Pam Durban and Point of View

Pam Durban's reading was fabulous. Her story was called "Jap Club" and was riveting. I was spellbound for 45 minutes, as were my husband (not a writer), and my 7-year-old daughter. The rhythms were as beautiful as in a poem. Only a few fiction writers manage this--Faulkner, Welty and O'Connor, A. Gurganus (love him). (Interesting to note that most of these are SOUTHERN writers, although I can add James Joyce and especially Toni Morrison to the list).

She made one comment about the story, that she'd initially written the story in 3rd person, and the protagonist wouldn't be quiet till she changed the story to 1st person. I couldn't imagine the story told from any other angle, and that comment's really started me thinking about POV.

Here is my "will it hold water" theory on POV in fiction. At their respective bests:

First Person: Water over rocks, fast; provides momentum to the story; automatically propels the reader forward.

Third Person: Water in concentric circles (after a pebble's been tossed in a still pool); it's "pretty;" it's slower going; it's often more rhythmic and meditative; the reader is engaged.

Second Person: Spotting a reflection in the water (like Narcissus); can be surprising, spontaneous, and suspiciously tricky to write); distorts perception, the way things appear underwater; the reader may equal the "reflexic I."

Anyone out there write fiction? Does this make any sense? In the piece that I am working on now, I am trying all three points of view.