History Creator / AmbroseBierce

!! Tropes used in Bierce's work:

* DeadpanSnarker: Heavy on the deadpan and the snark, and usually in very mean-spirited (but funny) ways. His ''Devil's Dictionary'' (a posthumous collection of Bierce's aphorisms) is a go to source for snarkers of a literary bent.

* HurricaneOfPuns: Several definitions from ''The Devil's Dictionary'' are like this, but his poems take the cake.

* {{Invisible Monster}} [[spoiler:"The Dammed Thing"]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Heavy on the deadpan and the snark, and usually in very mean-spirited(but funny) ways. His ''Devil's Dictionary'' (a posthumous collection of Bierce's aphorisms) is a go to source for snarkers of a literary bent.

* {{And I Must Scream}}

* {{Darker and Edgier}}

* ExactWords

* {{Hurricane of Puns}}

* MercyKill

!! Tropes used in Bierce's work and relating to Bierce
* {{Abusive Parents}}: Not really abusive, per se, but Bierce clearly had no use or positive feelings for his mother, and very little for his father. And he didn't see much too write home about his kids either.
* {{Alliterative Family}}: His father gave all his children names starting with "A".

* {{Badass}}: Bierce was 19 when he enlisted in the {{the american civil war}} as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.

* ThemeInitials

* StealthInsult: Bierce was especially fond of these; when a former employer reneged on an offer to rehire him, Bierce wrote the following after the man's death: "Here lies Frank Pixley, as usual."
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* {{Badass}}: Bierce was 19 when he enlisted in the {{the civil war}} as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.

* BadAss: Bierce enlisted in the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Union Army]] as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.

* WarIsHell: Bierce was 19 when he enlisted in the Union Army, and this certainly explains some of the more nightmarish images in his stories.

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* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism ''overwhelmingly'' on the cynical side

!!Bierce's life contained examples of:

* AlliterativeFamily: His father gave all the children names starting with "A".
* AbusiveParents: Not really abusive, per se, but Bierce clearly had no use or positive feelings for his mother, and very little of either for his father. And he didn't see too much to write home about in his own kids, either.

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!!Commonly used tropes:

* AndIMustScream
* DarkerAndEdgier
* HumansAreFlawed
* HurricaneOfPuns

!!Specific trope uses:

* BadAss: Bierce enlisted in the [[TheAmericanCivilWar Union Army]] as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.

AmbroseBierce (later nicknamed "Bitter Bierce" and the "Old Gringo") was a journalist and editorialist from Meigs County, Ohio, whose deeply cynical opinions on the world [[HumansAreFlawed and the people living in it]] led him to create his now-famous ([[NeedsMoreLove though not nearly famous enough]]) series of short stories and other fiction pieces, most notably ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''[[note]]Adapted as a French short movie, which was then aired as a ''Series/TwilightZone'' episode[[/note]]. Bitter Bierce never gave anyone a reason to wonder about his nickname: he was aggressive and fond of war (though also an anti-imperialist), fascinated by death, ''very'' cynical about love and religion, and perplexed by women. His works are notable for their [[DarkerAndEdgier dark, troubled, and haunting]] tone and subject matter. He would have made a fine bedfellow for [[EdgarAllanPoe Poe]] and [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft]], but sadly, and certainly not for lack of talent on his part, he never achieved their notoriety.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism (''overwhelmingly'' on the cynical side)

->''"Humour is tolerant, tender; its ridicule caresses. Wit stabs, begs pardon - and turns the weapon in the wound."''\\
--Taken from one of Bierce's late essays.

AmbroseBierce (later nicknamed "Bitter Bierce" and the "Old Gringo") was a journalist and editorialist from Meigs County, Ohio, whose deeply cynical opinions on the world [[HumansAreFlawed and the people living in it]] led him to create his now-famous ([[NeedsMoreLove though not nearly famous enough]]) series of short stories and other fiction pieces, most notably ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''[[hottip:*:Adapted as a French short movie, which was then aired as a TwilightZone episode]]. Bitter Bierce never gave anyone a reason to wonder about his nickname: he was aggressive and fond of war (though also an anti-imperialist), fascinated by death, ''very'' cynical about love and religion, and perplexed by women. His works are notable for their [[DarkerAndEdgier dark, troubled, and haunting]] tone and subject matter. He would have made a fine bedfellow for [[EdgarAllanPoe Poe]] and [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft]], but sadly, and certainly not for lack of talent on his part, he never achieved their notoriety.

->''Humour is tolerant, tender; its ridicule caresses. Wit stabs, begs pardon - and turns the weapon in the wound.''\\
-- Taken from one of Bierce's late essays.

* PhilFoglio's ''StanleyAndHisMonster'' miniseries claims that his horror stories were based on truth, and he staged his own disappearance to avoid an EldritchAbomination that was coming to complain about his depiction of it. Oddly enough, it also used him as an {{expy}} of [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]].

* IncrediblyLamePun

* DeadpanSnarker: Heavy on the deadpan and the snark, and usually in very mean-spirited(but funny) ways.

* BadAss: Bierce enlisted in the Union Army as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.

One of American literature's most intriguing, and most overlooked, luminaries... and a man who scared [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft]].

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''LostLegacy'' has him going underground and working for a benevolent AncientTradition.
* RogerZelazny's ''Roadmarks'' concerns a Road that stretches from the past into the future, and the people who travel along it; Bierce is mentioned in passing as one of those who, having found the Road, settled farther along it and never returned to his own time.

* JasperFforde's ''[[ThursdayNext The Well of Lost Plots]]'' claims that he became a book-jumping agent of Jurisfiction.
* PhilFoglio's ''{{Stanley and His Monster}}'' miniseries claims that his horror stories were based on truth, and he staged his own disappearance to avoid an EldritchAbomination that was coming to complain about his depiction of it. Oddly enough, it also used him as an {{expy}} of [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]].

* AlliterativeFamily: His father gave all the children names starting with "A".

* DeadBabyComedy: ''Literally'' in "Oil of Dog", arguably in stories like "My Favorite Murder" and "An Imperfect Conflagration".

* HumansAreBastards

AmbroseBierce (later nicknamed "Bitter Bierce" and the "Old Gringo") was a journalist and editorialist from Meigs County, Ohio, whose deeply cynical opinions on the world [[HumansAreBastards and the people living in it]] led him to create his now-famous ([[NeedsMoreLove though not nearly famous enough]]) series of short stories and other fiction pieces, most notably ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''[[hottip:*:Adapted as a French short movie, which was then aired as a TwilightZone episode]]. Bitter Bierce never gave anyone a reason to wonder about his nickname: he was aggressive and fond of war (though also an anti-imperialist), fascinated by death, ''very'' cynical about love and religion, and perplexed by women. His works are notable for their [[DarkerAndEdgier dark, troubled, and haunting]] tone and subject matter. He would have made a fine bedfellow for [[EdgarAllanPoe Poe]] and [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft]], but sadly, and certainly not for lack of talent on his part, he never achieved their notoriety.

* RobertAHeinlein's ''LostLegacy'' has him going underground and working for a benevolent AncientTradition.

One of American literature's most intriguing, and most overlooked, luminaries... and a man who scared [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft]].

AmbroseBierce (later nicknamed "Bitter Bierce" and the "Old Gringo") was a journalist and editorialist from Meigs County, Ohio, whose deeply cynical opinions on the world [[HumansAreBastards and the people living in it]] led him to create his now-famous ([[NeedsMoreLove though not nearly famous enough]]) series of short stories and other fiction pieces, most notably ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''[[hottip:*:Adapted as a French short movie, which was then aired as a TwilightZone episode]]. Bitter Bierce never gave anyone a reason to wonder about his nickname: he was aggressive and fond of war (though also an anti-imperialist), fascinated by death, ''very'' cynical about love and religion, and perplexed by women. His works are notable for their [[DarkerAndEdgier dark, troubled, and haunting]] tone and subject matter. He would have made a fine bedfellow for [[EdgarAllanPoe Poe]] and [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft]], but sadly, and certainly not for lack of talent on his part, he never achieved their notoriety.