This Is A Normal Blog About Cherry Blossoms, Drugs, And How Tea Plus Coffee Equals High Heels · 8:41pm Jan 27th, 2015
[21/01/2015 19:21:48] Mr Numbers: Oh my god but you act like such a dumbarse.
[21/01/2015 19:22:02] Mr Numbers: On purpose, mind, it belies what I feel is a very deceptive intelligence.
You know, sometimes you hear something a friend says, and it makes you think. In this case, this quote, alongside a comment I made on a story y’all should seriously read, made me think about things that look like things but in reality are different things. In a story, that’s what people usually call symbolism. That’s always a cool thing to think about, isn’t it?
Also, just in case—Mr Dumbers here is wrong. I don’t act like an idiot to deceive ya. I’m merely pretty f*king dumb. Ockham’s Razor, people.
Anyway! We’re not talking about my lack of brains here. We’re talking about cheap tricks to deceive the reader. Well, actually I am talking about this, and you’re just reading my words and probably dancing or some sh*t like that, but let’s just ignore that detail.
What do I mean with “deceive”? Well, that’s a stupid question. Like, the word is right there. I mean deceive. I swear to God, y’all should stop asking that kind of thing.
There’s this thing in publicity called “preloading”. It’s a way to indirectly tell the customer what to think when they see the product (think of it as a more developed “show, don’t tell” rule). It’s why when you see a yogurt commercial, a pretty lady eats the yogurt and goes “hmmmmmmmmm!” but nobody goes “HOLY F*CKING SH*T THIS YOGURT IS BETTER THAN JESUS AND IT ALSO MAKES ME POOP HOW COOL IS THAT”. Preloading is all about subtlety, about being deceptive, so to speak. Almost subliminal, but not quite, because the message is obvious. It’s about sending sings to the customers, and forcing them to assume stuff.
Stories have that too. There are many things that immediately make the reader think a couple things about the character of the story. You might know it or you might not, but whenever you write, you’re preloading your readers.
Am I making sense? I doubt it. Who cares. This is just a very long intro anyway. What I wanted to list here as just all the little things that plague a story and what they mean, at least for me. Have in mind this is not purely subjective—I’ve seen many authors (both in and out of this site) who use this kind of thing exactly like me, and sometimes they don’t even do it consciously.
I’m talking about things like…
Tea: I’ve written a lot about ponies drinking tea, because I’m as original as a red-and-black-alicorn joke. However, this is not just because I like tea. Tea is a social beverage, something like the pusillanimous cousin of coffee. You don’t drink tea when you want to avoid falling asleep—you drink tea when you’re with people.
In other words—whenever there’s tea somewhere, the character drinking it is probably either British/Indian/Chinese or a very social person. You don’t drink tea on your own unless you’re very very sad or very very cold, so there’s probably going to be a conversation whenever tea arises. And it’s going to be an adult conversation, because if you ever see a kid drinking tea like that you should kick the little bastard in the face and then throw the body into the river. That’s not a kid, that’s an alien.
Or, again, a British/Indian/Chinese kid. If that’s the case, please don’t kick the kid unless it’s being an asshole.
Long story short: tea means society, conversations. Sometimes elegance, too, and sassiness. No wonders I always picture Rarity drinking tea, even though we’ve never seen her doing that in the show. But you know who else drinks tea? Celestia. Who is not sassy at all, but shut up the point still works. I’ll use my own stories as an example here: ponies drink tea and they talk, always.
Coffee: Coffee is a bitter drink (important later), and it has three different meanings, depending on when it appears. A character drinking coffee in the morning is going to be seen as either a professional, centered character who doesn’t fool around and probably wears a tie, or a very sleepy fella. Sleepiness here usually meaning unprofessional, weirdly enough. So it kind of depends on how you portray a character.
Want an example? Chances are, if a fic shows Octavia drinking coffee in the mornings, she’ll drink it while reading the newspaper and having breakfast in the kitchen, her attention focused on something else. Man, what a responsible mare. I’d let her take care of my finances.
However, Vinyl is going to show up sleepy as hell, with the worst bed hair you’ve ever seen, her attention completely focused on the coffee because she can’t really think yet and desperately needs the caffeine to wake up. She’s a f*cking mess, that’s what she is. My, she probably has a hangover.
You might say the coffee is not important here, to which I say seriously shut up. You can show this exact same thing without the coffee, but the coffee is an easy yet efficient way to do it, and f*cking everybody does it already.
What if the coffee appears in the afternoon? Then it’s a little more metaphoric. Coffee, as I said before, is bitter. That, for some reason, makes it melancholic. Seriously, check it out—if the character is having a coffee with a friend or something, they’re going to start remembering and the atmosphere will get very thoughtful, maybe even philosophic. Even if they add sugar, it’s still going to be like that. Coffee is also romantic, because apparently kissing somebody whose mouth tastes like coffee is hot? I have no idea.
I guess it also has to do with its flavor—coffee is bitter, but it can be sweet if you add sugar or cream. That sounds like a very angsty, teenagerish description of what “romantic love” is. And with “teenagerish” I mean “lame”, but hey, I don’t make the rules.
Coffee during the night has just one meaning: f*ck sleep, I’ll get some sleep when I’m dead. Expect the character to be either a student or a very desperate person. Coffee during the night equals work, and probably a tedious one.
See how this is going? This kind of thing is obvious, but it does carry a message. You don’t need to explain any of this—just show the character in any of those situations, and people start to assume. Which can be kind of useful.
High heels or a tie: This is harder to use in a ponyfic, because last time I checked there’s no way a pony can wear high heels at all. But, hey, there are humanizations out there, aren’t they?
A character who wears high heels (if it’s a girl) or a tie (both sexes) tends to be elegant and professional. It’s a mix between tea and coffee, and I just realized how weird that is. Coffee plus tea equals high heels. Man, that’s a quote for the ages.
Mind you—they have to be worn in a casual way. Don’t make a fuss out of them. Just say that the character wears that, because it likes to do so. Mention the click-clack of her shoes whenever she walks. Show him playing with his tie whenever he’s bored.
More than anything, high heels and ties give perhaps a feeling of adulthood. Real adulthood, mind you, not just an old age. It’s about responsibility, about being down-to-earth. Lipstick, loafers, white shirts, and the like are more or less the same. That’s one mature character right there.
Also, you just imagined fanon-Octavia, probably. If you’re not being original and just imitating the usual stiff grey pony, any humanization of her will probably be like that.
Perfume: Usually a fake person, as long as the character wears too much of it. If it’s just a faint smell, and it’s all whimsical ‘n shit, then the character who notices it is just falling in love.
But if the character just bathes in Channel? Yeeah that’s not trustworthy. Perfume hides part of you, right? So there’s that.
Also, sometimes authors make a character smell like something, but without perfume. For example, Applejack smells like apples. That counts as the whole “falling in love” thingy, at least 90% of the time.
Snow: Okay, two things: First, the author has watched far too much anime. What a f*cking weeabo.
If you say that’s not true, then you’ve seen things that are inspired by Asian culture in general (probably Japan more than China, but I’m not exactly sure).
Second, it means purity, death, loneliness, and sometimes beauty. Usually in that order. Seriously, originality is not something you should avoid, people. WHY HELLO SNOWDROP HOW’S IT GOING GOOD OKAY GOOD SAY HELLO TO ELSA NEXT TIME YOU SEE HER.
Numbers: The character is smart. Look, it’s talking about numbers. Either he’s asocial, or he’s smart. Usually both.
Numbers are impersonal and scary—saying “you’re just a number” means something like “you’re nor human”. And probably “I’m a nazi”, too. Too many numbers in one fic, especially when they involve a character, tend to point at a robotic, intellectual, not-very-good-with-people character.
(Twilight is a good example for that, although it’s not an exact fit.)
Food: If a character is eating food, then it probably means the character is f*cking hungry. Not everything has to be deep, sorry.
Cherry blossoms: Oh, for heaven’s sake, read some Marvel instead of all that mango. Plus, no good anime has ever used cherry blossoms in an actual good symbolic way ‘cept for Free!, and that one is an exception because it’s a series that zooms to the protagonists’ crotches almost constantly, and plays it absolutely straight.
Well. Actually, it plays it in a very gay way, but you feel me.
Drugs and alcohol: Ah-hah! This is the one that made me think of writing this blog that nobody will read. Before I say anything else in here, mind that I absolutely do not advise you to do drugs or drink too much alcohol. Get away from that stuff. It’s bad.
Alcohol, if you’re of age, is okay, as long as you don’t overdo it. Also, keep this in mind: I’m talking about characters here. Fictional things. If a real person is like this, it’s not cool or interesting. It’s a tragedy. It means the person needs help. Don’t be an ass about this.
Okay. Responsible thingy out. Let’s go to the cool stuff.
Alcohol and drugs (drugs being more or less the “extreme” version of alcohol) tend to demonstrate self-destruction, or at least a desire to do so. Now, this is the interesting part—it doesn’t need to be bad self-destruction. Oh, it can be, of course, but alcohol and drugs can be presented under a positive or a negative light.
Under the negative light, you get the usual stuff—alcohol and drugs can destroy you, after all, so a character that willingly takes those is pretty definitely a self-destructive person/pony/chameleon/semidemon/whatever the hell you’re writing. Maybe it’s self-destructive because its life is way too hard and the poor thing is already broken, maybe it’s just this kind of sick self-destruction, where the character doesn’t want to f*ck himself up to hell and beyond, but it can’t help it. Maybe it’s a sign of a sick character, and the addiction is a tragedy. This kind of stuff is pretty heavy, after all.
But more or less, negative light on alcohol or drugs tend to mean that the character, for one reason or another, wants to stop existing. Sure, it might not think that, but subconsciously that’s what it’s searching. This can be very useful for writing a complex character, actually—it’s not suicidal, but the reader (and you, probably) will get the feeling that the character wants to die. That, if played well, can give birth to an amazing character. People is usually all about being alive, and when somebody unconsciously decides to stop being? That’s some next-level stuff. It’s also something extremely complicated to write.
But what about a positive light? Then, self-destruction doesn’t mean the character wants to die. It means that the character is willing to shorten its life as long as it has a good life. It’s the old “better to live fully than to live longer” motto, the go-to rock ’n roll attitude, the easy way out when you want to introduce a rebel, young character. It’s about having a hell of a time at the party without caring for the hangover that comes afterwards.
Because the hangover comes—both literally and figuratively. Characters that do drugs or drink alcohol in this sense (as a way to show that they have fun and don’t care for the future) tend to suffer consequences. And what’s more—the reader wants to see those consequences. Don’t chicken out here. A character like this needs to have something bad happening to him because of what he’s done (it doesn’t need to be related to the alcohol or the drugs, of course). The readers expect that, and it’s a perfect example of a character arc. Showing the initial attitude, the “party” (as in, the moment where the character shows its “live now, worry later” personality), the aftermath, and then the character learning from it? That’s a YA novel right there. That’s a timeless classic, too.
I mean, I could be talking about Crime and Punishment. Or I could be talking about Pipsqueak’s Day Off. You don’t know. But I just mentioned two stories that use this sign (Raskolnikov drinks a lot of vodka, Pipsqueak driks bourbon and takes salts) and follow the same arc (both have a “party” with serious consequences, both have to deal with it, both fall in love in the process) and couldn’t be more different.
Also yes, I just compared Crime and Punishment to Pipsqueak’s Day Off. I love that fic. F*cking fight me.
So overall, what I mean here is that drugs and alcohol, if used well in a story, can give birth to some pretty awesome characters and a killer story.
Man.
I’m so responsible.
Seriously though don’t even think about doing that stuff in real life. I’ve seen how it goes. It’s not pretty. And it ruins your life. And afterwards you smell like poop.
Holy magnolias, this is one long noodle, quoting RBob. Better to stop now. Nobody’ll read this, but mneh, who cares. I might ramble about this stuff later on, because I find this topic pretty interesting, and there are more easy preloading symbols out there that I’d like to talk about.
Then again, nobody will give a fudge about this, so bah.
That RBob guy sounds extremely handsome.
This was actually pretty interesting, and I'm gonna take the first possible opportunity to use this new perspective to WOW my teachers... if given the chance...
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I spent two hours writting a 3k words comment on its sequel, instead of doing something productive with my life. Those stories seriously deserve more attention.
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Eh, mixed bag. Cool guy, but he never called me back.
Also goddammit I totally forgot you were following me now. I namedropped without even thinking about the possibility you might see this. Fuck.
userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/69269040/Pinkies+Singing+Telegram.jpg
Even Marvel can't help you escape from the cherry blossoms.
I definitely didn't read this blog post. Also I've definitely never heard of Pipsqueak's Day Off and am not about to go and add it to my Read It Later bookshelf.
...
*quietly bookmarks blog post in a folder of useful writing reference materials*
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Costumers/customers. I swear to God, I always mess up at that one. Always. No exceptions.
Graargh. Fixed, thanks for pointing it out.
That was a very interesting not-read. I enjoyed not reading it.
It is a good thing when stories properly use symbolism, I think you've made quite a few good points here.
Not that I would know, not having read it.
(Bah, not ninja'd by Quill Scratch... not posting anyway.)
Screw you! I drink mint tea when I want a warm beverage that tastes minttea (
), not to socialize!
Plus I'm American, so... screw stereotypes. I just like mint a lot. It's like drinking hot chocolate, except it's mint.
I was amused by the bit about snow. It's not purity or any of that shit. It's childhood, stereotypes and stupidity.
~ Somenone who shouldn't have pressed comment
Wow. That was unexpectedly deep. Last time i read something like this in D. Halpern's "Critical Thinking".
Also, alcohol often used in story like a catalyst of events. I see stuff like "She tried an alcohol for the first time in her life, and then woke up in one bed with Luna. In Griffonia. Surrounded by diamond dogs." from time to time.
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Alcohol can be used as a catalyst, too of course. Note, however, that the example you just made actually fits what I said--the character never drinking alcohol is shown as a responsible, down-to-earth feature. She tries to have fun and be irresponsible once (shown with the "alcohol for the first time" bit) and then deals with the consequences. You get your initial attitude, your party, your hangover, and your growth.
Sure, the initial attitude is not rebelious or anything, but the point still remains--if you follow the "live your life fully" philosophy in a story, even if it's just for one moment, the path to the ending has to follow those steps.
I'd like to hear more, if you're up for talking about it.
Yeah, and RainbowBob really is a sponge. The Numbers don't lie bro.
I thought you were trying to go for subtle here.
What's worse is I read this after I sent the PM where I got a huge numeric-on for Crime and Funishment being exactly 15,000 words.
Damn it.
Otherwise, yes, I kind of call these things that you bring up... well, I call them 'totems'.
And I was calling it that long before Inception came out, it's just pulled from the Great Collective Subconscious.
Anyway.
A totem is a simple little thing a character clutches to that not only defines the character, but recursively influences the character, too. Like a feedback loop.
What's interesting to note is that feedback loop isn't just one direction. It changes how the character perceives the totem as well.
Let's have a look at alcohol, because you seem most excited about that one.
Alcohol on a character initially defines them as 'teen party boy' at the start of the arc. Right off the top of my head we can see two major ways this character will react to a Big Crisis Event that is locked off to other characters;
They turn to the bottle to cope - alcohol now represents a crutch, symbolizing weakness - and become a bitter alcoholic just to function, the bottle a token of their old glory days. We see this in the Regretful Veteran or, in a prime example, Simon Pegg's Gary King from World's End.
Another iteration of the same character, with the same starting point: They throw away the bottle, man up, and face their problems head on. Sober. Now, alcohol still defines that character by its absence. Now the character will pointedly be seen sitting at a bar, ordering virgin drinks, and be seen as stronger for it for overcoming their old 'weakness' - even if it never actually made them weak!
It's interesting in that scenario how even the loss of a totem can be a signifier for a personality trait, or shift, then.
A third iteration is the Jack Sparrow one. The character is aware of his flaws and doesn't care. It makes those moments where he does do something altruistic even more poignant because the character is defined by the notion that you can't change him.
Anyway. Yes.
Good blog post.
Having not read that and having not just made that tired joke because it called for it...
That was really enjoyable and an at times hilarious and/or deep analysis.
Coffee can also be very sensual and intimate (much more than the more cosmopolitan tea in my opinion, the exception being britishness of course). It may also show a very introspective moment, especially when paired with a high class alcoholic beverage like e.g. single malt whisky. Extremely flavourful, that means deep in a quiet sort of way. Of course that could also be philosophical as you mentioned.
Good stuff.
Please continue writing this stuff nobody will ever read.
Do you edit TVtropes? You're perfect for it.