Ronni Tropes
Dec. 12th, 2011 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I've been meaning to write this post for ages, but I lacked inspiration to do so until today. What are Ronni Tropes, you ask? Well, in the spirit of that black hole of the internet, TV Tropes, I've put together a list of the stories, themes and, yes, tropes that will never fail to grip me. Normally I'd do so with a huge amount of introspection, wondering why said trope speaks to me, but I'll leave that up to the rest of you if you are so inclined.
1. Above all things, I love stories about families against the world. These families can be blood-related (The Demon's Lexicon trilogy, Romanitas trilogy, Supernatural) or, as is more common, families made (pretty much every Joss Whedon series ever, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Demon's Lexicon, Romanitas and Supernatural again). What matters is that the 'family' is marginalised or disempowered in some way, and that they mostly only trust/rely on themeselves.
2. Relatedly, stories about siblings who love one another, especially sisters. I find most stories about siblings tend to be about pairs of brothers, or brothers and sisters, however. I enjoy those too. The crucial point is that the siblings love and care about one another. They can fight, but I can't relate to siblings who hate one another.
3. Again, on a related note, I really love stories about matriarchal families that consist of a single mother and lots of daughters. (Not a fan of Little Women, though.) The Girls in the Velvet Frame by Adele Geras is my favourite example of this type.
4. Illegitimate children, people in de facto or unconventional relationships behaving in an unexpected manner. This is really hard to articulate. I mean stories where the illegitimate children are not the lost heir to a kingdom, but rather where they go out and have awesome adventures unencumbered by the weight of social expectation (Pagan Chronicles), where people choose a de facto relationship and are condemned by society for it but ultimately don't care (Sally Lockhart Mysteries, Garrow's Law), where characters love more than one person without angst or creating a love triangle situation (need more of this type of story).
5. When I was younger, I used to love stories where characters 'loved across the barricades', as it were (every Juliet Marillier story ever, the Kevin and Sady series, Habibi, One More River), but I seemed to have moved on to stories where characters from severely different social classes fall in love or become friends. I've noticed that I prefer this trope when the male character (in a heterosexual relationship) is from the socially privileged class (Romanitas, this is the entire reason I initially fell in love with you, I literally read chapter 1, read chapter 2 and thought 'If these two characters don't get together I will be VERY DISAPPOINTED'), although I also prefer it if the more privileged character realises his/her privilege not merely BY THE POWER OF TRUE LOVE, but also because s/he forges non-romantic friendships with people from the other class. (Again, Romanitas*. I came for the Marcus/Una relationship, and ended up staying for the Marcus-Sulien friendship.)
6. Fantasy stories where stereotypically 'feminine' and 'mercantile middle class' behaviour end up saving the world. I can't begin to tell you how sick I am of stories about heroic nobles and plucky little peasants being screwed over by the (effete, cowardly) mercantile urban middle class. Such stories often tend to be powered by the idea that 'incorruptible morality=awesome'. I'm much more interested in reading stories where diplomacy, compromise, barter and moral ambiguity save the day. Less 'we shall not tolerate this', more 'we are going to have to tolerate this, so let's see how we can work around it'. I've termed this achieving power in a slantwise manner. (See: pretty much every Kate Elliott story ever.)
7. Retellings of fairytales with a focus on (for want of a better word) ambiguous female sexuality. (The Tower Room series, Angela Carter's fairytales, Catherynne M. Valente's books.)
8. On a related note, retellings of myths and legends with a focus on the female characters. Doing it wrong: Marion Zimmer Bradley, whose works are no more feminist than I am a fluent speaker of German. Doing it right: Adele Geras' versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey (and if you know any more books like this, PLEASE RECOMMEND THEM!).
9. Stories which are a metaphor for the creative process, for human belief or for dreams. (Too many to list, but Inception is an obvious candidate. As are American Gods, The Sandman and basically everything Jorge Luis Borges ever wrote.)
10. Persephone. Just, Persephone. (Stories of the 'My Paranormal Boyfriend' sub-genre, if done well, can be an aspect of this trope.)
11. Renewed war between Heaven and Hell/gods, when Earth (and attitudes towards conscious beings) is the main cause of war. (What can I say? I love His Dark Materials. And I have this whole story written in my head that plays around with these tropes, but I fear I'll never write it.)
I think that's enough to be going on with. What are your favourite storytelling tropes, the things that will hook you in no matter what the media, no matter how uninteresting you find all other aspects of the text? And what are your least-favourite tropes?
______________________
*It seems the Romanitas trilogy ticks pretty much every single one of my boxes. No wonder I'm always praising it so much.
1. Above all things, I love stories about families against the world. These families can be blood-related (The Demon's Lexicon trilogy, Romanitas trilogy, Supernatural) or, as is more common, families made (pretty much every Joss Whedon series ever, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Demon's Lexicon, Romanitas and Supernatural again). What matters is that the 'family' is marginalised or disempowered in some way, and that they mostly only trust/rely on themeselves.
2. Relatedly, stories about siblings who love one another, especially sisters. I find most stories about siblings tend to be about pairs of brothers, or brothers and sisters, however. I enjoy those too. The crucial point is that the siblings love and care about one another. They can fight, but I can't relate to siblings who hate one another.
3. Again, on a related note, I really love stories about matriarchal families that consist of a single mother and lots of daughters. (Not a fan of Little Women, though.) The Girls in the Velvet Frame by Adele Geras is my favourite example of this type.
4. Illegitimate children, people in de facto or unconventional relationships behaving in an unexpected manner. This is really hard to articulate. I mean stories where the illegitimate children are not the lost heir to a kingdom, but rather where they go out and have awesome adventures unencumbered by the weight of social expectation (Pagan Chronicles), where people choose a de facto relationship and are condemned by society for it but ultimately don't care (Sally Lockhart Mysteries, Garrow's Law), where characters love more than one person without angst or creating a love triangle situation (need more of this type of story).
5. When I was younger, I used to love stories where characters 'loved across the barricades', as it were (every Juliet Marillier story ever, the Kevin and Sady series, Habibi, One More River), but I seemed to have moved on to stories where characters from severely different social classes fall in love or become friends. I've noticed that I prefer this trope when the male character (in a heterosexual relationship) is from the socially privileged class (Romanitas, this is the entire reason I initially fell in love with you, I literally read chapter 1, read chapter 2 and thought 'If these two characters don't get together I will be VERY DISAPPOINTED'), although I also prefer it if the more privileged character realises his/her privilege not merely BY THE POWER OF TRUE LOVE, but also because s/he forges non-romantic friendships with people from the other class. (Again, Romanitas*. I came for the Marcus/Una relationship, and ended up staying for the Marcus-Sulien friendship.)
6. Fantasy stories where stereotypically 'feminine' and 'mercantile middle class' behaviour end up saving the world. I can't begin to tell you how sick I am of stories about heroic nobles and plucky little peasants being screwed over by the (effete, cowardly) mercantile urban middle class. Such stories often tend to be powered by the idea that 'incorruptible morality=awesome'. I'm much more interested in reading stories where diplomacy, compromise, barter and moral ambiguity save the day. Less 'we shall not tolerate this', more 'we are going to have to tolerate this, so let's see how we can work around it'. I've termed this achieving power in a slantwise manner. (See: pretty much every Kate Elliott story ever.)
7. Retellings of fairytales with a focus on (for want of a better word) ambiguous female sexuality. (The Tower Room series, Angela Carter's fairytales, Catherynne M. Valente's books.)
8. On a related note, retellings of myths and legends with a focus on the female characters. Doing it wrong: Marion Zimmer Bradley, whose works are no more feminist than I am a fluent speaker of German. Doing it right: Adele Geras' versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey (and if you know any more books like this, PLEASE RECOMMEND THEM!).
9. Stories which are a metaphor for the creative process, for human belief or for dreams. (Too many to list, but Inception is an obvious candidate. As are American Gods, The Sandman and basically everything Jorge Luis Borges ever wrote.)
10. Persephone. Just, Persephone. (Stories of the 'My Paranormal Boyfriend' sub-genre, if done well, can be an aspect of this trope.)
11. Renewed war between Heaven and Hell/gods, when Earth (and attitudes towards conscious beings) is the main cause of war. (What can I say? I love His Dark Materials. And I have this whole story written in my head that plays around with these tropes, but I fear I'll never write it.)
I think that's enough to be going on with. What are your favourite storytelling tropes, the things that will hook you in no matter what the media, no matter how uninteresting you find all other aspects of the text? And what are your least-favourite tropes?
______________________
*It seems the Romanitas trilogy ticks pretty much every single one of my boxes. No wonder I'm always praising it so much.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 10:54 pm (UTC)I used to love the boy with unknown parentage goes on a quest, turns out to be the heir/chosen one trope, it felt so comfortable and familiar. But my trope favourites have changed. I also like to think about what terms in a book blurb make me pick up or put down a book (searing=definite no). Maybe I will steal this fir my blog...
no subject
Date: 2011-12-13 06:34 pm (UTC)To be fair, the unknown-boy-saves-world trope is a very compelling one, and drives so much literature, and it has been (and will continue to be) done well, but it's just so ubiquitous, and there are so many other tropes you could use. My issue with it is that it often ends up being a profoundly conservative trope (in the sense that it often ends with a feudal social order being praised), and that it's more interesting to read stories about dispossessed people finding a way to fit in with the downtrodden and dispossessed, rather than overcoming their circumstances and becoming one of the privileged. To me at least.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 03:02 pm (UTC)I like your tropes!
On "9", are you familiar with "There She Goes, My Beautiful World", a song by Nick Cave which (at least in part) is about the creative process? Coz... well, I love that song.
On "11", way yes. Have you read "The Silmarillion"? You don't understand Tolkien, which means you don't understand Fantasy ala the 50 point exam from facebook :-), unless you've read it. And... yeah, its the entire philosophical/theological/linguistic framework which makes LOTR and The Hobbit make any sense. Its Epic Narrative - his attempt to create Beowulf - so it reads more like a Myth than a Novel, hence its lack of popularity. And its problematic for all the usual reasons Tolkien is problematic. But, I think, it is required reading for the serious student of Fantasy. And y'know I kinda love it as a book if I'm going to be perfectly honest. Like, this trope, for instance. Maybe it has origins in Paradise Lost or whatever... but it comes to Pullman at least in part by way of Tolkien.
On "6", I am writing some Fables! Actually, well, they're about why Capitalism isn't evil, and also why it is. But it stars the mercantile middle class, aka, "Bourgeoisie". And since you're a Communist I was already hoping to get your Feedback, before I even thought about tropes etc!
- Jordan
no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 05:01 pm (UTC)I've not heard much Nick Cave music, and it's a situation I've been meaning to remedy for quite some time, so I will definitely follow up your recommendation. It seems to me that he would appeal, considering the theatricality of the music of his I have already heard.
Also, I have read The Silmarillion, mainly because I agreed with you (at the time) that one cannot claim to be a fantasy fan unless one has read it. I liked it for the same reasons I like the medieval literature it draws on, which is the deep sense of melancholy and resignation that permeates it. It's this melancholy, I feel, which keeps medieval and medieval-like literature from having a coldness about it. (I found it cold until I realised that unlike modern literature, the characters are entirely incidental.) But I like it for the reason you outline, also.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 05:55 pm (UTC)~~~~~~~
OMG. No one has EVER read The Silmarillion! You are like, the first. I need to keep more specific notions in my head of what categories of nerd/geek all my friends fall into, and make use of them! Yes wow the melancholy, oh the melancholy. That is Tolkien's entire angle! As far as I can tell his whole Apologetics is "God made a universe with Evil because its More Beautiful that way." And the tie into C.S. Lewis with Narnia which is much more "classically" Christian (or at least, Protestant), and then of course the reaction of awesomeness that is Pullman..... those three series shaped my views on everything sooooo much.....
I also assume that as a language nerd, you read up a bit on Elvish and Dwarvish and stuff?
For Nick Cave... yeah, YouTube or Grooveshark that song (it needs to be LOUD), and google the lyrics. Its a real favourite of mine.
Sorry, yes, Commie/Social Democrat/you're all the same :P
Well actually, I'm kinda a Social Democrat. But I'm pro-market (and ambivalent about Capitalism) for reasons I hope I will eventually make clear in what I've written. The description I once used was I think "In principle Social Democrat with libertarian-leanings for Pragmatic reasons."
I will email you the link to the Elephant Club workflowy, which is where The Fable lives at the moment. Warning: I have already shown them to one historian. The first reaction was "yeah, that's a bit a-historical". Which is precisely why I called it "The Fable". But I get the sense that people with history backgrounds need a bigger red flag than that.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 05:51 pm (UTC)I've not read up on all of Tolkien's languages, although I know a lot of my friends at Cambridge have.
Now that I have a bit of time on my hands, I'll read your fable and email you with my thoughts. If I haven't got back to you by the end of the weekend, give me a prod about it.