# Story Memes or Themes You Just Can't Stand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808 "2012-06-01T19:13:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/61 "2012-06-02T14:11:11Z")
When the hero corners the bad guy (after an epic chase and/or fight, during the course of which they both killed dozens of other people and caused massive property damage), and the partner/sidekick/freshly-rescued-damsel-in-distress stops him just before delivering the fatal blow because “that would make us just as bad as him,” followed _immediately_ by the bad guy attacking with a hidden weapon and the hero killing him anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/62 "2012-06-02T14:11:12Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > The Ugly Duckling, where a gorgeous actress is supposedly invisible to men, just because she has glasses, dresses in frumpy clothing, or wears her hair pinned up; Then suddenly, she takes off her glasses and _viola_ …and leaves the string quartet? ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/63 "2012-06-02T14:13:15Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That would be extreme feminist “utopian”\*, not lesbian\*\*; and not a lot. > **[Single-gender world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_utopia)** > > A relatively common motif in speculative fiction is the existence of single-gender worlds or single-sex societies. These fictional societies have long been one of the primary ways to explore implications of gender and gender-differences in science fiction and fantasy. Many of these predate a widespread distinction between gender and sex and conflate the two. > In the fictional setting, these societies often arise due to elimination of one sex through war or natural disasters and disease. The soc... I’m not the one who came up with it. Of course the wiki article lists Nicola Griffith’s _Ammonite_ as an example of lesbian utopian fiction. I’ve read it but I don’t see how it was a utopia. Her manless world still had violence. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/64 "2012-06-02T14:34:41Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > [Single-gender world - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_utopia) > > I’m not the one who came up with it. Huh. It’s still not a very good term, since some don’t have sex lesbian or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/65 "2012-06-02T16:17:44Z")
I despise all of the standard twist endings, including but not limited to. “I’m actually the insane one/It was all in my head” “I/he/she/it was actually dead the whole time/already died.” “This isn’t the past/another planet it’s actually ours in the future.” “The killer/villain I’ve been chasing is actually me.” “Oh my god it’s actually our government/company/organization/etc. that has orchestrated it all.” Each of these and others have been around for decades and in some cases centuries. It’s usually obvious when a story is looking to include a twist ending, and it’s almost always one of the above. Plus nine times out of ten it’s so poorly handled that you can figure out the ending less than half way through. ---
**Author:** ![andrew\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@andrew\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrew_1)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/66 "2012-06-02T18:47:33Z")
**well he’s back** in the OP mentioned the worst to me when I saw the thread title and I’d be interested in the Dope’s take on this because no one I’ve expressed this to ever agrees with me. A lot of people buy into the soppy, ‘powerful’ Chosen One routine, but I think this literary cop out has the opposite effect of what it’s supposed to. If the hero is THE CHOSEN ONE, then surely, that invalidates every heroic thing they did (in a sense), because they were chosen to be the one. It doesn’t mean anything. If you were singled out by some stars-aligning, magical, fateful mystery as the only one that can save the world/defeat the evil lord/whatever, then surely that’s less of a great story than if some average nobody did what the hero accomplished? To use Harry Potter as an example, and I know that it was explained in the books that technically the Prophecy didn’t mean only Harry could kill Voldemort, but surely it would have been more heroic for someone like Ron Weasley to kill Voldy since he wasn’t ‘chosen’ at all? He wasn’t special or singled out at all? The whole Chosen One meme has always felt to me like it accomplishes the exact opposite of what it tries to and cheapens what otherwise may have been a good story. Not sure if I explained that very well but I do get kind of a meh feel in any story where someone’s actions and character aren’t what make them special, and instead it’s an accident of birth the same has blue eyes or brown hair. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/67 "2012-06-02T20:56:46Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > 1. Children’s book authors don’t do pedophilia. Instead they have the best friend, or the dog, die, thereby showing how literary and Full Of Value they are. Vomit. Ah. “Death by Newberry Award” [Death by Newbery Medal - TV Tropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByNewberyMedal) ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/68 "2012-06-02T21:10:53Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > Just once, I’d like to read a book wherein the male and female protagonists politely loathe one another in the first chapter and the last and in every chapter in between. Not a book, but you might like this [tandem](http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/writing.asp) writing assignment. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/69 "2012-06-02T21:17:57Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Planet Earth! 1974 TV movie, I think, starring John Saxon and Diana Muldaur! All the men were slaves of the women and they were called “Dinks”. “Bow to me, Dink!” “Where is my Dink?” “Dink, dink, dink!” OMG, we watched that on TV back in the day and were literally rolling on the floor laughing!!! 😛 Created by Gene Roddenberry, by the way (perhaps a distant ancestor to the TNG episode “Angel One”) ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/70 "2012-06-02T22:10:11Z")
You-tube has everything, a Dink auction.🙂 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1XcXZqqzhO0/hqdefault.jpg "Dink Auction") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XcXZqqzhO0) ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/71 "2012-06-03T03:37:33Z")
I am growing tired of the spunky, free-spirited, impractical woman who jumps to absurd conclusions about nearly everything… “I see him give someone a hug…he must be having an affair with her/hiding his marriage and six children under ten/a secret agent!”… and then makes rash decisions about the relationship/business deal/mystery without asking questions or, better yet, LISTENING to anything anyone is telling her! She usually storms off in a huff, sells her car and moves 600 miles away to take a job as an art restorer in a tiny seaside village, and the Hero has to track her down to finally tie her to a chair and make her LISTEN as he explains that the woman he was hugging was the widow of his business partner’s brother whom he saved from eviction by sacrificing his chance at the Big Contract in order to take her landlord to court (said landlord being the same man who was offering the Big Contract) But his willingness to sacrifice melted the landlord/client’s heart and he got not only the Big Contract but a partnership and a corner office. And once she realizes how wrong she was in her assumptions they have amazing sex and get married. ---
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/72 "2012-06-03T07:08:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Chosen child must save the world - & there is absolutely nothing special about this kid other than the author tells you he or she is special. Harry Potter & a million imitators, I’m thinking of you. Can’t, I don’t know, a grown adult fill this role sometimes? With actual special qualities? > [@](#): > > To use Harry Potter as an example, and I know that it was explained in the books that technically the Prophecy didn’t mean only Harry could kill Voldemort, but surely it would have been more heroic for someone like Ron Weasley to kill Voldy since he wasn’t ‘chosen’ at all? He wasn’t special or singled out at all? The whole Chosen One meme has always felt to me like it accomplishes the exact opposite of what it tries to and cheapens what otherwise may have been a good story. I think JK Rowling’s detractors always miss that the Harry Potter series is an _ironic_ take on this meme. People keep telling Harry how special he is, but he’s not special at all (even in his own eyes). He never achieves anything without help from other people, and when he tries to do something heroic it’s often wrong. He’s not even the only person in his world who could have been the “chosen one”. Out of all the kids in the series, he’s the last one to grow up and act like an adult. He’s just an ordinary kid – a little on the thick side, but good at sports – who’s caught up in other people’s machinations. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/73 "2012-06-03T07:49:33Z")
Gay male nurses ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/74 "2012-06-03T17:17:28Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Ah. “Death by Newberry Award” [Death by Newbery Medal - TV Tropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathByNewberyMedal) total nitpick: Newbery award \<— only one r. ETA - I fully support the vomit reaction. Even as a librarian, I tend to avoid Newberys unless someone I trust reads them first and tells me they’re relatively ok. I have never actually really LIKED one, just found a few that aren’t totally awful. I like the Caldecotts much better. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/75 "2012-06-03T17:28:33Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > total nitpick: Newbery award \<— only one r. > > ETA - I fully support the vomit reaction. Even as a librarian, I tend to avoid Newberys unless someone I trust reads them first and tells me they’re relatively ok. I have never actually really LIKED one, just found a few that aren’t totally awful. > > I like the Caldecotts much better. Hijack: Have you read **The Tale of Despereaux**? No book is for everyone, of course, but IMO it’s among the all-time best children’s novels, and while there’s plenty of sadness in it, it’s not of the pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you variety that plagues Newbery books (“What a cute doggie! Don’t you love this doggie? Ooh, doggie kisses! DIE DOGGIE DIE!”) I can’t off the top of my head think of any other Newbery book that comes close to Despereaux’s wonderfulness. Except Holes, which is also pretty brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/76 "2012-06-03T17:42:18Z")
I absolutely hate plot lines where the government and/or military is always evil/corrupt/incompetent/omnipotent/unanswerable to anyone. Yes, there is corruption and incompetence within these, and many other, organizations, but unless you’re telling a fantasy story, the story line is just stupid. I spent 37 years either in or working with the military (and by default, somewhat close to the government) and for the most part, each is made up of ordinary people doing their jobs in order to follow a career path and earn a paycheck. And like any business, there are good and bad workers, good and bad managers, dedicated and wasteful and incompetent and hard-working and glad-to-be-there and just-putting-in-time employees. I’ll suspend disbelief a little bit in the interest of drama, but sometimes, I hurt myself rolling my eyes - I’m thinking specifically of E.T. - when the scary men in decontamination suits descended upon the house in the dark of night, not talking to anyone, not explaining anything, just coming in and grabbing the poor, cute little alien. Or the conspiracies where the “government” is keeping a deep, dark secret from the governed. Get real - look at all the leaked information that shows up on the news, some of which \*should \*have been kept secret. What sane person believes that secrets can be kept? Ben Franklin hit the nail on the head - “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.” No kidding… ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/77 "2012-06-03T22:46:56Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I am growing tired of the spunky, free-spirited, impractical woman who jumps to absurd conclusions about nearly everything… Totally agree with this one. On the same lines, the woman who is seen as strong, smart and independent because she jumps to conclusions, has irrational rages about most everything, and is violent. Please. That’s the opposite of being smart and independent. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter is an example. I, also, hate the “chosen” child or teenager coming into his/her power. Can be a useful coming of age story for an actual child or teenager, but after reading dozens, if not hundreds, of iterations of the theme, and becoming an adult, it palls. It palls. Exception: Greg Bear’s The Infinity Concerto. (That, an its sequel, constitute Songs of Earth and Power. Recommended.) That continues to be brilliant. Oh, too, the kid was chosen not because he was fated so, but had the seeds of skills that could be developed, if he survived the training. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/78 "2012-06-03T23:31:16Z")
Body switching. I’m sure it’s tons of fun for the actors, especially on a series where the characters are well-established, but what a bore. Alternate timelines, especially where the impending death of everyone is averted at the last second by whatever deus ex machina returns the timeline to “normal,” as though nothing had ever happened. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/79 "2012-06-03T23:32:49Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > total nitpick: Newbery award \<— only one r. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808/80 "2012-06-03T23:38:11Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > When the hero corners the bad guy (after an epic chase and/or fight, during the course of which they both killed dozens of other people and caused massive property damage), and the partner/sidekick/freshly-rescued-damsel-in-distress stops him just before delivering the fatal blow because “that would make us just as bad as him,” followed _immediately_ by the bad guy attacking with a hidden weapon and the hero killing him anyway. Oh hell yeah! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/story-memes-or-themes-you-just-cant-stand/623808.md?page=5)