mm, crunchy brains...

[reenka]

I think I just realized something: one of the big-ass reasons (if not -the- reason) I'm more into analyzing fanon than canon for fun is because the sort of analysis that amuses me the most is comparative analysis. As much as I hate (hate... HATE) cliches, repetitiveness and so on, my ear is so tuned to its birth and construction that I can't help fixating. Where would I -be- without cliches to rail against (ahh, the horror of originality and/or 'merely canon')? You cannot appreciate what you cannot pervert :D

Anyway, this lovely thought occurred to me as I was skimming the pdf file for the 4th issue of 'Subterranean', an original fantasy/sci-fi fic & crit magazine. There's a lovely article by Teresa Nielsen Hayden called 'Remarks on Some Clichés I Have (by Definition) Known Too Well' :D And as much as I can commiserate and bemoan the horrendous lack of intelligence and judgment shown all too often by aspiring genre writers, there's just something so... deeply satisfying seeing them nailed down (and watching them SQUIRM, MWAHAHAHA!... ahem.)

She lists some of the doozies in a section of her article called 'A bestiary of cliches', and these are my favorites:

   - Mysterious alien technology generally takes the form of a single giant object.
   - If you need more power, you could always find it somewhere-- most often, by Trying Harder.
   - Attractive women can sometimes fall for weird-looking nonhumans, but attractive men only fall for attractive women.
   - Humans go crazy in hundreds of different ways, but crazy androids invariably become homicidal.
   - It's always a scientist who goes too far, rather than an engineer or the marketing department or the county board of supervisors.
   - Turning evil gives you a big power boost, but your dialogue deteriorates and your wardrobe just gets bizarre.
   - Future societies may be more technologically advanced than our own, but if they think they're more advanced than we are, they're always wrong. (except Star Trek!! awww....)
   - Any life-threatening medical problem afflicting a significant character can be alleviated by screaming "You can't do this to me! I love you, goddammit!" at them.
   - And if you hit someone over the head and steal their Stormtrooper armor or hooded robe, you can take their place in a complex ceremony without missing a beat. :D :D :D

Man, this is the stuff that makes my life WORTH LIVING (...sometimes. *cough*)

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

LOL! Those are awesome! I always love the way illness in fiction is so unabashedly connected to will. Willful people don't die, because they can just refuse to do it. Nor do their children die, because their parents refuse to let them.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

It's worth it to read the whole article, too, 'cause there's more where that came from :D Honestly, this sorta stuff makes me wanna write parody including a mixed bag of super-deformed variations on these cliches. Or worse, consciously going against them. You just know that if there was a willful hero who REALLY REALLY didn't want his child to die and he did, it would be SUCH A TRAGEDY much moreso than if some depressed shmuck's child died, or something :))