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Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

strangehorizons.com

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Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#11

Post by thriftwy »

My least favourite story is "A lot of things happened to the protagonist and the world around him, but in the end everything is exactly like it was before all that".

Homer is dead, we live in linear time, can we please please have some progress for a change?

A notorious offender is Terry Pratchett's Discworld. When the world needs to change, it happens between the books. In any book, you know you will end up with the same status quo as when you started reading.

Even if we are talking about something happening off-world, the experience would completely change the character. They can't just resume being young, shy and ignorant. Even some PTSD would be better than nothing.

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#12

Post by kej »

As an aside, I really like the disclaimer's approach, kind of like the Disney+ messages on certain movies, where they say they don't necessarily agree with something but still present it in the original form.

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#13

Post by derbOac »

kej wrote: post #12

As an aside, I really like the disclaimer's approach, kind of like the Disney+ messages on certain movies, where they say they don't necessarily agree with something but still present it in the original form.

To me, it was a little disconcerting, like "we've stopped receiving these things too much, people got the message, and now we're receiving other things too much, but aren't going to update this to tell you what they are, and are leaving it for posterity."

Maybe there aren't new overdone stories, people see the list and stop. But that seems unlikely to me. In either case, it would be nice if there was a list that was updated, or some statement about things being better.

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#15

Post by iainmerrick »

lifefeed wrote: post #3

My old least-favorite-trope isn't on here, maybe writers have finally stopped writing it. > (Somehow, a man and a women end up alone on a planet. This is the last dialog.) > Man: I never caught your name. > Women: I'm Eve. > Man: Hi Eve, I'm Adam.

My first encounter with this one was Alan Moore poking fun at it in 2000AD: https://64.media.tumblr.com/27760dbb610ca38e29db4551f3991cbb... (I guess it was a hoary old chestnut even back then)

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#16

Post by hammock »

thriftwy wrote: post #11

My least favourite story is "A lot of things happened to the protagonist and the world around him, but in the end everything is exactly like it was before all that". Homer is dead, we live in linear time, can we please please have some progress for a change? A notorious offender is Terry Pratchett's Discworld. When the world needs to change, it happens between the books. In any book, you know you will end up with the…

What stories are you thinking of. There are a lot of stories that fit your description except that the protagonist is usually (implicitly, often) changed in some way, they learned a lesson, they have a new perspective, etc

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#17

Post by JJMcJ »

lifefeed wrote: post #3

My old least-favorite-trope isn't on here, maybe writers have finally stopped writing it. > (Somehow, a man and a women end up alone on a planet. This is the last dialog.) > Man: I never caught your name. > Women: I'm Eve. > Man: Hi Eve, I'm Adam.

> Madam, I'm Adam

Brought to you by the Palindrome SocietyteicoS emordnilaP

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#18

Post by cableshaft »

thriftwy wrote: post #11

My least favourite story is "A lot of things happened to the protagonist and the world around him, but in the end everything is exactly like it was before all that". Homer is dead, we live in linear time, can we please please have some progress for a change? A notorious offender is Terry Pratchett's Discworld. When the world needs to change, it happens between the books. In any book, you know you will end up with the…

Sounds like pretty much every Coen Brothers movie to me, at least so far as the world not changing at the end.

Isn't that the case for most people, that they don't end up changing the world or society around them? At best maybe they helped open a hole in the dike for water to seep through for future generations.

Obviously that's not the case for superhero or chosen one stories, but true for most people in life.

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#19

Post by st_goliath »

liotier wrote: post #8

Might as well go to the authority for recycled story bits: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tropes There is more to storytelling than just originality.

Besides TV tropes, the page made me think of the quite entertaining "How Not to Write a Novel"[1][2], which not only details tropes to avoid, but also quite humorously illustrates them with short stories.

If you're already a TV Tropes addict, I can strongly recommend the book.

[1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/HowNotToWr...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Write-Novel-Them-Misstep-Misstep/dp/0...

Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often

#20

Post by NeoTar »

thriftwy wrote: post #11

My least favourite story is "A lot of things happened to the protagonist and the world around him, but in the end everything is exactly like it was before all that". Homer is dead, we live in linear time, can we please please have some progress for a change? A notorious offender is Terry Pratchett's Discworld. When the world needs to change, it happens between the books. In any book, you know you will end up with the…

Are there any specific discworld books you’d like to highlight?

Some certainly fit into that pattern (I’m thinking specifically Soul Music and Moving Pictures) but things do evolve in the interconnected series.

Especially considering the later ‘Industrial Revolution’ stories - the Truth, Going Postal, Making Money all made some incremental changes to Ankh Morpork. The last (and sadly one of the worst) books Raising Steam had the biggest potential to change the fantasy world with the introduction of railway travel.

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