Tragedy tags. · 3:35am Aug 12th, 2015
This is mostly me just venting.
OK so I'm seeing more and more stories just slapping the Tragedy tag on every story with half a chapter of a background character dieing. It's really pissing me off because nowhere easily accessible (that I'm aware of) is this tag actually explained.
Tragedy =/= Sad, good gravy. People think they're being clever by tagging their things as 'comedy and tragedy' when it's nothing of the sort.
My understanding of Tragedy is thus: A story in which tragic events occur and impact the reader are Sad, but stories which are in themselves a tragedy are only then marked Tragedy. This means a story in which the protagonist dies, the adventure is failed, or you're jerked around by the shorthairs on a rollercoaster only for the last chapter to punch you in the gut as everything falls apart. THAT is what Tragedy is for: To warn readers of a bad end. So when people just slather it over their work like glitter and sparkles, it makes it very difficult to sort out stories that should be using 'Sad' from stories that are actually depressing to read.
Like... Romeo and Juliet is a Tragedy. Romeo and Juliet both die because of a miscommunication and all of the struggle and drama in the end falls short of the happy ending. Meanwhile, a fic that's about Applejack that features an arc in which Granny Smith dies, is just Sad, because while it evokes sad emotions, and Granny's death could be considered a tragedy, it's not the point of the story.
I think the simplest way is just saying "Does this story have a Bad End? If yes, Tragedy. Else, Sad"
Ah, OK. I never really thought to much on the difference, but this explanation makes sense to me.
I'm not writing this to nitpick ('m writing it to show off my knowledge of the arts
), but I wouldn't consider Romeo and Juliet purely a tragedy. Consider: the end result of the story is partially that Romeo and Juliet dies, but it also leads to the rivaling families uniting in their grief and make peace as a result, thus giving a sort of meaning to the oh-so-very sad ending.
But this fandom does seem very eager to write tragedies, often with a nihilistic taste, and coming up with very dark and depressing interpretation of characters and event, and I'm not sure why
Tragedy can mean there is one within a story, not that the story ends on a bad note. Tags are typically used for stories to describe what is in it (ex: dark, lets the reader know there are dark moments in the story).
How you describe it is how you view it, not how it should be. There's a difference.
4483827 Colloquially 'tragedy' as in a tragic event is synonymous with 'sad', making it redundant. A Tragedy warranting a tag suggests that it's the literary type, or the story itself as a whole is 'tragic' except we already had a 'Sad' tag.
Tags are also about the story as a whole, not whether that story has elements of that tag. Proof? You can't put 'sad' and 'comedy' on the same story. You have to pick one or the other. Of course some derps shrug and just put 'tragedy' to mean 'sad', as if the mutual exclusion were a flight of fancy. Also, yeah it does matter how each person uses it, since tags are meant to be used to search for or to exclude certain types of story. Frankly it's one hay of a failing that each time you post a story, you don't get a full listing of what tag is explicitly for.
Before Tragedy, the two story ideas would be tagged the same:
SAD DARK RANDOM GORE: Applejack talks about her dead parents in detail.
SAD DARK RANDOM GORE: Applejack is murdered by her undead parents.
Tragedy was added so you could differentiate these stories at a glance.
SAD DARK RANDOM GORE: Applejack talks about her dead parents in detail.
SAD TRAGEDY DARK RANDOM GORE: Applejack is murdered by her undead parents.
DIRECTLY from the FIMFiction tag use page...
TRAGEDY: The literary term “Tragedy” shouldn’t be confused with how the expression of something being “tragic” is used. A sad story is not necessarily a tragedy when in writing. Tragedy involves the downfall or failure of the main character. This again, does not mean that they die—the tragedy can lie in the failure to achieve something they have worked for through the whole story. The build-up to such a thing and the eventual failure is what the tragedy is.
So, going by that no, it is not about the whole story, but about the main character(s) falling down/failing at something they have worked at hard. It could be something they struggle with, it could be a great loss of someone/somepony that affects them greatly,
I might suggest you go over the use page as it would seem you are a little unclear of how the tags are to be used.
https://www.fimfiction.net/tag-information
In short, if you don't like a story that has that tag, Perhaps move on to a different story, it may not be for you.
4484035 ... ... ... I choose to assume you are intelligent enough to grasp the material and simply misread it. Therefor, I will highlight the relevant text.
Note in particular 'through the whole story'.
- Not a Tragedy, unless the plot of the whole story is about trying to prevent their death, or struggling against what have you. This also infers the main plot.
- Except for the part where it explicitly says 'through the whole story'. Keeping that in mind, a setback is not a Tragedy. A failure of a plot point is not a Tragedy.
... Further keep in mind the actual definition of 'downfall'; Something causing ruin, failure, etc.
4484081 note the word.. CAN, not "MUST" but "CAN" defined as "May, but not mandatory"
As I said, if you don't like the stories skip them. Don't be one of the kinds of people that downthumb things just because it offends you or you don't like the subject.
4484108 Yes, I do note the word 'can'. It's used here to denote an example which expands upon the previous thought prior to the interjection. Taken into context with the rest of the description, especially the first and last sentence, context clues should be making it clear that it refers to a story-wide theme, and provides an example alternative to the main character's death.
When synthesizing an understanding, it's necessary to take all of the information into account (such as that tag information page you linked stating that tags describe overall themes), and not just ignoring what's inconvenient to your preexisting viewpoint.
Honestly, if you thought that the 'whole story' portion is irrelevant or unnecessary, why do you think they would include it in the description?
Post-EDIT: By the way, why do you mention down-voting? I didn't downvote your story, I left the comment and moved on.
Don't mind me, I'm just here procrastinating by reading a blog post that's already over a year oldI completely agree with you here (and with your replies in the comments section here). Tag abuse is pretty rampant on this site, and the tragedy tag is one of the most misused ones. I think another part of the problem is that "tragedy" is a classic literature term, rather than just a genre (as is "comedy", but comedy is less thought of as high literature). People like slapping the tragedy tag on their stories because it makes them feel classier
I kinda hate the tragedy tag anyway (I'd like to find out the end of the story without it being told to me in tags), but that's neither here nor there