Books'-tense. Past..present [future?!] tense.

[Edwardo Piet]

Any idea why books can be wrote in past and present tense but it's very difficult and rare indeed and not very popular at all....for a book to be wrote in future-tense?

[Tiberius]

It doesn't read well.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yes... I know but I mean why doesn't it read well? why is the future less readable than the past and present? Is it something psychological? And if it is...I wonder what? Why doesn't the future-tense read well?

And on a similar note why is it harder to write well in present-tense than in past tense? Is it that the nearer to the future the harder to write/understand? If so, why? Why isn't nearer to the past harder? Why the future?

[StewartP]

It's because that's how we tell stories, it's how we actually speak to each other most of the time.

Most of our conversations involve the past tense, you're telling people what you did. Sure we also talk about what we are up to now, and our plans for the future but most of it is the past.

You get to work and you talk about what you did last night, or over the weekend, what you saw on TV. You get home and you talk about your day, what you did, what you said.

Imagine listening to someone going on about what he's GOING to do. Yikes, boring.

So I guess we are just more used to talking and listening to stuff in the past tense.

Even Science fiction has to set the story into the future and then tell the story as if it has already happened.

As for naration in the present tense, it's just not possible, becquse the present is forever disappearing in the past. Even TV like 24, supposedly 'real-time' it is still as if you are seeing things that have just happened.

[Edwardo Piet]

I guess you could say jokingly that some really advanced alien civilization could criticize us for 'living in the past' and all their stories could be set in future-tense and they might find us boring.

[Meatball]

Future-tense story telling sounds like prophecy.

I will go to the store one day. When I get there I will meet a man and he will say to me, "I know of things that will happen" and I will slap him in his face.

It sounds dumb. Why would anyone other than L. Ron Hubbard write like that? What a ridiculous concept.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yeah...I know it's ridiculous and it sounds dumb...but what I wonder is why it sounds more dumb than the other tenses? Why have we evolved and learned to be more used to past and present tense...and why have we developed in such a way that future-tense sounds dumb?

[Meatball]

This discussion is silly.

We don't write or speak in future tense because it doesn't make sense to. To tell a story that hasn't happened yet doesn't make logical sense, why would anyone do it?

[Edwardo Piet]

I don't know that's what I'm asking....why would anyone do it? But I'm not asking rhetorically. Would there be any circumstance whereby it would be appropriate to write that way?

If we can't think of one at the moment that doesn't mean there isn't one.

IF there are ANY circumstances where it would be GOOD to write in future-tense....that would help me understand not just the CONS but the few (if any) PROS of writing that way....therefore have a better understanding of the human psychological reason for why thinking in past-tense or present-tense is prefered; or why it is more interesting than thinking in future-tense.

I know it seems trivial...but I'm simply curious....

I agree atleast somewhat with the philosophy of the TV show QI (quite interesting) hosted by Stephen Fry: "They say the primal drives are food, sex and shelter.

QI says there is a fourth: Curiosity."



Also: "...curiosity, discovery and humour. These, we believe, are what make us human and they should therefore be nurtured."

And finally and most importantly: "Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way."