Line #14 Main/TheTheoremOfNarrowInterests


1	''The more constrained the thing you're looking for, the fewer good examples exist.''
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3	A corollary of SturgeonsLaw; as you add in requirements, the expected number of ''good'' examples of whatever it is you're looking for goes down.
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5	Why this happens:
6	If you want [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Legolas]] fanfic, there's tons of it out there, and even though Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of it is going to be crap, the 10% that's good is still a lot (and consequently easier to find). If you want a Legolas/X slash fic, there are still tons, but there are fewer tons, because it's a subset of Legolas fic, and the 10% that's any good is correspondingly smaller. If you want Legolas/[[Franchise/HarryPotter Draco]] slash fic, you've moved into a still smaller subset, by adding in a crossover requirement, with a still smaller "10% good". And so on... At some point, you may have to create the content you want yourself.
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8	A second factor that also contributes is that writers tend to stay in the same general area for most of their work. In other words, a fanfic writer who has done one Legolas/Draco-is-a-crossdresser BDSM fic is more likely to do it again. This means that one writer may be responsible for a sizable chunk of all the stories with a certain narrow set of parameters, and if they're a bad writer, they're going to skew the crap-to-not-crap ratio (and groups like the ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'' are going to have a field day.)
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10	The porn version is closely related: Vampire/fetish-latex porn is rarer and thus has fewer good examples, than either just vampire porn or fetish-latex porn.
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12	On the subject of porn, this trope intersects with RuleThirtyFour in an interesting way: The narrower your search terms, the less likely you are to find something good, but the ''more'' likely you are to find something pornographic. Make of that what you will.
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14	It doesn't simply apply to porn and fanfic --and {{Queer Romance}}s--, though. Any narrow interest niche is going to have a smaller overall selection than a wider niche (it's just that those are the areas where people have the most ''particular'' tastes). Thus, if you want to see a movie about World War 2, you're spoiled for choice, but if you want an AlternateHistory UsefulNotes/WorldWarII film where ThoseWackyNazis won the race for the atomic bomb by making a literal DealWithTheDevil, you've cut your options significantly. Note that this is also a mathematical property. Under set theory, set (A&B) is usually smaller than either set (A) or set (B), the only exception is if A=B.
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16	Also known as Beggars Can't Be Choosers. The necessity to scratch the need for content within the narrow interest is sometimes the cause of AuthorAppeal.
17	----
18	!!Examples:
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20	[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
21	* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'': The Ex-Leper complains that not many people are interested in his life's story; therefore, he doesn't receive much money when he tells it to entertain a group of strangers. Lepers are more successful in that venture.
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Context Main / TheTheoremOfNarrowInterests