This Is A Normal Blog Post On How Tobacco And Nicknames Are Opposites · 2:54pm May 25th, 2015
I’m twenty years old, I’ve been living on my own for three years, I’ve been buying groceries at the same fucking supermarket every single week, and they still ask me if I’m of age when I try to buy alcohol.
I say I am, they don’t buy it, and then I have to show my ID. This happens almost every. Goddamn. Time.
I sure wish that when I’m fifty I look twenty-five, because otherwise I’m calling bullshit on this.
Anyway, this intro has clearly established that I’m A) pretty young, and B) pretty whiny, which probably means I’m C) fairly stupid.
So let’s talk symbols and literature! Again! Wooo!
Quoting the last blog I wrote on this, so you know what I’m babbling about:
We’re talking about cheap tricks to deceive the reader. What do I mean with “deceive”?
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.
So it’s not exactly symbolism. Every story has its own symbolism, and many things can mean many other things. This is more general stuff – from the other blog that I linked above (which you can read if you fancy it), some examples are perfume (fakeness), high heels (elegance, professionalism), snow (purity, death, loneliness)…
Shortcuts. Good shortcuts, I think. Everybody uses them, but sometimes I think people don’t realize they’re doing it – and I know that because I’ve caught myself using this kind of thing without realizing it before. So, let’s go on with some more examples:
Nice Weather: EQD used to have this rule about fics starting with “It was a nice day in Ponyville. The sky was blue, the sun was right, blahblahblah…”
The rule read: “If your story starts like that, we’re not accepting it.”
I don’t know if they’re still doing that. I’m fairly sure it was (at least partly) a joke—especially if the story demanded that information for later – but the point was still standing: that intro is overused. Has anybody ever thought about why it’s overused?
That question would be far more condescending if it wasn’t for the fact that I thought about it for the first time yesterday. So it’s not me trying to be superior, it’s just me arriving really fucking late to the party, I think.
Anyway! Nice weather, defined as the “blue skies plus bright sun plus average temperature”, implies normality. Everydayness. It’s a sign that everything is exactly as it should be.
The reason why it’s so overused is because, well, we’re writing fiction here. Something extraordinary (or at least weird) is going to happen soon, and that will start the actual story. What the writer is going for in here, even though sometimes they might not realize it, is contrast.
If you say that “it was a nice day”, the picture of a town with happy people and cool weather and overall nothing bad in sight immediately comes to mind. In pony fiction, seeing how the weather is something you can control, the point is driven home with even more strength. Nice weather implies everything is going well, and more than that, that everything is normal.
Once the picture is neatly drawn into the reader’s mind, then we point out at what is wrong with it. Maybe there’s a worried crowd over there. Maybe there’s a corpse on the ground. Maybe Applejack is beating Cheerilee senseless because she made a move on Big Mac. Doesn’t matter.
What matters is that, whatever you’re pointing at, it’s not normal. So the contrast is immediately drawn – normal background, weird happening – and that makes the normal stuff look more normal, and the weird stuff look weirder.
It’s kind of overused, indeed, so I don’t recommend using this one. But still, it’s nice to know what it (usually) means. Sometimes the point misses home a little because the normal atmosphere is established early and then we have to wait a lot for the weird thing to happen, but it’s still going to be there.
I’m not going to talk about the weather anymore, but I guess it’s worth to spend a couple words here reminding you that, overall, weather is really empathic in a story. It’s kind of too blunt, now and then – it always rains during a funeral, it’s gloomy when bad things are ahead, storms are coming and they bring drama with them, etc. – but it’s still a reliable source to build a particular feeling in the air. The background noise can be really good to make a tense situation just a little bit tenser. Add sunshine if people are happy, and some thunder and lightning if they’re pissed off. It works surprisingly well.
Tobacco: Last time, I spent a lot of time talking about alcohol and drugs, and what they meant. Tobacco is similar, but not quite the same.
To remind y’all about what I said last time (it’s been quite a while), alcohol and drugs were about self-destruction, both negative (“I want to die”) and positive (“Better to live fully than to live longer”). Tobacco has shades of this, because smoking actually kills you, and sometimes it kills people around you with the second-hand smoke.
TvTropes has lots of pages dedicated to smoking. “Smoking is Cool”, “Good Smoking, Evil Smoking,” and so on. Visually, it’s easy to see how smoking can be fatherly or evil, sexy or disgusting, pensive or foolish. If a crackhead is shown smoking something out of a weirdly-shaped pipe, and then you see Sherlock Holmes thoughtfully smoking a classical pipe, you don’t think the same of them.
I’m not going to talk about that, because, well, TvTropes already mentioned it. However, I think that – especially in written medium – there’s a shade of smoking that is subtler but it’s always there: smoking is rebellious.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in YA literature, or in anything with an intended audience under twenty-five. Smoking is the go-to thing to do when you want to stick it to your parents, because there’s no way they’re allowing you to do that.
Smoking, especially at a young age, is just a way to say “Look at me, I don’t care what they say, I’m cool”. That’s why smoking is so romanticized, I guess. It’s an elegant rebellion.
But it doesn’t need to be that blatant. It doesn’t have to do with your parents, for example. A detective smoking a cigarette adds to the noir atmosphere, and you immediately realize he “doesn’t play by the rules”. A femme fatale smokes because it’s sexy, yes, but also because she “doesn’t play by the rules” either.
Angry teenager? Doesn’t play by the rules. Mom who avoids smoking in front of her children? Doesn’t play by the rules. Sometimes, the only act of rebellion the character is allowed to have is the smoking itself. Especially if the rest of the cast don’t smoke – you have this wimpy, pushover guy who always does what he’s told, but then he lits a cigarette.
And either nobody cares about it (which gives the character some individuality – he has enough respect from the others to be allowed to do something that is pretty annoying for the rest of the group) or they ask him to stop or go outside (which makes it look like an outcast, which is really fitting for a rebelling character, and shows that he is not like the others).
Yeah, it’s really subtle, but that’s why it works. The only exception is with old people – fathers are expected to smoke. People born in a certain time are expected to smoke. But smoking is, and has always been a thing for the grownups. For the authority. For the people who Tell You What To Do.
Having a character that can’t tell others What To Do (sometimes it can’t even tell that to itself) do something that only a grownup can do? That’s playing out of your league. That is telling them to stick it.
That’s the magic of literature – you make smoking look cool and romantic. In reality, it’s not. It’s just pretty fucking dumb, and disgusting, to boot. But maybe give that pushover character of yours a cigarette to show he’s a little deeper than others might thing. Or give the conformist a subtle way to rebel against society. Or give the angry teenager something that makes it obvious that he’s an angry teenager.
Just don’t smoke yourself, ‘cause it’s bad for your teeth and you stink afterwards.
Cats and Dogs: Harry Dresden inspired this one, and that inspired me to write the rest of the blog.
The reason why I suddenly felt the urge to write about animals is simple – Harry Dresden (protagonist of the Dresden Files, a pretty cool book series) starts with a cat. Then he gets a dog. And he gets a fuckton of character development along the way.
Y’see, everybody knows about the “cat person / dog person” dilemma, but this is one of those things that nobody really thinks about really in-depth. Or, well, maybe it’s just me. Probably I’m stating the obvious, but mnergh, that’s what blogs are for.
Look, cats are independent. Cats just don’t give a shit. They’re cute, but they ignore you at best and attack you at worst. I’ve never met a cat who wasn’t a fucking psychopath, and I’ve never met a god damn feline who didn’t try to kill me at first sight. And most important, cats take care of themselves.
You don’t need to care for a cat. You just have it in the house and melt at its cuteness. You give it food, but the thing can feed itself. And that is actually really cool.
A character who has a cat is a lone wolf. They don’t really care for the others – okay, they might have friends and all that, but they’re not family people. They’re the lone princess/old witch/mysterious fella type. They like to be alone. They take care of themselves. They might be kind, but they won’t care if you just go away and leave them be.
Rarity is a cat person, for example. Cat pony. Whatever. She loves Sweetie Belle and all that, but she’s definitely not a family-before-anything mare. She likes her sister, but she likes her in small doses and pretty far away now and then. Especially when she’s working. She cares for her, because she’s still human (pony. Whatever.) But if there’s a “lone princess” type in MLP, that’d be Rarity.
I don’t think I’m explaining myself really well here? I guess I mostly mean that cats are independent, and cat owners are also independent. Sure, they like cuddles and friends and shit. But they won’t die if you leave them alone.
And then you have dogs.
Harry Dresden gets a dog when he starts to really be surrounded by friends. As his book series goes on, the number of allies, family, and friends grow bigger and bigger. The character goes from having a cat to having a cat and a dog (and suddenly the cat is not really mentioned in the books).
Dogs can be independent, but they choose not to. Dogs like their families, show their happiness, and are not really proud about things. They just sit there wagging their tails and attack whatever moves. I’ve yet to meet the dog that doesn’t try to fucking murder me upon first sight. Animals as a whole hate my guts. I think they can sense my father is a veterinarian and they’re taking revenge on that or some shit.
Anyway – dogs. Dogs are family things. Even if you live alone, the dog is part of your family. Even if the pooch is your only family, god dammit. Dog people take care of their own, they are protective, and they are not independent. They might be, in the physical sense, but they need something to protect. They’re all about family.
Applejack is a dog person. Dog Pony. Whatever. She cares for Applebloom, and for her friends. While both Rares and her share the same group of acquaintances, Applejack is the gentle one who never looks for herself when others are in need. Rarity gives no shits about Applejack’s needs. Rarity does what Rarity wants.
(Not always, of course. I’m talking in general here, I know Rarity has sacrificed shit for the rest of her friends – there are entire episodes and subplots about that. But Rarity’s character, without the lessons and all that? She’s less caring than Applejack, and that’s why they collide so much).
So, want a somewhat independent character? He has a cat. He doesn’t need to take care of the little shit. Want a family person? She has a dog. She has to walk the fucking idiot every day.
Seriously, animals are cute and all that? But I’d found them be cuter if they didn’t try to chew my insides every time we meet. Even sheep hate me, and sheep are so dumb they’ll fall off a cliff unless you stop them. One day I’ll walk into a cemetery and a crow will eat my eyes, and I’ll have nobody to blame but me.
(Incidentally, and seeing how I’m already namedropping shows and series you don’t care about – one show I really like had an excellent use of this stereotype. They presented an Ice Queen-like character – who dresses in white and has white hair and has ice powers, because fuck subtlety – and they showed her a dog. Everybody assumed she’d hate it, including me. She was shown loving the dog instead, subverting the trope, and surprising everybody in the process. That made the character look very defrosted, and was a really cool character development moment.
Weird for that show to use such a thing with such mastery, because let’s be honest – RWBY has one of the shittiest plots ever. I love the show, but Jesus Christ, people).
Nicknames: In case you haven’t realized, this is pretty basic stuff. The reason is that yesterday I was trapped in a bus for four hours, and I kept thinking about all the obvious stuff books do, and how I’ve never thought of it.
Enter nicknames. Again, Tvtropes has an entire page out of this – “The Nicknamer” – but what the hell, I can give you a small rundown on the thing. Nicknames are really used in this fandom, after all. Octavia is Tavi, Rarity is Rares, Dash is Dashie, Spike is Useless Piece of Shit.
Nicknames show closeness with a character. You only use a nickname if you’re friends with the other person, or if you’re purposely stretching the boundaries.
There are many reasons why a character might do that. Maybe it has no sense of personal space (metaphorically speaking). Maybe it’s just a way to piss off the other person. No matter which, nicknames are childish – they’re the opposite of smoking, to a sense.
(That was a weird sentence).
A character will only use nicknames if he wants to be petty as hell, or if he has a close relationship to others – a relationship that makes you think of two kids who are best friends with each other. There are no adults out there who use nicknames with an adult face. That’s child stuff.
So, more or less, nicknames imply innocence (to a point), and closeness, and childishness, and a person being annoyed. A nicknamer is a character who shares these traits.
Motherhood and Fatherhood: Bof. This one is way too heavy. I’ll explain it fully in another blog, that doesn’t need to be the next one, to be honest. I’ll yap about gender roles and shit like that – but so far, I just want to make clear that I don’t mean I’ll talk about a character being a mother or a father. I’ll talk about a character showing signs of parenthood to some degree.
Like, okay, it can just symbolize “parenthood” and that’s it. But where’s the fun of that?
Keep in mind that some places are required by law to card you every time, no matter how old you look.
3096194
I can assure you that the supermarket I go to every week is not one of those places. I asked, once. Cashier just told me I looked 16-ish.
I am not 16-ish.
(Sadly).
3096196
Hey, most women would kill to look as young as you do. But hey, maybe in a few years they'll stop asking you. You'll have to look mature some day.
Regarding "Nice Weather"
Please go read the first half of the first chapter of Demesne where I completely deconstruct this 'trope' and how it relates to pony fiction.
Holy crap, you can't just do that without a warning, Aragon.
I can't help but feel like your entire discussion about weather being an indicator of things not-to-come was very relevant when compared to the Season 3 finale. That was really interesting, pairing your thoughts to all the different stories I've read. Of course, starting off on a burning train full of orphans kinda sets the tone as well.
Going on Abcron's mention of your age, you really do seem more mature in some ways, mainly through your thoughts. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of you, so I wouldn't be able to comment on your physical appearance – all I know is that your butt is perfect, apparently – but in the times I've spoken to you, you've always seemed to have a core of strong reasoning and wisdom(?) layered under a cover of immature notions and silliness.
3096633
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
3096632 any excuse to read Demesne or The Quiet Equestrian is a good excuse.
Okay... Continue... I think I finally figured out where your profile picture came from...
3101320
Yeah. As I said, I really like the show. I just enjoy it for the character design and the fights (and some really good small character moments). Overall, characterization is not bad in RWBY, but the plot itself (and the world, and the worldbuilding, and the names, and -- you get the idea) is pretty unoriginal, if not outright bad.
My profile picture is still fromt hat show, though, because as I said -- I like the characters. Seeing how she's by far y favorite and she made a cute face, the decision was a no-brainer.
I used to have a tower up there instead of a random weeabo sarcastic redhead thing, by the way. Sometimes I miss that tower.
3102519
I do agree with you on your ideas about the show. The characterization is not done very well, but it's still pretty epic to watch.
I like the 'sarcastic redhead thing' though. Looks nice.