by Jaym Gates
Kate Harrad is a London-based writer. Her first novel All Lies and Jest, a gently speculative thriller almost featuring vampires, was published by Ghostwoods Books in 2011 and was reprinted in June 2016. Some of her published short stories are collected in Fausterella and Other Stories, and she has also published Prejudice and Pride, a gender-switched version of Pride and Prejudice, which she wrote about in the Guardian. She is the editor of the non-fiction book Purple Prose: Bisexuality in Britain (Thorntree Press, 2016). See fausterella.co.uk for her blog and details of her work.
THE BLACK MAN DIES FIRST
Examined in: “Lazzrus”
Written by: Nisi Shawl
Defined as: This trope is rooted in stories with diverse characters. Often, whenever the protagonists encounter trouble — especially within the horror genre — the black protagonist is the first one to be killed off.
Author Quote: I examined this trope because I’m so tired of it.
Author Bio: Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House co-won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She was a Guest of Honor for WisCon 35 in 2011 and for SFRA in 2014. Shawl co-authored Writing the Other: A Practical Approach; edits reviews for the literary quarterly Cascadia Subduction Zone; and co-edited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. And Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany also appeared in 2015. Shawl’s Belgian Congo steampunk novel Everfair is forthcoming from Tor. She serves on the boards of Clarion West and The Carl Brandon Society. She’s fairly active on Twitter and Facebook, and promises to update her homepage soon.
THE CHOSEN ONE
Examined in: “Chosen”
Written by: Anton Strout
Defined as: The Chosen One is a trope about the protagonist’s central role in a story. Typically, the hero is selected by Fate, a divinity, their mentor, etc. to fight an epic battle in order to save the world — and the catch is the hero is the only protagonist destined for this task. The Chosen One is so omnipresent there are many flavors of this trope and its appearance in genre fiction is expected.
Author Quote: I’ve made a career in writing trying to rip the back out of your standard Chosen One types of tales ... and to have a chance to distill it down to one short story that captures the essence of so many of them was a challenge I got excited about. “Chosen” was as much fun to write as I hope it is to read. Also, it will drive readers mad, which is always a plus!
Author Bio: Anton Strout was born in the Berkshire Hills mere miles from writing heavyweights Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville and currently lives in the haunted corn maze that is New Jersey (where nothing paranormal ever really happens, he assures you). He is the author of the Simon Canderous urban fantasy detective series and The Spellmason Chronicles for Ace Books, a division of Penguin Random House. Anton is also the scribbler of short, mad tales published in a variety of anthologies. The Once & Future Podcast is his latest project, where he endeavors as Curator of Content to bring authors to listener’s ear holes one damned episode at a time. In his scant spare time, he is a writer, a sometimes actor, sometimes musician, occasional RPGer, and the world’s most casual and controller smashing video gamer. He currently works in the exciting world of publishing and yes, it is as glamorous as it sounds.
THE GIRLFRIEND IN THE REFRIGERATOR
Examined in: “The Refrigerator in the Girlfriend”
Written by: Adam-Troy Castro
Defined as: Named after its appearance in a Green Lantern story, where the superhero returned home to discover that a bad guy had left him exactly that nasty surprise, this trope stands in for any story in which a female character exists only long enough to be established before her horrible death motivates the hero. See many James Bond movies, for instance. Although readers and critics have loosely attributed the trope to a number of stories in which female characters with personal agency fail to survive perilous circumstances, it really only applies to those who are introduced only so that they can be killed off.
Author Quote: My story is emphatically not a commentary on the trope, just a vivid demonstration of a certain idea-generation trick of mine, in which I deliberately mangle well-known phrases to see what evocative images come up. The girlfriend in this particular story may be objectified, but that’s very much her own playful decision, and she’s not about to cough out her last words so that her guy can go on a vengeful rampage.
Author Bio: Adam-Troy Castro’s 26 books to date (with more contracted and imminent) include three novels about his profoundly damaged far-future murder investigator Andrea Cort, four novels tie-in novels about Spider-Man, and six novels detail the adventures of that very strange boy raised by shadows, Gustav Gloom. The concluding volume of that series, Gustav Gloom and the Castle of Fear, came out in August 2016. Adam’s fiction has won the Philip K. Dick and Seiun awards, and has been nominated eight times for the Nebula, three times for the Stoker, and twice for the Hugo. Adam lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, with his wife Judi and a rotating selection of insane cats.
THE HERO/HEROINE LOVES A BAD MAN
Examined in: “On Loving Bad Boys: A Villainelle”
Written by: Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Defined as: Part of the archetypical attraction to so called “bad boys” is the excitement of being with a partner who lives on the edge. The “bad man” is often the revolutionary or the rebel, the one who challenges authority. In literature, he is the anti-hero, the one who rejects virtue and is the antithesis of heroic ideals. He does not act for the greater good à la Robin Hood, rather he is defiant because he does not wish to be defined, regulated, or tied down. The appeal of such a lover in stories has traditionally been about his inevitable redemption by the “good” lover who will help him to discover his inner hero. We expect that the bad man’s inherent heroism must surely be directly proportional to his perceived badness. The greater his bad behavior, the greater the potential of his redemption. According to this trope, all a “bad man” needs is the love of the right partner to show him his mistakes and guide him down the path to heroism (after which he will integrate the best parts of himself to become the ideal partner).
Author Quote: It is the perceived contradiction of the bad man’s character that is both the appeal and the danger; and it is this aspect of the trope I was most interested in — the illusory paradox of the “bad boy/man”: 1.) there is what we see and 2.) what we envision to lie beneath the surface: brooding (but sensitive), angry (but passionate), fierce (but vulnerable), antisocial (but devoted). The contradiction is at the heart of this bad boy archetype: the hero/heroine wants both excitement and security; they need space for desire and yet also want to feel secure in their relationship, they crave a life both of spontaneity and stability. The bad boy is the embodiment of that paradox. He is the symbol of what our protagonist wants and (eventually) what they need.
In my poem, the narrator does what many people do. They look outward to find in a partner all that they are craving; they project onto their lovers the passion and nonconformity they desire. This obsessive searching, as well as the waffling between wanting space and needing connection lent themselves so perfectly to the villanelle, a poetic form where the first and third lines of the first stanza repeat alternately in the following stanzas.
For the most part, modern poetry has strongly shifted away from formal structure. Many poets reject the constraints of syllable count and stress, rhyme, and repetition, but I love playing with the expectations and limitations of formal poetry, allowing the form to reflect something deeper about the content.
In Dylan Thomas’s famous villanelle “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” the repeating lines of “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” and “Do not go gentle into that good night” underscore the narrator’s urgency and insistence. My own repetition (although with subtle but important variation) of the lines “The bad is written all over your face” and “Desire grows in the empty space” are meant to emphasize the contradiction and obsession o
f the narrator’s longing.
The narrator of “On Loving Bad Boys: A Villainelle” doesn’t need to save the bad man. It’s not about the bad boy at all. Rather, the narrator needs to embrace the facets of their authentic self and own the reality that they are actually the one who is bad ... in all the best possible ways.
Author Bio: Valya Dudycz Lupescu is the author of The Silence of Trees (Wolfsword Press) and founding editor of Conclave: A Journal of Character. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her poetry and prose have been published in literary and genre magazines that include The Kenyon Review, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, Gone Lawn, Scheherezade’s Bequest, and Abyss & Apex. Co-written with Stephen H. Segal, her newest book, Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us About Raising a Family was published by Quirk Books in April 2016. Valya currently teaches at DePaul University in Chicago.
THE POWER OF NAMES
Examined in: “Thwock”
Written by: Michelle Muenzler
Defined as: The idea of knowing a character’s true name is omnipresent, and can be found in many genres ranging from dark fantasy to horror and everything in-between. Often, the trope is concerned with the protagonists either discovering the antagonist’s true name in order to command them, or the mystery of the antagonist’s true identity is revealed once their real name is found.
Author Quote: The heart of the true name, to me, is as much about recognition as it is power. While in many stories, the name bearer seeks to hide that truth, to safely barricade their inner self against the world, in “Thwock” I wanted to explore a creature of the opposite nature. A man-made creation of myriad possibilities baring herself to her creators in the rawest sense, shouting into an ignorant void that she exists, and hoping for nothing more than recognition in return.
Author Bio: Michelle Muenzler, also known at local conventions as “The Cookie Lady,” writes fiction both dark and strange to counterbalance the sweetness of her baking. Her fiction and poetry have been published in magazines such as Daily Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, and Crossed Genres, and she takes immense joy in crinkling words like little foil puppets.
THE RETIRED PRO'S LAST JOB
Examined in: “No Saint”
Written by: Alethea Kontis
Defined as: Found in police procedurals or high-octane action stories, this trope is concerned with an older hero who wants to hang up their gun. Often, the professional mercenary, cop, bounty hunter, etc. is either pulled out of retirement altogether, or is asked to take on “one last job” before riding off into the sunset. To further underline the point of this trope, the Jolly Old St. Nick trope was also used, as Santa’s job never does seem to end.
Author Quote: While writing my latest fairy tale novel, I found myself watching a ton of NCIS and Criminal Minds. In most of those storylines, like in fairy tales, the intrepid team of investigators (led by their crotchety, jaded old boss) Catch the Bad Guy and Save the World. But how would one truly elevate this type of storytelling into that of a fairy tale? What character in story, myth, or legend would lend himself or herself to this type of tale? What rugged, gruff old coot would try to get out, only to have his devoted team pull him back in for ten more seasons? And then the thought of Santa in the role of Gibbs popped into my mind ... and the story pretty much exploded from there.
Author Bio: Alethea Kontis is a princess, author, fairy godmother, and geek. Her bestselling Books of Arilland fairytale series won two Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Awards (Enchanted and Tales of Arilland), and was twice nominated for the Andre Norton Award. Alethea also penned the AlphaOops picture books, The Wonderland Alphabet, Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome, Beauty & Dynamite, The Dark-Hunter Companion (with Sherrilyn Kenyon), and a myriad of poems, essays, and short stories. Princess Alethea lives and writes on the Space Coast of Florida with her teddy bear, Charlie. You can find her on her YouTube channel, all the social media, and at www.aletheakontis.com.
THE SINGULARITY
Examined in: “Single, Singularity”
Written by: John Hornor Jacobs
Defined as: The Singularity has occurred, a machine awareness rises, and after evaluating mankind (or just looking at the Internet), it determines that mankind must be destroyed.
Author Quote: I have never written a “hard” science fiction story (and it’s debatable I have here) but I read quite a bit of science fiction and wanted to try my hand at it.
Author Bio: John Hornor Jacobs is the award-winning author of Southern Gods, This Dark Earth, the young adult Incarcerado series, and the critically acclaimed fantasy series, The Incorruptibles and Foreign Devils. Jacobs resides in the American South and spends his free time when not working on his next book thinking about working on his next book. Learn more about him at johnhornorjacobs.com or follow him on Twitter at @johnhornor.
THE SUPER SOLDIER
Examined in: “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Paprika Place?”
Written by: Michael R. Underwood
Defined as: The Super Soldier trope is concerned with a character or a series of characters who have been genetically or cybernetically enhanced in some fashion in order to do more violence and win large-scale conflicts. To subvert this type of character, the Talking Animals trope was also examined. That trope is concerned with addressing animals as humans, and if they were to talk, they would freely communicate with humans — and those characters automatically understand them, too.
Author Quote: I really like getting to familiar tropes in a different way — rolling back to first assumptions and starting from a different place.
Author Bio: Michael R. Underwood is the author of several novels and novellas, including the Ree Reyes comedic urban fantasies (Geekomancy, Celebromancy) and Genrenauts, a science fiction series in novellas. By day, he’s the North American Sales & Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books. Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife and their ever-growing library. He is a co-host on the Hugo-nominated Skiffy and Fanty Show as well as Speculate! the podcast for writers, readers, and fans.
THE VILLAIN HAD A CRAPPY CHILDHOOD
Examined in: “The Origin of Terror”
Written by: Sunil Patel
Defined as: Often, the justification for an antagonist’s harmful and violent acts is their past. Whether the villain was beaten as a child or ostracized and bullied, this trope is rooted in the idea that a child victim will grow up to be the worst kind of bully.
Author Quote: While it’s true that childhood trauma may cause aberrant behavior, this tired trope often appears to excuse the villain’s actions in a ploy to make them more sympathetic. Oh, something terrible happened to him when he was a kid, of course he grew up to be a cannibal, that makes perfect sense, poor guy. Well, guess what, both Harry Potter and Voldemort had crappy childhoods, and only one of them decided to kill everyone. I wanted to explore the idea of a villain who had a great childhood and still did terrible things, perhaps because of their great childhood. What would it be like if a supervillain’s parents were the Ma and Pa Kent of superheroes?
Author Bio: Sunil Patel is a Bay Area fiction writer and playwright who has written about everything from ghostly cows to talking beer. His plays have been performed at San Francisco Theater Pub and San Francisco Olympians Festival, and his fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Fireside Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, The Book Smugglers, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and Lightspeed, among others. Plus he reviews books and TV for Lightspeed and he is Assistant Editor of Mothership Zeta. His favorite things to consume include nachos, milkshakes, and narrative. Find out more at ghostwritingcow.com, where you can watch his plays, or follow him at @ghostwritingcow. His Twitter has been described as “engaging,” “exclamatory,” and “crispy, crunchy, peanut buttery.”
WORLD ENDS/RESETS/REBOOTS
Examined in: “Until There Is Only Hunger”
Written by: Michael Matheson