Overanalyze This!
It's a little after two o'clock right now and I'm home from school, having got out for a doctor's appointment and then not gone back in because all I have is a couple of free periods anyway. It's been bucketing with rain on and off all day, which is kind of miserable, but it does get me out of having to hoover up leaves outside.
It's later now and my thoughts, after a bit of a day off, must now return to getting this post written. I've got a backlog of things that I want to discuss and do but I keep leaving this too late to complete them to my own satisfaction so I'm just going to discuss whatever comes into my head.
As you may well know, I'm a big fan of and occasional contributor to the TV Tropes Wiki, where logically minded individuals come together to point out the similarities in various plots and story telling devices in order to document and (usually) mock them. Of course, the site isn't limited to that and also deals with various fan ideas, meta concepts, Wild Mass Guessing, etc.
One of my favourite pages on the site is the trope called “Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory”, which deals with fans (and professional critics) who feel compelled to attach significance to every little thing in a fictional creation. It doesn't matter if the author disagrees or if they say it has no meaning or if it's a book written for five year olds – there's someone out there who will argue that it's a metaphor for the Cold War.
A lot of the examples are from songs, shows and pieces of literature that has been professionally critiqued and examined, often producing ideas and themes that the author, when questioned later, will say simply aren't there, or were never intended. The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland often have far too much significance attached to them for the children's books that they are. People have viewed The Lord of the Rings as a tale about World War II, despite Tolkien saying that he had much of it planned and written before his supposed “inspiration” had even started. Douglas Adams said repeatedly that 42 was a random number and, yet, it's been tied to everything “from base thirteen to Tibetan monks”. Of course, that last one might say more about Hitchhiker's fans than anything else.
But some of the funniest stories are ones provided by the tropers from their real life experiences. Things that have happened to them in English classes and discussions of art. Encounters with people for whom common sense, at least when it comes to their chosen “art”, is unheard of and likely blasphemous. You should really read that page.
This is really a pet peeve of mine albeit one that I have to deal with far less often since I dropped English at school. No less a man than Isaac Asimov has commented on it, writing a short story entitled “The Immortal Bard” in which Shakespeare, brought forward in time, fails a class on his own plays. In more serious writing, Asimov apparently concluded that the meaning of a story should be left entirely up to the reader. He himself said that he viewed The Lord of the Rings as a warning against industrialisation and didn't mind in the slightest that Tolkien had denied it.
I really need to get my hands on some more Asimov fiction. Ironically, I did my personal study, a big long essay for Higher English, on The Robots of Dawn. I didn't like doing it though, so it's not a problem.
That's it for tonight. I might do some Physics homework now, if I can be bothered. Other than that, I'm off to bed. Have a nice day.
It's later now and my thoughts, after a bit of a day off, must now return to getting this post written. I've got a backlog of things that I want to discuss and do but I keep leaving this too late to complete them to my own satisfaction so I'm just going to discuss whatever comes into my head.
As you may well know, I'm a big fan of and occasional contributor to the TV Tropes Wiki, where logically minded individuals come together to point out the similarities in various plots and story telling devices in order to document and (usually) mock them. Of course, the site isn't limited to that and also deals with various fan ideas, meta concepts, Wild Mass Guessing, etc.
One of my favourite pages on the site is the trope called “Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory”, which deals with fans (and professional critics) who feel compelled to attach significance to every little thing in a fictional creation. It doesn't matter if the author disagrees or if they say it has no meaning or if it's a book written for five year olds – there's someone out there who will argue that it's a metaphor for the Cold War.
A lot of the examples are from songs, shows and pieces of literature that has been professionally critiqued and examined, often producing ideas and themes that the author, when questioned later, will say simply aren't there, or were never intended. The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland often have far too much significance attached to them for the children's books that they are. People have viewed The Lord of the Rings as a tale about World War II, despite Tolkien saying that he had much of it planned and written before his supposed “inspiration” had even started. Douglas Adams said repeatedly that 42 was a random number and, yet, it's been tied to everything “from base thirteen to Tibetan monks”. Of course, that last one might say more about Hitchhiker's fans than anything else.
But some of the funniest stories are ones provided by the tropers from their real life experiences. Things that have happened to them in English classes and discussions of art. Encounters with people for whom common sense, at least when it comes to their chosen “art”, is unheard of and likely blasphemous. You should really read that page.
This is really a pet peeve of mine albeit one that I have to deal with far less often since I dropped English at school. No less a man than Isaac Asimov has commented on it, writing a short story entitled “The Immortal Bard” in which Shakespeare, brought forward in time, fails a class on his own plays. In more serious writing, Asimov apparently concluded that the meaning of a story should be left entirely up to the reader. He himself said that he viewed The Lord of the Rings as a warning against industrialisation and didn't mind in the slightest that Tolkien had denied it.
I really need to get my hands on some more Asimov fiction. Ironically, I did my personal study, a big long essay for Higher English, on The Robots of Dawn. I didn't like doing it though, so it's not a problem.
That's it for tonight. I might do some Physics homework now, if I can be bothered. Other than that, I'm off to bed. Have a nice day.
Labels: alasdair, musings, rant, recommended sites
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:32 PM
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