Interesting Discussion

[handful_ofdust]

...going on over here (http://samsykes.com/2011/01/the-chosen-jerk-jam-session-with-n-k-jemisin/). I guess I’ll just never be comfortable with the idea that we should proactively shit on a particular type of narrative trope because it’s inherently evil, and thus the people who like it (who are obviously too effin’ dumb to figure that out) are bad and should feel bad, anymore than I like any other type of received wisdom. Thankfully, though, I also don’t think I’ve been guilty of this; most of my characters are anti-heroes at best who don't think of themselves as automatically qualified to “save” much of much, plus the fact that there’s an overall lack of authority figures of any sort in my world(s) who aren’t assholes, on some level.

I mean, “[Anasazi]” is sort of a Chosen One story turned inside out--ie, this slot could have been filled by anyone, it became yours through horrible bad luck, and now everything you know and love will be destroyed because of it/you. But then again, I do write horror, so perhaps for me, the relevant trope is “Chosen Monster” instead.;)

Comments

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I think there’s also an inverse of that, in which a reviewer reacts as though a particular trope has never been used before – like a few years back when apparently some conservative types got all up in arms about Happy Feet being omggaypropaganda because the plot could be boiled down to “bullied outsider saves his community, who then decide that being Different is OK after all” and everyone else just looked on in astonishment and wondered if said conservatives had ever watched *any other children’s movies at all.*

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

...um, yes.;)

Seriously? This guy never read "The Ugly Duckling", or anything? Man.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

IIRC correctly, the person analyzing this response finally went “oh – I get it – you were one of the ones bullying the weird kids, that’s why you don’t like stories where that turns out to have been the wrong thing to do…”

Also, while it’s a strawman kind of example, I can never get over Wertham’s insistence that the motif of “injury to the eye” is found *nowhere* except for those evil sleazy comic books….