Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling -- the anthology

So apparently, this book just came out. I haven't read it, and don't know much about it yet, but somehow—somehow—I still thought it might be of interest to folks here. Not quite sure why, but something about the name....

It claims to have over two dozen stories. I haven't seen the complete list of authors, but I have seen that it includes Alyssa Wong, who won a Nebula last year, and came in second behind Andy Weir (author of The Martian) in the voting for the Campbell Award (best new writer). According to Amazon, it also has a number of essays about tropes: why they're popular, and why writers like to subvert them.

Has anyone else heard of this? Has anyone read it? And if so, what did you think?

edited 17th Dec '16 9:38:12 PM by Xtifr

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

Didn't know it was out already. I follow a lot of fantasy authors on my twitter feed and had first heard about this several months back and had seen a few posts about it recently. I definitely plan to check it out.

The article on File770 mentions the following tropes (not sure if this is a complete list). I've tried to link them to our tropes where possible.

• Chainmail Bikini
• The Magical Negro
• The Super-Soldier
• The Chosen One
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot
• Love at First Sight
• Damsel in Distress
• Heroine Loves a Bad Man
• Yellow Peril
• The Black Man Dies First
• The Villain Had a Crappy Childhood
• The City Planet
• Prostitute with a Heart of Gold
• The Singularity Will Cause the Apocalypse
• First Period Panic (currently in TLP)
• Girlfriend in the Refrigerator
• Retired Pro's "Last" Job

There's only two I couldn't find a direct equivalent for (and someone else might be able to). Most of them even use the same names we do. Were we a resource for this work? Wouldn't surprise me!

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

Freudian Excuse.

We have a general article about The Singularity, but it doesn't distinguish between utopian and dystopian. (Instead, it distinguishes between "the Singularity causes massive societal changes" vs. "we won't even be recognizably human after the Singularity".)

Yeah, Freudian Excuse is the best I could come up with. Just wasn't sure it was a close enough match. But probably.

And I agree with your analysis about The Singularity.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

The publisher's page has a complete listing of the stories[1]. In many cases, I can't guess which tropes go with which stories, but one in particular made me laugh out loud. Literally.

• "The Refrigerator in the Girlfriend" by Adam-Troy Castro

Not the inversion I was expecting!

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.