So are writers overusing these bits or do we all just read too much?
It’s them. Definitely them.
3 comments on “Not This Again”
This isn’t always books, but I’ve found characters talking about an event that’s more interesting than the current story is frustrating. Red Dead Redemption 2 starts the game after a heist gone wrong. Problem is, you never seen any of the heist in game so it’s just a noodle incident that keeps getting referenced.
So many great works were “It was all a dream”. Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” (and “Christiana”), “Pilgrim’s Regress” by C. S. Lewis, etc.
When it’s not *all* a dream, dreams are very effective foreshadowing. The character’s dream gives hints that set the mood – like a change in the musical score of a film. (Love the theme from “Jaws” before the big fish bites.)
Tolkien gives a definition of “fairy story” which includes (among other points) “it’s not a fairy story if it was all a dream”. A fairy story is where a fantastic world intersects the ordinary world. The fantastic world is real, but doesn’t often get in your face. Negative One meets that standard of a fairy story. The Narnia stories by C. S. Lewis meet that standard – it was a real parallel world (among many).
The Wizard of Oz meets that standard – in the original book. The Land of Oz is a real place, and only magic keeps them new fangled aeroplanes from discovering it.
In the movie of course, the ending makes it all a dream – at which point it is no longer a fairy story.
This isn’t always books, but I’ve found characters talking about an event that’s more interesting than the current story is frustrating. Red Dead Redemption 2 starts the game after a heist gone wrong. Problem is, you never seen any of the heist in game so it’s just a noodle incident that keeps getting referenced.
So many great works were “It was all a dream”. Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” (and “Christiana”), “Pilgrim’s Regress” by C. S. Lewis, etc.
When it’s not *all* a dream, dreams are very effective foreshadowing. The character’s dream gives hints that set the mood – like a change in the musical score of a film. (Love the theme from “Jaws” before the big fish bites.)
Tolkien gives a definition of “fairy story” which includes (among other points) “it’s not a fairy story if it was all a dream”. A fairy story is where a fantastic world intersects the ordinary world. The fantastic world is real, but doesn’t often get in your face. Negative One meets that standard of a fairy story. The Narnia stories by C. S. Lewis meet that standard – it was a real parallel world (among many).
The Wizard of Oz meets that standard – in the original book. The Land of Oz is a real place, and only magic keeps them new fangled aeroplanes from discovering it.
In the movie of course, the ending makes it all a dream – at which point it is no longer a fairy story.