Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Literature / CyberJolyDrim

Go To

1->''Everything here is virtual, except love. Love is real.''
2
3Jola, a web-designer who considers herself an artist, is heartbroken: trapped in a marriage with a complete stranger, pining for her soulmate, who vanished from the face of the Net around the time of Jola's wedding...
4
5Because [[{{Cyberspace}} the Net]] is where she really lives, works and socialises. The physical side of life becomes more and more of a burden, full of pointless chores and anonimity.
6
7An acclaimed short story by Antonina Liedtke, exploring [[TheFourLoves romantic love]] and whether it's possible to find it again once you've lost it. Read [[http://hell.pl/nina/carramba.htm on author's site]] in Polish.
8----
9!!Cyber Joly Drim contains the following tropes:
10
11* ADarkerMe: Possibly [[spoiler: Andrzej's online persona, or so Jola hopes]].
12* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Jola loves Carramba, Andrzej loves Jola... [[spoiler: Subverted - Andrzej and Carramba are the same guy's real life personality and online persona]].
13* [[spoiler: AnachronicOrder]]: One of the two big twists in the story is the fact [[spoiler: interactions with Carramba took place a year ago]].
14* BargainTropes: Want Joly_FH to make you an [[DigitalAvatar avatar]]? She's [[{{Foreshadowing}} paid in favours]], cashed anytime.
15* BettyAndVeronica: Jola has a wholesome, [[{{Salaryman}} workaholic]] husband she's bored to death with and pines after her suave, snarky PlayfulHacker online lover.
16* BrainInAJar: Saint Francises, people who (voluntarily) give up their bodies and connect to the Net as brains. They have jobs and social lifes on the Net - you could e-mail or chat with one and never even know. [[spoiler: Jola was a bit shocked to learn her close friend was one]].
17* {{Cyberspace}}: Where Jola (and many others) actually lives her life.
18* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: In-universe - the guy interviewing Jola about her art seems rather unprepared.
19* DeathOfTheAuthor: Invoked - Jola argues for it during the interview, but her animation is nevertheless very personal.
20* [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide]]: In a way, [[spoiler: Jola becoming a Saint Francis to escape the physical world]].
21* GratuitousEnglish: Starting from the title (it's "dream" spelled by the Polish phonetic rules), several instances in the story proper.
22* HackerCave: Zanni the Gamer lives in one.
23* IJustWantToBeLoved: The story explores how men and women want different things in love.
24* InstantWebHit: Jola makes up a silly song to cheer herself up and kill time. It goes viral instantly.
25* TheInternet: A futuristic, virtual-reality filled version. (The story was written in the late 90').
26* LoveMakesYouUncreative: "when they were seeing each other every day, she didn't make any avatar worth her while, no art, nothing really - but she was happy".
27* PlayfulHacker: Jola has some friends who are these. She herself is a virtual realities designer, responsible for the visuals - other people add music and animation.
28* RelationshipReveal: [[spoiler: Andrzej is ''Carramba'']].
29* RitualMagic: Maybe? There's an entire Internet subculture based on leveyan satanism, and they claim to use magic incantations and rituals.
30* [[RomanceNovel Romance Short Story]]: [[RecycledInSpace Recycled in Cyberspace]].
31* ScreenName: Joly_FH for Jola, Carramba [[spoiler: for Andrzej]], most other characters are only known by their handles, but many of them are only slightly modified names.
32* SexChangesEverything: The protagonist's incredibly [[FlatCharacter boring]] husband [[spoiler: and her Internet bad boy are the same person, just about a year apart]].
33* StandardFiftiesFather: Seems to be Jola's husband's goal in life. She's utterly terrified of the prospect of playing HouseWife to him.
34* TrueArtIsAngsty: In-universe. Jola's best animations and avatars were inspired by her lost love.
35* TrueLoveIsBoring: Jola finds the hard way that [[spoiler: she would rather be with Carramba than with the real man behind him and a mere ''year'' into their marriage she is one step away from suicide to deal with the disappointment, because Andrzej is so thoroughly boring]].
36* [[spoiler: TwoPersonLoveTriangle]]: This is the big [[TheReveal reveal]], so don't look at the spoiler.
37* UnusualUserInterface: Very vaguely described: there is a scanning beam there.
38* UnreliableExpositor: Almost the whole story is experienced from Jola's perspective, and she has a lot of bile to throw around. We are mostly [[InformedAbility informed]] about the traits of various characters but never ''see'' those in action, making it unclear how much things are just as Jola claims and how much it's her own interpretation and projection.
39* UnwantedSpouse: The story starts with Jola waking up and pretending she hasn't in order to not have sex with her bore of a husband. Later on she puts last touches to her brilliant escape plan.

Top