What's this supposed to be about?: Summer Campy

Really. Is this supposed to be about bad Summer Camps, or just Summer Camps in fiction in general?

edited 1st Mar '11 7:34:16 PM by SantosLHalper

What I'm getting from the examples list is "Summer camp as a stock setting," but none of that is in the description. I think it's trying too hard to be clever.

I'm the guilty party that wrote it, and it's a stock setting: a summer camp that's a comic-opera hellhole, which makes the company in Dilbert look well-managed. (The YKTTW, which I think is still recoverable, states this clearly.)

The reason I think the description works is that only about half the examples are mine; the other half were added by tropers who don't seem to have had any trouble understanding it.

That said, it's possible that the in-character opening confuses people. The reason I wrote it this way is that many a Summer Campy has a scene where the main character writes a letter exactly like this, which is usually a big Lampshade Hanging on everything that's happened. (And, of course, because I find in-character writing to be more interesting than a bland list, provided it doesn't confuse the reader. Which it may be doing here.)

Yeah, kind of sacrificing clarity for style. I can think of two solutions that would preserve the in-character letter:

1. Change the name to Summer Camp Setting or even Summer Camp Stock Setting - something that makes it really really obvious what this is. (Doable - only 30 wicks/22 inbounds)

2. Cut the in-character letter down a little, maybe set it in italics, end it with a "With Love, your son Billy" or whatever. Then spell the trope out in an out-of-character sentence or two below it.

I'd say use both solutions. The clearer, the better.

Is anyone volunteering to clean this up? It's been over half a year since I posted this.

edited 16th Oct '11 4:37:43 PM by SantosLHalper

I added the non-self-demonstrating version from the original YKTTW in a folder at the bottom.

I say swap it entirely for the non-Self-Demonstrating one - I can't think of a good way to edit it that both preserves the description and describes the trope well.

Done.