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Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
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Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
The list seems to cover 90% of all sci-fi, and, if you squint a little, 80% of all stories ever written.
Pure originality is exceptionally rare, but that's not really a bad thing. More and more I believe that the human experience is primarily defined by rhymes and analogy, trying to avoid reusing prior work is futile. "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9, RSV2CE).
I think you are right, but also, that it is totally legitimate for Strange Horizons to say "we really really want only original work." So long as they don't also say "only original work is valid to create", which is where I (and maybe they, given the disclaimers) take issue with this list.
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#53These are called tropes, and there is a wiki about them: https://tvtropes.org/
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#54> Fatness is used as a signal of evil, dissolution, and/or moral decay, usually with the unspoken assumption that it's completely obvious that fat people are immoral and disgusting.
My favorite novel that uses this trope has to be A Confederacy of Dunces.
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#55Most of these are all plots of successful movies or TV shows.
* Creative person is having trouble creating. Creative person meets a muse...
Xanadu, the movie.
* Weird things happen, but it turns out they're not real.
About half of Twilight Zone episodes.
* An AI gets loose on the Net, but the author doesn't have a clear concept of what it means for software to be "loose on the Net."
Terminator
* Technology and/or modern life turn out to be soulless.
"The Office"
"The Lorax"
This one goes all the way back to "The Machine Stops".
* Bad person is told they'll get the reward that they "deserve," which ends up being something bad.
Several Twilight Zone episodes.
* Person is floating in a formless void; in the end, they're born.
"2001"
* Person uses time travel to achieve some particular result, but in the end something unexpected happens that thwarts their plan.
That one really has been done to death in SF.
* A mysteriously-named Event is about to happen ("Today was the day Jimmy would have to report for The Procedure"), but the nature of the Event isn't revealed until the end of the story, when it turns out to involve death or other unpleasantness. [Several classic sf stories use this approach, which is one reason we're tired of seeing it. Another reason is that we can usually guess the twist well ahead of time, which makes the mysteriousness annoying.]
This is the plot of the New Testament.
* In the future, an official government permit is required in order to do some particular ordinary thing, but the specific thing a permit is required for isn't (usually) revealed until the end of the story.
That was a 1950s thing, and seems to have died out.
* Someone calls technical support; wacky hijinx ensue. Someone calls technical support for a magical item.
"Oh My Goddess" anime
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#56If you're reading this and thinking "aw damn, my idea is cliche, I'll never get something published!" or similar, don't worry too much. Once you subtract the ones that are either just straight-up wish fulfillment, or otherwise reliant on racist/sexist/ageist stereotypes, a lot of the ideas listed here are still perfectly good ideas for a story. They'd be more than "original" enough to drive an episode of Black Mirror…
The list seems to cover 90% of all sci-fi, and, if you squint a little, 80% of all stories ever written.
I wonder if some stories work well with the peer group of authors/editors, but not so much with audeiences.
For example, it's annoying to me as a reader when stories are straight-up rewrites of say the odyssey or hakespeare, or put greek/roman gods in our universe. (same with computer games that are hex based and show the hexes, or card-based games that show the cards)
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#57Most of these are all plots of successful movies or TV shows. * Creative person is having trouble creating. Creative person meets a muse... Xanadu, the movie. * Weird things happen, but it turns out they're not real. About half of Twilight Zone episodes. * An AI gets loose on the Net, but the author doesn't have a clear concept of what it means for software to be "loose on the Net." Terminator * Technology and/or mod…
> * A mysteriously-named Event is about to happen ("Today was the day Jimmy would have to report for The Procedure"), but the nature of the Event isn't revealed until the end of the story, when it turns out to involve death or other unpleasantness. [Several classic sf stories use this approach, which is one reason we're tired of seeing it. Another reason is that we can usually guess the twist well ahead of time, which makes the mysteriousness annoying.]
This is also the plot of an amazing short story called The Icarus Gland. It's written by a Russian author, and all of the translations are terrible. But, even with the terrible translation, it still captivates and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#58>30. Brutal violence against women is depicted in loving detail, often in a story that's ostensibly about violence against women being bad.
Finally, a perfectly succinct explanation for why I can't stand watching The Handmaid's Tale.
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#59The classic essay on this subject is "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" in "The Language of the Night", by Ursula LeGuin.
Re: Stories We’ve Seen Too Often
#60Of course, all this is because everything has been done. Read Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". Read one story half way, and ask yourself how it will end. You'll be right.
In 1483, there was so little published entertainment that plot twists were unnecessary.