Life – a user's manual Part II - Boksidan

In the following excerpt, we see the environment through a viewer's eyes, but the text is written in he-form:
“Where he lay the hill sloped slowly, but further down it was steep, and he saw the dark path of dust control
agents shelter from the wind through the pass. Next to the road was a creek and further down the pass he saw
a sawmill by the stream and the water that fell over the dam, white in the summer sun."
From "To whom the bell tolls" by Ernest Hemmingway.
From the outside
Objectively
In a "factual" description the author gives the impression to only describe hard-boiled facts about the
environment. Sometimes without involving the actors feelings about it. In the event that such set-up is
chosen, it is particularly important that the scene match reality (in the case of that a real environment is
choosen) or is logical and reasonable (fictional setting) otherwise it may create irritation among the readers.
Objective environmental descriptions are pretty common in some mysteries, such as the following two
examples. In some factual detective stories, there is pretty much scene descriptions in others it is less. In the
novel "The Man on the Roof" (see below) contains about 40% of the first 100 rows environmental
descriptions. As in this text, in which one of the main character sees a corridor in a hospital.
"He was already on the steps and opened the right half of the door, which squeaked wretchedly on
unlubricated hinges. Another couple of steps and a door and he was in a sparsely lit corridor. On one side
were rooms for the patients, the other appeared to reserved for cleaning rooms, linen storage and
examination facilities. There was an old black wall phone that shall be fed with small coins. Rönn stared at
an oval white enamel sign with the laconic inscription LAVEMANG "
From "The Man on the Roof" by May Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.
The detective story "The hatred" by Ed McBain, however, is much more economical regarding
environmental descriptions. There are hardly any at all. Perhaps because the nstory takes place in a fictional
city. This author probably inspired May Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö a lot. In any case, it is them who translated
this story into Swedish.
"The photographer's name was Jody Lewis and the sign above the entrance to the premises one could read
the word JODYS plain and simple. The shop was housed in a one-story brick house with a storefront, where
various tests on the result of the photographer's previous activities could be seen. Across the street, about
seven feet from the curb was a two-story house. This house had six windows facing the street. From one of
the windows upstairs the photo shop was clearly visible."
In the window stands a man with a rifle and wait for someone he's going to kill.
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