[stylist] Past Tense Usage Question

[loristay]

The past perfect is used properly here.  Its presence in the first sentence indicates when the action took place, that is, in the past of the past tense.  Once you know when the action is taking place, you don't need the past perfect anymore.  It gets intrusive after awhile.
Lori
On Jun 8, 2010, at 11:46:09 AM, "Neil Butters" <neil.butters at sympatico.ca> wrote:

From:   "Neil Butters" <neil.butters at sympatico.ca>
Subject:    [stylist] Past Tense Usage Question
Date:   June 8, 2010 11:46:09 AM EDT
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Hello All,

I have a question about the past simple and past perfect tenses.

I know when a story is told in the past simple, the past perfect is used for flashbacks or anything else that happened previously. But I have read many stories told in the past simple that seem to ignore that rule in flashback paragraphs. Here is an example from The Last Great Clown Hunt, which is a short story written in the past simple.

I had glimpsed the stilt dancers only once. Billy Boy and I were watching them through a gap in the big top when the shaman caught us. He ran me off; he
allowed Billy Boy to stay. I still had a hard time picturing Billy Boy as one of them. To me he'd always seemed like a clown wannabe.

So why is the past perfect used in the first sentence, cne 





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