Post by Caylus Ark on Nov 28, 2016 2:38:27 GMT
I often think that tropes and the narrative of stories have a natural connection to the themes of human consciousness and stories in our own lives.
I found tvtropes.org at the behest of someone on glp, some anonymous coward on a nobody thread who was saying there were masons on glp, all playing some sort of game, and that 'tv tropes is full of their tricks' or something to that effect.
Of course that set me to wondering about tvtropes...as a writer and a study in 'human psychology', archetypes, egregores and the like, I found it an enormously powerful tool. Why do these same story telling devices and character traits arise over and over again in certain types of narratives? it's amazing to me and I think it's very powerful. Of course myth and stories are the rituals which we tell each other to increase the human experience, beyond merely entertaining us.
I made this thread as a repository for everybody's favorite tropes, or just to put some down on my own that come up for me in experience.
here's lotus eater machine
Lotus Eater Machine
Eames: They come here every day to sleep?
Elderly man: No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, sir?
— Inception
A character, usually a hero, is knocked out or goes to sleep and wakes up in their own personal paradise. Whatever they wanted most all their life is finally theirs.
Actually, they're being held prisoner by another character who is using something; a machine, a Platonic Cave, or other phlebotinum to cause very intense and very realistic hallucinations. Some monsters even weaponize the ability to project Your Heart's Desire to snatch up easy prey.
Sometimes the lotus-eater doesn't know it's all fake. Sometimes they do know but don't care. In order to escape, the hero has to break the masquerade and give up their life's dream. If they're in too deep, friends hoping to mount an Orphean Rescue have to force the hero to Battle in the Center of the Mind in order to escape. More often than not, a Dream Apocalypse occurs. Might involve Artificial Outdoors Display.
The hero stuck in the dream of paradise. This is a classic. The most recent series I saw it on was the end of Digimon if I recall correctly, but it's one that I believe has been a feature of innumerable plot devices. It's in Naruto as the infinite tsukoyomi, an eye illusion that thrusts the world into a fake paradise using the light of the moon as the architect of the illusion.
This is because it's a natural part of the hero's journey to be faces with temptation. It's also a common religious theme, incidentally - and it makes perfect sense as a test of character. If you are truly a hero, will you not follow through despite facing your heart's desire against all else? Or could it be that Lotus Eater Machine is a statement about illusion - that, if the hallucination was really real, it would be okay to give up the quest and live in paradise forever?
Ultimately I think it's a statement about paradise unearned, that is, until the central conflict has been overcome by way of trial and strength, the hero is not allowed to have his happy ending or his heart's desire. It ruins the momentum of the story and the weight of the experience. Imagine if a series really ended with the hero residing in a 'dream' world of paradise. It would be quite the shock. Stories always have this implicit assumption that dreams aren't real and that they don't have true substance because they are ultimately illusions.
I found tvtropes.org at the behest of someone on glp, some anonymous coward on a nobody thread who was saying there were masons on glp, all playing some sort of game, and that 'tv tropes is full of their tricks' or something to that effect.
Of course that set me to wondering about tvtropes...as a writer and a study in 'human psychology', archetypes, egregores and the like, I found it an enormously powerful tool. Why do these same story telling devices and character traits arise over and over again in certain types of narratives? it's amazing to me and I think it's very powerful. Of course myth and stories are the rituals which we tell each other to increase the human experience, beyond merely entertaining us.
I made this thread as a repository for everybody's favorite tropes, or just to put some down on my own that come up for me in experience.
here's lotus eater machine
[Source]
Lotus Eater Machine
Eames: They come here every day to sleep?
Elderly man: No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, sir?
— Inception
A character, usually a hero, is knocked out or goes to sleep and wakes up in their own personal paradise. Whatever they wanted most all their life is finally theirs.
Actually, they're being held prisoner by another character who is using something; a machine, a Platonic Cave, or other phlebotinum to cause very intense and very realistic hallucinations. Some monsters even weaponize the ability to project Your Heart's Desire to snatch up easy prey.
Sometimes the lotus-eater doesn't know it's all fake. Sometimes they do know but don't care. In order to escape, the hero has to break the masquerade and give up their life's dream. If they're in too deep, friends hoping to mount an Orphean Rescue have to force the hero to Battle in the Center of the Mind in order to escape. More often than not, a Dream Apocalypse occurs. Might involve Artificial Outdoors Display.
The hero stuck in the dream of paradise. This is a classic. The most recent series I saw it on was the end of Digimon if I recall correctly, but it's one that I believe has been a feature of innumerable plot devices. It's in Naruto as the infinite tsukoyomi, an eye illusion that thrusts the world into a fake paradise using the light of the moon as the architect of the illusion.
This is because it's a natural part of the hero's journey to be faces with temptation. It's also a common religious theme, incidentally - and it makes perfect sense as a test of character. If you are truly a hero, will you not follow through despite facing your heart's desire against all else? Or could it be that Lotus Eater Machine is a statement about illusion - that, if the hallucination was really real, it would be okay to give up the quest and live in paradise forever?
Ultimately I think it's a statement about paradise unearned, that is, until the central conflict has been overcome by way of trial and strength, the hero is not allowed to have his happy ending or his heart's desire. It ruins the momentum of the story and the weight of the experience. Imagine if a series really ended with the hero residing in a 'dream' world of paradise. It would be quite the shock. Stories always have this implicit assumption that dreams aren't real and that they don't have true substance because they are ultimately illusions.
