The Parts of the Whole

So, I've been driving for about nine hours from Ohio to Pennsylvania all day, and I'm extremely alert because I took two midday naps (as I'm writing it's nearly eleven PM here). We should have been driving for closer to eight hours, but my mom got lost about five times trying to find the hotel. Tomorrow morning we're visiting Swarthmore, which I'm looking forward to, and sometime before we leave PA we're visiting the Poe museum (which I am ridiculously and nerdily excited about).

Anyway, what I actually wanted to talk about today was TV tropes (well, actually, tropes in general, but probably literature more often, but I'll probably reference tvtropes.org a lot throughout the post) and analyzing literature.

Sometime in the past couple of weeks I started frequenting TV Tropes, which essentially means I was completely sucked into it with my eyes constantly glued to my computer screen and my brain constantly fixated on learning. New. Tropes. It wouldn't really surprise me if you guys have heard about TV Tropes, or just what a trope is period, but for those who don't know. A trope is a device used in various forms of media (television, film, literature) that play on ideas, impressions and assumptions already present in the audience's mind.  On the whole, tropes are tools to be used and manipulated, and are generally not clichés (though they certainly can be). TV Tropes is a wiki dedicated to pointing out these tropes and providing examples present in various forms in literature. It has a tendency to be sarcastic, witty, and incredibly informal (which is what makes it really interesting to read).  It is like Wikipedia in that you'll start off on one page, but three hours later you'll be on a completely different and likely unrelated page, possibly with ten other tabs open to look at later. Or at least this is always what happens to me.

What I find most interesting about tropes is that one trope applies to so many things, but often appears in so many different ways. Sometimes tropes are blatantly obvious, but sometimes they are used and manipulated so brilliantly that it almost becomes something entirely different. One of my favorite things to do is analyze literature, and knowing the tropes (albeit, knowing them by names that lack any sort of seriousness) helps to draw connections between different books, movies and shows.  It also helps me understand how few new ideas exist, and how I'm influenced by them.

Tropes also reflect (though they often magnify) patterns present in reality, and stereotypes that a lot of people hold. Basically, tropes are cool. Although, they can be overused and tired, or used with little to no finesse. There are also "bad" tropes, because authors and creators of different media often make the same mistakes.

Recommendation: A Great And Terible Beauty by Libba Bray. Seriously, she's a genius.

PS: A theme that this post could fit into is obsessive internet habits, or favorite academic interests, or something...