I see the Awesomeness.
After the chainsaw strike, it would look something like:
Often, when writing a story set in another country, the writer simply takes their own country and adds foreign names, and might refer to some famous local festival if you're lucky. If you're not, it will be writers' own country half-turned into a Land of Hats with "local colour".
A particularly common mistake is for characters that are black to be described as "African-American".
The title is inspired by a line in the Rammstein song "Amerika", which complains about the spread of American values and culture across the globe.
Please note that, despite the trope name, this is not an exclusively American phenomenon; writers from other countries will often project their own cultural mores, vernacular, and sense of geography onto countries other than their own, including the United States, as well (most common is the strange tendency to treat all the landmarks and major cities of a country that spans an entire continent as if they are within a couple hours' drive of each other).
The United States tends to have the complicating factor that as a polyglot nation there are often sub-cultures in the United States derived from foreign cultures. This can lead to a writer thinking that because he spent time in Brooklyn among Italian-Americans, he can just take their culture as representative of Italians in Italy.
Compare Creator Provincialism, in which nothing important happens outside the writer's home country. Politically Correct History is the temporal version of this. Compare Americanitis, where these sentiments are intentionally applied to authorised adaptations of foreign works. Contrast Eagleland Osmosis, where the influence of another country's media (chiefly the United States') causes people to do this to their own society. See also Values Dissonance, which is perhaps the most compelling reason why this trope doesn't work.
To what purpose?
Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.
I see the Awesomeness.
Length mostly, it stretches a full page for me* on stuff that isn't strictly necessary to the trope turning the page into a Wall of Text.
Fight smart, not fair.
Eh, it looks fine to me. A bit of natter in the RL section, but nothing that can't be cleaned up.
I don't think the length is too much of an issue. I've seen example sections much longer than that, and it's in a folder so you don't have to scroll past the whole thing if you don't want to.
As for not being "strictly necessary", I'm... not really sure what your point is. Examples in general are not strictly necessary to define a trope. For that matter, a lot of descriptions also contain information which is not strictly necessary (contrast with the Laconic entries).
Calendar enthusiast
Reducing the middle section was a smart move, though there was some good information in there about how often it comes up in fanfic. It would have been better if that could have been condensed down to one, short paragraph.
Ukrainian Red Cross
I see the Awesomeness.
It's not only that the information is unnecessary, it's starting to get bulky that's the issue. I haven't made any changes to the page yet, somebody mentioned in the "Natter Alert" thread that we should cut the RL section.
Fight smart, not fair.
Remove some of the real life section, yes, but there's no need to cut it.
I see the Awesomeness.
For some reason, the page was seriously out of order, I put the folders in the proper order.
Fight smart, not fair.
Don't cut, but clear up. Going to delete some natter now, if you don't mind.
Hmm, not happy how that turned out, since most all them seem legimate examples and I am not sure what to cut. Can someone sum up the msot lengthy ones?
I see the Awesomeness.
The first real life one can be deleted, that's specifically a different trope, I did some work on it, I want to say it's Artistic License – Law.
Fight smart, not fair.
Natter should be deleted. Neutral examples shouldn't.
Otherwise, and at this rate, no page with RL section will remain, and the RL page itself may get deleted. =/
It'll then be only matter of time until Real Life gets TRS'd just for that purpose.
^and in the bottom of the slippery slope we have IRL and Real Life added to the Permanent Red Link Club
edited 15th May '11 9:48:36 PM by peccantis
I see the Awesomeness.
We have a standard set up for RL sections: when they get used for bitching or they become a problem, they get axed. Cleaning up may be worth it in some cases, in most cases it's just being used for bitching.
Fight smart, not fair.
Bump. I does anyone want to kill the real life section or not?
I see the Awesomeness.
If it's been cleaned, the RL section should be good. Does the description still need a trim, I can rev up my chainsaw?
edited 13th Oct '11 9:45:04 PM by Deboss
Fight smart, not fair.
Anything else need to be done or can we close this?
The trope won't miss the RL section and the middle part of the description is like an example list, listing characters without describing the traits. Permission to unleash the Rocket Propelled Chainsaw, Captain?
Fight smart, not fair.