A. Papatya Bucak, my professor and thesis chair, whose blog “Reading for Writers” is one of this blog’s progenitors, has a keen eye for spotting overused literary devices. I once overheard that she wrote a paper about the preponderance of literary heroines who commit suicide. Commenting on one of my stories, she spotted a female character with a need for intimacy, which immediately suggests a gender stereotype. Does her comment mean that we can never have females with a need for intimacy?
If you intend to generate reader interest for your fiction primarily on the basis of “freshness” and originality, I think it does.
If your female character has only one dimension, the desire for intimacy, and nothing else to complicate her character, I think you’ve made the mistake I made in my aforementioned story.
If you create a female character who has a need for intimacy, among other needs—that is to say, a more complex set of desires—I think you’re okay.
The topic at hand is not female stereotypes. The topic at hand is overused literary devices. Up in the Air uses the familiar device of sending a character home, “back to his roots.” Up in the Air portrays home as nearly all films—especially those marketing themselves as artistic or independent. Home is a small, rural town populated with bleak, stifling, and culturally deaf family and friends (as if those types can't be found in cities). It’s always a place “sophisticated” characters have outgrown. Is this more or less true of small town America? That’s not the point. The point is we see it over and over and over again and it gets boring.
A more specific aspect of the “small town” Up in the Air and most other films give us is the “broken family.” In the broken family brothers and sisters don’t speak, divorces are contagious, and the bills barely get paid. It’s “real life”…I get it.
I’m not trying to get all Fox News-ish, though. I’d hate a fiction that blindly praises “Main Street USA” without ever recognizing its limitations. I think it’d be quite refreshing to see “small town” life treated with more complexity, rather than a forgettable and regrettable childhood memory.
Anyway, I suppose this is an argument for awareness. A good writer identifies patterns in other works and makes sure to avoid them in her own.
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Very interesting. Most famous small town fiction is probaly Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio" but I think there are some pretty interesting films "about" small town life, though they do follow some of the tropes you mention...off the top of my head, "All The Real Girls" and "You Can Count On Me" ... and my thing wasn't so much that female heroines commit suicide as it was that canonized, iconic female heroines (spoiler alert!) (Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina...) commit suicide...which maybe says more about what gets canonized/iconized than what gets written ... APB
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteOverused literary devices are a very interesting topic. In regards to the small town literary device, I feel that it may be important for society as a whole to continue its fondness for small town America. As society continues to shift toward “big city” life, a recent preponderance of movie backgrounds and storylines rely on this “big city” attitude. (You write about what you know) The United States was, until very recently, a society of small towns and cities. What story morals and values have been lost from a switch to big city life? Can a storyteller currently write a story about a young male growing up, “learning” about life and himself through his quiet reflections around a local pond, or will he be cast down like female intimacy as an overused subject? If it is overused, must movies now rely on telling this same tale with the same witty, decent looking, sarcastic kid growing up in a big city? Could you have a “Stand By Me,” story line in a place like Chicago with such a positive result? I agree that the broken home is an often overused subject as well. I think sometimes writers forget that “the growing up, life lesson story” can be told without such an obvious plot motivator as a broken home. In the story, “A River Runs Through It,” there is no broken home, yet; it is a masterpiece about the questions of metaphysical life that a story about small town life can do so well. I’m personally waiting for “A River Runs Through It,” to be placed in a big city. That could be really interesting.
Furthermore, all the opinions and ideas that come from a story about a small town, (spiritual growth, long lasting friendship, loyalty, satisfaction, generosity) even though they can tend to have the same problems like the old female intimacy issue you have wrote about, are incredibly important. For starters, they can lead people into understanding that there is another way besides the “social networking” path to figuring out yourself. Most kids nowadays have never taken a walk through a forest or reflected. I’m not saying you need one with the other, but it is a lot easier to reflect when you’re the only person around for miles. Without a place for reflection, I believe many young people are confused when in the face of adversity. Without serious reflection, can a person know what they truly want or desire? Can you reflect in a modern society with your phone constantly ringing and assignments and job interviews piling up at your door? This is why I think writers should continue to write about small town life. I feel that as the years go by, people forget that at one time, the best way to figure yourself was by looking into the water at a local pond, and not seeing how many new friends poked you on facebook.
-Adam