (by "Pseudonymous Bosch," alas) has a paranoid narrator who accuses the reader of trying to poison him/her, but who is omniscient within the overtly fictional narrative.

Snicket/Daniel Handler, BTW, apparently wrote an "incest opera", which mixed Jewish mythology with modern sexuality. And he's a fan of C. S. Lewis. Not sure what to make of that.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Yay for Snicket! Great trend.

Of course it's not really new to kids coming from Lewis, Tolkien, Pullman (not chatty) -- and Terry Pratchett (very chatty!).

The more chatty, the more complicated grammar you can sneak in.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

you know, I don't have anything against chatty narrators per se: George MacDonald Frazer and Laurence Sterne are brilliant at it. I guess I just don't like Snicket's voice.
That said, apparently his commentary track on the SOUE movie DVD is hilarious.