1 | Those of us who have read or seen a lot of {{science fiction}} have seen certain story elements pop up over and over and over. Some of these elements were [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools actually pretty good ideas]], and [[UnbuiltTrope when handled well make for a pretty entertaining story]], but have become hackneyed from overuse by the unimaginative. Others came into being through the deliberate effort to avoid another cliché. Still other ideas were [[DeadHorseTrope lame from the get-go]], and should have been dismissed from the author's thinking. |
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3 | [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Clichés are not in themselves necessarily bad]], but their overuse shows that the writer has forgotten what separates the strong tale from the hollow: "the human heart in conflict with itself," as Faulkner said. Where there is this conflict, the tale stands; where the conflict is absent, the tale falls flat, and in neither case does it matter [[RuleOfCool how many ships get blown up]]. |
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5 | The sophisticated reader will note that some of these clichés are [[OmnipresentTropes not found solely in SF]], but in other genres as well, and of course the [[PlayingWithATrope lampooning of clichés]] is a time-honored part of [[RuleOfFunny good comedy]]. |
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7 | The original list can be found [[http://www.oocities.org/evilsnack/cliche.htm here on oocities.org]].[[labelnote:note]]The list was updated many times and the ''oocities'' version may be an earlier copy salvaged from the ''Internet Archive''.[[/labelnote]] An updated version based on the original list can be read [[https://www.cthreepo.com/writing/cliche/index.html here at cthreepo.com]]. |
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9 | ---- |
10 | !! Sections: |
11 | [[index]] |
12 | * Website/OverusedSciFiStorylines (Section I) |
13 | * Website/OverusedSciFiSettings (Section II) |
14 | * Website/OverusedSciFiPlotDevices (Section III) |
15 | * Website/OverusedSciFiSillyScience (Section IV) |
16 | [[/index]] |
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FollowingContext Website / TheGrandListOfOverusedScienceFictionCliches
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