(no subject)

[feotakahari]

There’s a certain RPG designer whose Tumblr I sometimes read,* and he’s giving me a lot of insight into why I hate postmodernism so much. I thought it was a difference in perspectives, because I tend to look at fiction-writing as the creation of a coherent and believable world, and postmodernism relies so much on the reader knowing and accepting that fiction isn’t reality. But really, it’s as simple as irony. To this designer, not only are the tropes within a story narrative tools, the emotions a reader or player feels are strings to be plucked. In a sense, a reader who “falls for this” and actually feels emotions about a story is a character in that story, and he treats them with about as much respect and dignity as he treats fictional characters. He, of course, is fully aware that it’s all so much bunk, and that the only proper emotion to show towards fiction is snide amusement. He positions himself as a smart mark, and he misses that the relevant word there is “mark."

People used to say this was why they hated TV Tropes so much, but honestly, I never saw much irony poisoning in the TV Tropes userbase. I mean, these are people who enjoy My Little Pony. They couldn’t be less ironic if they tried.

*I’m not particularly trying to hide who this is. I’m just not sure whether it’s more rude to name someone or not.