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Sorry for the typos, but I couldn't find the comment edit function.
Ed Patterson
posted by
MedicineFlower
on August 26, 2010 at 1:31 PM
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Not really inconsistent if you're artful. A coda can be clumsy, but when popped out at a reader it can violate POV rules (which is a western convention). In Outlaws of the Marsh, a great novel of Sung Dynasty action written during the Yuan Dynasty (13th -14th Century), it wasn;t inconsistent at all, but expected. However, Western readers of novels (Johnny come-latelies), are unaccustomed to such closing chapter phrases as:
"Because Timely Rain drank a bucket of wine with Lord P'ing, a thousand swordsmen would rise in defense of the capital walls and a hundred thousand people wold die. Read on for some more."
Western novelist employ the device subtly otherwise we get arrested for POV violations and thrown in reviewer's hoosegows, which is a very dreary and barren place to dwell. 
Ed Patterson
posted by
MedicineFlower
on August 26, 2010 at 11:33 AM
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Interesting that there is word to give a veneer of respectability to
inconsistent content!
posted by
Straightforward
on August 26, 2010 at 8:17 AM
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