What's the difference between GenreSavvy and FunctionalGenreSavvy?

The "genre" in Genre Savvy seems to be the same thing as "functional" in Functional Genre Savvy. What am I missing here?

Genre Savvy is when someone knows what happens in fiction, and acts (or at least remarks) accordingly. It's specifically about recognising tropes as they occur in their lives, and figuring out the probably outcome based on that.

Functional Genre Savvy is when someone gets to the right conclusions she'd only get because she's in the right genre, but with no hint that it's about knowledge of what happens in fiction. It's about reaching for conclusions based on what genre the work has, rather than what genre the character recognises her situation seems to match. In a ghost story, a character would much sooner (correctly) guess a ghost than in, say, NCIS, even if all evidence are the same.

edited 25th May '14 2:27:33 PM by AnotherDuck

Two things make it different. First, Functional Genre Savvy is a subtrope of Genre Savvy.

• Genre Savvy: character is aware of what would likely happen in a situation similar to the one they're currently in in a story. They may be
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: but the genre they're thinking of isn't the one they're part of.

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• Functional Genre Savvy: They're completely correct about the genre they're in.

The other is related to The Law of Conservation of Detail: Unless he had a very good reason to do so, an author isn't going to have his character makes assumptions about what might/could have/did happen that are completely at odds with the genre he's writing. So his characters will display a low level of Genre Savvy even if they aren't intended to be Genre Savvy.

edited 25th May '14 2:27:21 PM by Madrugada

Thanks for commenting. To me it looks like the tropes are not properly named.

• Genre Savvy should be Trope Savvy (no restriction to a genre).
• Functional Genre Savvy should be Genre Savvy.

edited 25th May '14 4:36:06 PM by eroock

Well, I don't think those names are changing. Genre Savvy is in wide use outside TV Tropes, and looking at the stats (about 18 tons of inbounds, and 11 tons wicks), it's just not going to happen.

Plus, Functional Genre Savvy is one of those things that no one really bothers to link to, because it's so omnipresent. Yes, every character in this story is an example. If they're not, they're probably Wrong Genre Savvy, and that gets linked instead. It would be a massive amount of time and effort for no benefit.

I know it would be too late now. Just saying.

Yeah, it seems like all examples of Genre Savvy are either Functional Genre Savvy if they're correct, and Wrong Genre Savvy if they're not.

Actually, scratch that. I guess someone can be Genre Savvy but it just doesn't help them.

That said, Genre Savvy sees massive, massive misuse across this site as "savvy." Whenever someone does something vaguely clever, it gets potholed as Genre Savvy. It's really an epidemic.

So why is Functional Genre Savvy example-less?

Because it's functionally onmipresent.

Genre Savvy should not be called Trope Savvy. It's about knowing the stories of a certain genre. Horror seems to be a favorite like in the page quote. Functional Genre Savvy seems to be about acting according to the genre the character is in because he knows his own story.

If Functional Genre Savvy is example-less because it is omnipresent, and it is a subtrope to Genre Savvy, why isn't Genre Savvy example-less?

edited 27th May '14 4:01:35 PM by crazysamaritan

Not quite. It's more that the author doesn't give him any options that aren't part of the genre he's in. The guy in a Horror story never has a choice of what motel to stop in; there's only the one creepy looking one, and for some reason, going on farther to a different one isn't a possibility. The character doesn't have to be Genre Savvy at all.

^^ Because Genre Savvy isn't omnipresent. There are lots of works where the characters are completely non-Genre Savvy.

edited 27th May '14 3:29:13 PM by Madrugada

I don't think that's really Functional Genre Savvy. From the page description, Functional Genre Savvy is about the character's behavior and speculations being limited to the genre s/he's in, but not their options. That sounds like a different trope.

Ok, yeah. That's a better way of putting it. But they don't limit themselves because they're Genre Savvy — they don't know that they're in a detective novel, and they don't think "Well, if I were in a detective story, this is what would happen next." It's more that they're a detective, so they react like a detective, not a doctor or lawyer, or florist, or high-schooler.

So I guess that means that it's more a subtrope of Anthropic Principle than Genre Savvy: They do things not because they know they're in a particular genre, or because they're familiar with the conventions of a particular genre,but because if they don't do things, the story won't work right. It's a Meta Trope.

edited 27th May '14 3:47:43 PM by Madrugada

I think that makes it not a subtrope. If not all examples of Functional Genre Savvy are also Genre Savvy, the former isn't a subtrope. If anything I'd say it's the other way around.

I'd also say it's closer to The Law of Conservation of Detail, as Foxy mentioned earlier, rather than Anthropic Principle. They don't act that way because they must for the sake of the story (though that's certainly not excluded), but to streamline the story a little more. No need to speculate about ghosts or aliens if it's not relevant to the story.

edited 27th May '14 6:32:22 PM by AnotherDuck

Having pondered over the examples given in the trope description of Functional Genre Savvy, I don't really see how they involve any Genre Savviness:

• A detective coming to this or that conclusion, depending on the genre he is in or
• Characters not considering explanation other than a religious one

doesn't convey savviness to me. The characters are unconscious of the assumptions they make and it's the writer who does the conscious part.

The limited character awareness serves to streamline the story according to the The Law of Conservation of Detail. We do have a similar trope for physical properties of the fictional universe: Adventure-Friendly World. This should be a sister trope dealing with the character side of it.

Anybody else seeing a need for trope repair here?

edited 31st May '14 10:00:02 PM by eroock

Those examples (general "savvyness") are how Genre Savvy is often misused.

[brainfart removed]

edited 31st May '14 9:45:37 PM by eroock