Discussion Main / LiteraryAgentHypothesis

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Rename?:, started by Hadashi on Jan 6th 2012 at 2:18:54 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: We need to fix:, started by Hadashi on Jan 6th 2012 at 10:30:08 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

"Sliders": The producers and network execs want us to sell Burpie Cola and "stay in school" basic math. CUE: Invasion of the Neanderthals!!11!!

I'm sure that several people have favorite examples of their own.

Controversial but necessary addendum: Many producers are Jewish, so many that are arguably statistically over-represented (statistical facts widely available; I'm of Jewish descent myself). In-script criticism of producers can be written in as roughly: "you assholes", and come out as seeming anti-semitic (with plenty of AS mixed in often enough to not give a free pass to just anyone).

Edited by HARLIE

As an Audience Reaction, we should probably distinguish between adults (including teenagers) and young, pre-pubescent children. When it comes to processing story time, they have their work cut out for them: fairy tales versus history, dragons versus dinosaurs, and so on. I can well imagine there are 4-year old Lando's out there whose dad has told them more about the SW universe than actual life here on planet Earth.

But this deficit also is a kind of strength: when one is unburdened by too much entrenched knowledge about the real world, the lore of a fictional universe acquires a verisimilitude to a child that is lost later in life. (And if the child becomes a scientist, every sci-fi franchise is just a succession of howlers and inaccuracies.) Indeed the child can probably still recall knowing nothing at all about this world. Think of the real universe as a room they just stepped into; it still seems quite possible take a step back and choose another door. Psychologically, make-belief is a feasible plan B for the child.

As an Audience Reaction, we should probably distinguish between adults (including teenagers) and young, pre-pubescent children. When it comes to processing story time, they have their work cut out for them: fairy tales versus history, dragons versus dinosaurs, and so on. I can well imagine there are 4-year old Lando's out there whose dad has told them more about the SW universe than actual life here on planet Earth.

But this deficit also is a kind of strength: when one is unburdened by too much entrenched knowledge about the real world, the lore of a fictional universe acquires a verisimilitude to a child that is lost later in life. (And if the child becomes a scientist, every sci-fi franchise is just a succession of howlers and inaccuracies.) Indeed the child can probably still recall knowing nothing at all about this world. Think of the real universe as a room they just stepped into; it still seems quite possible take a step back and choose another door. Psychologically, make-belief is a feasible plan B for the child.

I don't want to get involved in a repair discussion, but in case anyone wants to pick it up, I don't think it's at all clear whether this is only about fandoms or if it's also about something like Dr. Watson (without the speculation about Doyle being his agent). Also, I'm not sure if being written by a character but with no scenes outside the character's writing (like Watson, again) counts as Framing Device. Like, when you have a text saying "This was written by me, Watson," but you don't have any scene where character are reading the text or someone is telling the story. As for this and Framing Device, if you read this page, it seems like a Watson style example wouldn't count for this one (because it's done by the author, not speculating fans), but if you read the other one, it seems like it would.

And that probably wasn't very clearly said anyway, but I just don't have time for this, I just want to give people a hint at least as to the problem.

Edited by VVK Hide / Show Replies

Per TRS, this is indexed as an Audience Reaction:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1559403902092315200&page=1#comment-25

Edited by GastonRabbit Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Is the fact that Lightning of FFXIII fame, despite being a video game character, is a real life fashion model an example of this trope?

Hide / Show Replies

I notice this has been %%ed out:

• According to the unofficial publication I Am the Doctor: The Unauthorised Diaries of a Time Lord by John Peel, Ian and Barbara sold the story of their first two adventures with the Daleks to a film studio, as a way of warning people once they learnt the Daleks had been on Earth. This did not result in the TV series itself existing in the Whoniverse, but in the movies Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., fitting firmly into the "loose retelling" category.

I think that "unoffical publication" makes this a fantheory, not canon, therefore it counts. (I'm less certain about the Professor Candy bit that hasn't been %%ed out, since it's in an official Doctor Who short story collection.)

0k, this is probably going to annoy a few people but I am in the process of sorting out the Literary Agent Hypothesis page. It was an absolute and total mess and the description still needs more cutting and clarification. Essentially, this is an effort to get everything that shouldn't be there off the page and moved to where it belongs. There is a mountain of stuff that doesn't in any way fit this trope's original or apparent purpose.

It seems that a lot of people have become very confused as to what this trope is about and, looking at the way the description was before I went in, I can't really blame them. It meandered all over the place and the grammar was hideous.

In short (and despite several hours work), it is absolutely filled with canon examples that absolutely should not be there. This is a trope based around cataloguing a certain type of fannon conspiracy theory. It should only contain examples of things that fans have theorised to be Based on a True Story and not things that the author writes as though they were true, or works where the creator pretends the work is a true account and this apparent basis in truth is a fundamental part of the story's canon.

If anyone wants to help me, I'm splitting this trope in three.

• Actual examples of fandoms that have voiced the Hypothesis that an author is, in fact, a Literary Agent or Ghostwriter for the characters or a witness will, of course remain here (If we can find any on the page!).

• I am moving examples where it is actually Canon that a fictional story is a recount of real events (as with Narnia and Animorphs) to a new trope called Direct Line to the Author.

• In-Universe examples are being moved to A True Story In My World.

I hope that not too many people are annoyed by this, but it is a clearout that has been needed for a really serious length of time. The page cannot remain in the state it is in now and reverting it to the way it was would be absolute madness.

Edited by Hadashi Tropes I have created. Hide / Show Replies