Zzzzzzzzzz
It's not a direct cause and effect correlation. Nor is there any claim that it's a perfect correlation. It's simply an observed correlation: If a book is a Newbery Medal winner, and is also a coming-of-age story there's a good chance that the main character has a friend or pet that will die.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Gentleman Troper!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
So should we cut all examples that aren't actually Newbery Medal winners? I mean, the companion cube from Portal is on there, for crying out loud.
Zzzzzzzzzz
No, absolutely not. That's not what I meant at all.
That's where the name came from.
It really appears that you are cherry-picking out side comments from the trope description section and treating them as the definition. This is the trope description for Death by Newbery Medal:
At the end of the story, this very special best friend is abruptly killed off, usually in a clear-cut case of Diabolus ex Machina. A favorite trick is to have the death happen entirely offscreen. The more horribly poignant the tragedy the better.
All this is generally accompanied by lots of "end of the innocence" angsting from the main character, along the lines of "That was the day my childhood ended..." Really, it's just the author's way of having a child suddenly make the jump to adulthood via a single defining tragedy.
This is the explanation of the trope name:
You're treating the explanation of the name as though it were the definition of the trope.
edited 19th Oct '11 9:12:41 AM by Madrugada
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Oscar Bait does not require a death. Another way to write the title (or laconic) is (when the author includes a) Death For (a chance at the) Newberry Medal
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Zzzzzzzzzz
But it's not about winning the Newbery or any other prize. It's about inserting the death of a loved one into a coming-of-age story to underline the whole "end-of childhood" thing.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Gentleman Troper!
That's basically what I meant when I said the name is unrelated to the trope.
I think we should either broaden the trope to match the name, or change the name to match the trope.
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!
The Other Troper
So this is kind of a trope about how readers can be Genre Savvy?
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Possibly, but it's more about how the theme of "the end of innocence/childhood via death of someone close" is milked for a chance at literary prestige. Eventually, spotting these themes (and seeing the Newbery Award stuck on the cover) will lead to the savvy reader to guess what will end up happening to the cute dog or courageous childhood friend.
PS: I actually don't mind the name, since it's a similar situation to Oscar Bait, but with a narrower definition and limited to children's lit.
edited 19th Oct '11 10:53:30 AM by Gillespie
[The rest was unintelligible.]
I'm not seeing the opacity problem here.
Rhymes with "Protracted."
The Other Troper
Zzzzzzzzzz
That leaves out that it's not simply any end-of-innocence. It's specifically "end-of-innocence brought on by the death of a beloved figure".
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
I think we should cut all the award parts from the description. The core of the trope is: In a coming of age story a person/pet close to the protagonist dies to markt the end of innocence.
Jupiterian Local
The Award Bait aspect is part of the trope, though.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
The Other Troper
It's going to be hard to include all three parts in a name.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Award Bait Innocence Ending Death
Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - CamacanJust so everyone knows:
Death by Newbery Medal found in: 153 articles, excluding discussions.
This title has brought 13,658 people to the wiki from non-search engine links since 20th FEB '09.
Redirect: Dog Dies at the End
Dem inbounds.
[The rest was unintelligible.]Again, still not really seeing the trouble here. Current name seems plenty clear enough. Stats are way way above average. Is there any actual problem here for us to discuss?
edited 19th Oct '11 11:31:40 AM by troacctid
Rhymes with "Protracted."
Jupiterian Local
If you're not familiar with the Newbery medal as an award for children's literature, then the name is pretty opaque. That's pretty much the only problem I can see, but I'm not sure we'll be able to do better.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Even if one doesn't know what a Newbery Medal is, it's not the kind of name that allows for misuse. Pretty specific award, and by reading the page the trope definition is clear enough.
[The rest was unintelligible.]
The issue I see is that it's not limited to award-winning books. If it were simply "book won an award, has a doggy on the front, therefore doggy gonna die", the name could work(though that might be a valid subtrope).
Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
Gentleman Troper!
This. At least half of the examples aren't eligible for the Newbery, and many of them aren't even books.
Even aside from that, unlike the Oscar, the Newbery is almost completely unknown outside of America.
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!
Jupiterian Local
Not every Oscar Bait movie won an Oscar, either.
The Other Troper
Does this need to be for the purpose of awards, or more along the lines of a mentality that good children's stories must be about loss of innocence through the death of a friend?
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Can you Guess The Trope? Even if you know what a Newbery Medal is (which I did not, but it's an award for children's literature) then it still doesn't help.
The trope is about how a child or young adult protagonist has a close friend or pet, which then dies, and this is played for drama. So how is this related to said medal? Well, there's the tenuous assumption that such a death scene would make the book win it. A casual browse through the list of Newbery winners on That Other Wiki shows no evidence that this is actually the case.
This is listed as a sister trope of Oscar Bait, so one might suggest the name "Newbery Medal Bait". That said, the Oscars are much more well-known than the Newberies, and also this is a much narrower trope than Oscar Bait. I think this could stand improving, either by broadening the trope, or by renaming, or possibly something else. Thoughts welcome.
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!