[30 days of books] talk to her

[ironymaiden]

20. Least favourite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise

communication breakdown. it's the reason that i rarely read romance novels - part of the formula is often some conflict that could be resolved with one honest conversation. COME ON PEOPLE.

but wow, it gets used a lot in all kinds of books. i prefer genuine conflict to trumped up ones, thanks. i'm slightly more okay with letters that go astray than people who don't talk to each other.*



*it's why i never liked Seinfeld. pretty much every episode would be five minutes long if they just told the truth to $person and dealt with the consequences as if they were adults.




30 questions

Comments

Wandering Letters

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

It seems like the preference is that book characters be better at this than real people? Which I can understand since reading is, to some degree, entertainment.

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeaaaaaaaaaah.

"Wheel of Time". Ack.

Re: Wandering Letters

[ironymaiden]

if i am thrown out of the flow of the narrative by wondering "why doesn't he/she ask" then there wasn't a reason supplied by the text. so i don't expect characters to be better than real people as much as i expect to understand their motivations better than real people because we can see inside their heads.

Re: Wandering Letters

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow. Yet another reason to never, ever touch that series.

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

Well, I may be misremembering. It's been about 12 years since I read what had been written at the time, and then vowed not to start again unless he finished or died. (The sick joke is that I find I have to wait for *both* finished and dead, as just one of the pair is apparently not enough...)

But yeah, I was constantly mentally yelling at the characters to talk to one another, to trust one another, to just sit down in a big circle and share information and come to a reasonable decision, like any good goal-oriented role-players would. But oh, no...

That, and he apparently has a military-school-related fascination with "breaking" people. I was not nearly as comfortable with kink back then, as I am now, so maybe I'll have a different reaction once I finally pick it up again. But it was a noticeable and creepy pattern, especially when it happened to characters that I'd started to like. :/

Ugh.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

The Wheel of Time is currently somewhere on my list of things to do after they seal us into Vaults a la Fallout and I'm 90~ish and bored.

Have you read any Gerrold? He is middlin' fond of throwing everything including the kitchen sink at characters until they crack.

[ironymaiden]

i tried to read them, and just couldn't get into them. i count myself fortunate :)

as far as finished goes, i do like what i've read of Brandon Sanderson's work - Mistborn is definitely worthwhile.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks.