The Suck Fairy
Oct. 1st, 2010 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupOver at Tor.com, author Jo Walton talks about Suck Fairy, she who goes into books you used to love and makes them suck. Children's books are especially prone; as Walton says, "The longer the book has been on the shelf unread, the more time she’s had to get into it."
But Walton also off-handedly mentions the Trope Fairy, which peppers stories with such tropes as Sex Overcomes All Obstacles, or One's Girlfriend Dying is Sufficient Reason to Go on a Killing Spree. (I really meant that to refer to every revenge-fueled action plot ever, but it occurs to me this works for Willow, too...) Once you recognize them, they're everywhere.
In fact, they're one of the reasons fandom has made so much more discriminating a reader: the tropes, especially 'romantic' ones, are so much more naked in the lesser fanfic that I eventually notice the pattern, and then I see them everywhere else, too.
But Walton also off-handedly mentions the Trope Fairy, which peppers stories with such tropes as Sex Overcomes All Obstacles, or One's Girlfriend Dying is Sufficient Reason to Go on a Killing Spree. (I really meant that to refer to every revenge-fueled action plot ever, but it occurs to me this works for Willow, too...) Once you recognize them, they're everywhere.
In fact, they're one of the reasons fandom has made so much more discriminating a reader: the tropes, especially 'romantic' ones, are so much more naked in the lesser fanfic that I eventually notice the pattern, and then I see them everywhere else, too.
