10,169
edits
(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Literature.BeggarsInSpain 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Literature.BeggarsInSpain, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
Tag: Rollback |
||
(11 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
It's 2008, [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]. Leisha Camden is a [[Born Winner]]: her daddy's rich, her mama's good-looking, [[Hair of Gold]], [[Blue Eyes|Eyes Of Blue]]... and the latest genemods, the one that make you [[The Sleepless|not need to sleep]]. This particular genemod is a very new technology, and Leisha is only the 21st human being ever born with it. The other 19 are healthy, sane, cheerful and incredibly smart; all of them go on to become luminaries in their fields. The 20th was shaken to death by parents who [[Reality Ensues|hadn't reckoned on a baby that cried 24/7]].
A [[Cyberpunk]] novel by way of [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]], the ''Beggars'' trilogy has a lot of technology in it, obviously; in addition to "genemods", as they're called, there's Cold Fusion, invented by a guy named Kenzo Yagai. He also invented Yagaiism, which Kress admits to having based on [[
The other emphasis of the trilogy, the ''real'' emphasis, is prejudice. [[What Measure Is a Non
And then things go ''really'' [[Off the Rails]].
One part [[
{{tropelist}}
* [[Artistic License: Biology]]: science currently believes that long-term sleeplessness is impossible, as sleep serves as a necessary pressure valve for a number of mental, emotional and physiological processes; for instance, mood imbalance is associated with sleep deprivation. Kress [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] this via [[Insane Troll Logic]] ("Exactly--remove sleep entirely and the mood disorders will disappear with it!"), but since sleeplessness is a [[Necessary Weasel]] we put up with it.▼
▲* [[A Cup Angst]]: Diana Covington has some of this going on.
▲* [[Artistic License Biology]]: science currently believes that long-term sleeplessness is impossible, as sleep serves as a necessary pressure valve for a number of mental, emotional and physiological processes; for instance, mood imbalance is associated with sleep deprivation. Kress [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] this via [[Insane Troll Logic]] ("Exactly--remove sleep entirely and the mood disorders will disappear with it!"), but since sleeplessness is a [[Necessary Weasel]] we put up with it.
* [[Becoming the Costume]]: the whole point of Theresa Aranow's biofeedback techniques.
* [[Bio Augmentation]]: the Change syringes, full stop.
* [[Bread and Circuses]]: the entire post-Y-energy society functions this way. The Sleepless are the intellectuals, the "donkeys" are genemod [[Muggles]] and bureaucrats, and the "Livers" are the remaining 90%: the mental scrapheaps who are ''told'' they are the top of the pile because they get to live lives of "aristo leisure" with donkeys doing all the work for them.
* [[Brother
* [[Control Freak]]: Roger Camden; Jennifer Sharifi
* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Billy Washington
* [[Courtroom Episode]]: volume two of the first book.
* [[Creator Provincialism]]: there are a grand total of two scenes in the entire trilogy that take place outside of America.
* [[Cursed
** The Superbrights even more so. Almost a deconstruction of [[Super Intelligence]]: they're so smart that they think in clouds of word association, or even in pure mathematics. Their bodies have to be "revved to the edge of biochemical hysteria" to support all that grey matter, leading to rampant stuttering, poor motor control and terrible difficulties with verbal language. And, of course, they get [[Fantastic Racism]] leveled against them ''by their own creators''.
* [[Cute Clumsy Girl]]: Miranda Sharifi, like all other Supers.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: everyone, but particularly Diana Covington.
* [[Deep
* [[Emotionless Girl]]: Jennifer Sharifi
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: ''everywhere'', best organized through the "We-Sleep" movement started by Calvin Hawke. One of the interesting bits of its presentation, though (and the reason for the "[[X
* [[The Fettered]]: Leisha is (or tries to be) a good person and has enormous faith in the [[American Political System]].
* [[Generation Xerox]]: two generations apart, a boy named Tony dies and creates a rift between the super-intelligent and the [[Muggles]].
* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]]
* [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]: the Change syringes.
* [[Good Lawyers, Good Clients]]: averted. The only client we ever see Leisha take on is a [[Spear Carrier]] for the local [[Batman Gambit]].
* [[Gundamjack]]: one of the big moves of the rebellion in the second book.
* [[Healing Factor]]
Line 50 ⟶ 48:
* [[Mama Bear]]: Jennifer Sharifi
** [[Knight Templar Parent]]
*** [[Protagonist
* [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]]: deconstructed in the person of Cazie Sanders.
* [[May
* [[Might Makes Right]]: one of the guiding principles of Sanctuary, when you get down to it. "We don't recognize that weakness has a moral claim on competency."
* [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness]]: Despite being [[
* [[Morally
* [[Muggle Born of Mages]]: six Sleepless marriages produce sleeping children during the 21st century, due to genetic regression to the mean. The five born on Sanctuary are [[All of the Other Reindeer|quietly done away with]].
* [[Nanomachines]]
* [[The Needs of the Many]]: Opposing this idea when they're considered the "few" is the guiding principle of Sanctuary. Of course, when they are the "many", they have no problem applying it to their own engineered offspring.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Drew Arlen's "The Warrior" concert, which Miri ordered him to create in order to combat societal breakdown, actually makes more people join the rebel conspiracy ''driving'' that breakdown.
* [[Older Than They Look]]: Sleepless stop aging physically in their 20s or 30s.
* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Sleepless; to a much larger extent, SuperSleepless.
Line 75 ⟶ 73:
* [[The Spock]]: ''all'' Sleepless, by virtue of being unable to sleep and thus having no access to the safety valve of the unconscious. (Seriously, Leisha dies at the age of 106. She sleeps ''once'' in her life, when she takes a drug at age 16. Imagine being conscious for 90 years straight, by the way.)
* [[Stepford Smiler]]: all the characters to a certain extent—being a Sleepless means being an instant celebrity—but Jennifer Sharifi the most. Leisha's mother Elizabeth as well, for the short time she's in the story.
* [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]] in every book after the first.
* [[Supporting Protagonist]]: the second book's central character is Miranda Sharifi. She does not narrate.
* [[Switching POV]]: the first book features primarily Leisha, with help from, in order: Susan Melling, Jordan Watrous, Jennifer Sharifi, Drew Arlen and Miri Sharifi. The second is all [[Point of View|first-person]] narration from Drew, Billy Washington and Diana Covington. The third uses Lizzie Francy, Jennifer Sharifi, and Jackson and Theresa Aranow.
Line 86 ⟶ 84:
* [[The Unfavourite]]: Alice.
* [[Uptight Loves Wild]]: Jackson Aranow and Cazie Sanders.
* [[The Virus]]: two kinds. One is for [[Kill
* [[Waif Prophet]]: Theresa
* [[Wham! Line]]: "Do you know [[François de La Rochefoucauld
* [[What Happened to
* [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters]]
Line 95 ⟶ 93:
[[Category:Nebula Award]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:Beggars
[[Category:Literature]]
|