NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Music is another genre/medium/form-of-tropes we're relatively low on.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
No, the other one.
Meaning we have more science/history/computer/gaming/writing/sports nerds than font or music nerds here.
Check out my fanfiction!
Well, yes, but the fundamental issue is that the public at large is not at all cognizant of fonts in the least.
About the best that can be said for awareness of fonts in the public is that they associate (and expect) a Roman font (i.e. one with serifs and a "geometric" look) in settings which are "ancient" - meaning Greco-Roman times. Specialists in certain fields (e.g. military servicemembers) might be able to notice a font that was grossly inappropriate - say using a script font family instead of a block font for labeling stuff in a military vessel - but they'd have no ability to detect anything less subtle than that.
It's that lack of awareness that dooms Font Anachronism as a trope.
The fact that the public at large doesn't know the significance of fonts in storytelling doesn't affect its tropability, actually.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yes, it does. You can't claim to be using a trope to communicate information to your audience if the audience can't be expected to understand (or even be aware of) the communication method.
As I quoted the front page of the site back upthread:
"Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations."
If nobody gets your joke, it's not a joke. Tropes require your audience to know they're being addressed. Not all of the audience, obviously, but if only 1 in 1000 people get it, well, that's just trivia, and not a communications method.
This page should be moved to Useful Notes, and the examples moved into the Trivia portion of each referenced page. That seems to be the consensus so far.
I'll be calling for a crowner to do this shortly.
The significance of a trope does not not need to be conscious, let alone encompass all the audience. Hence, we have such tropes as Parental Bonus.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
We also have Genius Bonus and Freeze-Frame Bonus that even fever people would notice. Many of the old examples of Freeze-Frame Bonus had to be taped on vhs and then freezeframed to be seen. Pretty sure fever than 1 in a 1000 did that, especially as one had to catch a rerun if one didn't tape the show anyway.
We shouldn't go after how obscure the knowlage is/how many people get something.
and moving the page to Useful Notes?!?
edited 19th Jul '14 3:06:11 PM by m8e
Umm, yeah, it does need to be conscious. It doesn't have to be obvious, though. And you do need at least a noticeable minority of the audience to "get" the trope's existence (as well as understand what the trope is talking about) for it to be a Trope.
The point here is that Font Anachronism isn't noticeable (either obviously or subtly) as any communications channel for virtually the entire audience. Hence, it's Trivia, not Trope.
Hmm, one consideration here is that Significant Font is a different thing than Font Anachronism; I am willing to fill the latter under Trivia since it does only matter when you are comparing fonts against the eras the work is set in, otherwise it's unnoticeable.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
How many tropers, and how many ways, does it take to explain that for 99% of the population, what we call "Trope" is what they call "Trivia", and this site uses our definition, not theirs?
That sounds like you're supporting the page is split into a Trope (font is used to evoke a specific feeling) and an Artistic Licence trivia page (font was not used in the time period the work is set in). Specifically that the current page is turned into AL and people can make a YKTTW for the regular trope if they choose to.
edited 19th Jul '14 3:37:55 PM by crazysamaritan
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Significant Font is a trope (in the various ways it's used), but the only reason I am mentioning it here is to illustrate the differences.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Zzzzzzzzzz
Page action crowner is hooked. I think I got all the permutations of suggestions. There were more than one option being discussed, so this isn't appropriate for a Single Prop.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
I voted yes to Trivia, no to new trope (while it's interesting from troping perspective, it has nothing to do with this repair topic) and no to rename (AL is a different thing than anachronism).
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hi
Calling for the winning option:
Make the current page Trivia and make a new trope for using fonts to indicate or reinforce some aspect of the setting.
I'll implement the Trivia bit soon. Someone else will have to do the YKTTW.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Trivia bit is done. Now only the new trope is missing.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Locking as part of New Years Purge.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Crown Description:
Change Font Anachronism from a Trope to a Useful Note. Move all examples to the Trivia subpage for the works in question, with a link to the Useful Note page after the Trivia entry for the example.
As far as I know, font usage is not well troped here. There are various aspects of storytelling that aren't well troped here, mainly the more subtle aspects like, well, font usage.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman