It's been two months, let's get this rolling.
I agree, this really needs a rename. Completely non-indicative, and named for a work.
vigilantly taxonomish
Isn't this a pre-existing term, or am I hallucinating that?
Rhymes with "Protracted."
The Other Troper
It's the name of a short story, actually. So that may or may not fall under "shares name with a work".
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
I see the Awesomeness.
The other wiki has it as a redirect to Just So Stories (or would it be on Just So Stories?) which seems like the better page for it.
Fight smart, not fair.
The Other Troper
Well the rename might have gone through on the crowner.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
We should probably start thinking of new names.
Overly Inquisitive Child perhaps?
Oh, please.
I would like, once again, to suggest a rule: if something is named after a work more than a certain age (the age ought to vary by medium, but Kipling is old enough by any standards), there should be a strong presumption for keeping the title, because a reference that's that old that people are still using has probably become a part of general knowledge (at least among a significant group of people).
It's just nonsense to claim that a reference to Kipling (or Citizen Kane, or Shakespeare, or the Bible) is "named for a work" with the implication that it has all the things wrong with it that naming something after the Animorphs or Death Note does.
What next, getting rid of Lady Macbeth for being named for a work?
edited 17th Nov '11 11:21:57 AM by arromdee
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Fan Myopia applies even to Shakespeare.
The Other Troper
You're confusing "named for a work" with "named by a work".
No more so than the original. "Elephant's Child" is also named by a work.
According to Wikipedia
, the title of the story actually is "The Elephant's Child". (This surprised me too; I was all set to make an indignant post in the thread about how it was "How the Elephant Got His Trunk" like all the other Just So Stories, until I decided I should go looking for confirmation first.)
That said, naming tropes after short stories isn't an automatic rename (cf. The Library Of Babel).
edited 17th Nov '11 2:58:26 PM by Micah
132 is the rudest number.
The Other Troper
Yeah. "Named for a work" doesn't mean a work is the Trope Namer. It means a trope is named after the name of a work.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Well, '"elephant's child" -kipling -tvtropes -trope' only gets 262K results on Google and the first page is split between the story and somebody with that as their username. Definitely fails the "preexisting term" test. Would Curious Child work as a name or is it not specific enough?
edited 17th Nov '11 3:31:39 PM by 20LogRoot10
Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
The Other Troper
Too bad the Bud Dry ads line "Why ask 'Why'" isn't terribly indicative, since it doesn't state the part about constantly asking.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
(Little)Mr. Why?
Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
It's not a preexisting term. It's a reference. The point is that because it comes from a well known, literary significant work, people can be expected to know what it means in a way that they can't be expected to know a random reference to Lost.
Of course not everyone will know the reference, literary significant or not, but not everyone will know lots of things. We don't rename Urban Legend of Zelda to Video Game Urban Legend on the grounds that someone might not have heard of Zelda.
The Other Troper
The fallacy in that example is that trope name HAS context to the trope in its title other than the video game title. This doesn't.
I see the Awesomeness.
Correction: we don't rename Urban Legend of Zelda to Video Game Urban Legends because it has very high inbounds.
Fight smart, not fair.
Dragon Writer
Urban Legend of Zelda is a Portmanteau of "urban legend" + Legend Of Zelda. Elephant's Child has no such protection.
An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.
Crowner's currently +10 with a ratio of 2.11:1 for renaming. Do we need to wait any longer or can we proceed to the alt titles?
Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
Zzzzzzzzzz
Crowner called at +12 (yeas:21 nays:9) 2.33 : 1 in favor of rename after nine days.
Start the name-storming.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Crown Description:
Elephants Child
Those are two strikes against the name, even if you know what the trope means.
Now the work is just part of a larger one, but it's still not that good of a name on its own.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.