Category:Sour Grapes Tropes: Difference between revisions

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(The whole thing is sent up in [http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus13.html this] ''[[Minus (Webcomic)|Minus]]'' strip... [[Indecisive Deconstruction|then played straight]] in [http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus14.html the very next comic].)

The trope name is based on a famous [[Aesop's Fables ~~(Literature)~~|Aesop fable]] about a fox who tries to seize a bunch of grapes from a vine without success, and then [[Green-Eyed Monster|declares them sour]] after his failure. This reads more like an observation than [[An Aesop]], though. (Which happens to be the case with quite a few of Aesop's Fables.) If you can't have something, it's easy to say that you don't want it.

The trope name is based on a famous [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop fable]] about a fox who tries to seize a bunch of grapes from a vine without success, and then [[Green-Eyed Monster|declares them sour]] after his failure. This reads more like an observation than [[An Aesop]], though. (Which happens to be the case with quite a few of Aesop's Fables.) If you can't have something, it's easy to say that you don't want it.

Stories that don't do this run a risk of becoming mere [[Wish Fulfillment]] fantasies. [[Not That There's Anything Wrong ~~With~~ That]]. Fiction has been providing wish fulfillment for centuries. In fact if the story is loaded with ''other'' kinds of wish fulfillment, but for these, it can seem to be downright hypocritical to suddenly be selective about it. Moreover, [[Sour Grapes Tropes]] [[Not So Different|are in of themselves a kind of]] [[Wish Fulfillment]]; they help to assauge the audience's jealousy by showing that a 'good' thing is actually bad in some way so it's not the end of the world if they don't have it. This can create the [[Unfortunate Implication]] that a reader is [[Viewers are Morons|only able to accept a character better off]] if they're flawed or [[Demonization|demonized in some way]]. Needless to say that is not the case in real life--oftentimes, RL Alice will not only be [[TV Genius|smarter than you]] but also hotter, healthier, and have more friends. Deal with it, Bob.

Stories that don't do this run a risk of becoming mere [[Wish Fulfillment]] fantasies. [[Not That There's Anything Wrong with That]]. Fiction has been providing wish fulfillment for centuries. In fact if the story is loaded with ''other'' kinds of wish fulfillment, but for these, it can seem to be downright hypocritical to suddenly be selective about it. Moreover, [[Sour Grapes Tropes]] [[Not So Different|are in of themselves a kind of]] [[Wish Fulfillment]]; they help to assauge the audience's jealousy by showing that a 'good' thing is actually bad in some way so it's not the end of the world if they don't have it. This can create the [[Unfortunate Implication]] that a reader is [[Viewers are Morons|only able to accept a character better off]] if they're flawed or [[Demonization|demonized in some way]]. Needless to say that is not the case in real life--oftentimes, RL Alice will not only be [[TV Genius|smarter than you]] but also hotter, healthier, and have more friends. Deal with it, Bob.

The other bad side about some of these tropes is that they can be used [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|to teach very harmful lessons to the audience]]. If one of the things the [[Sour Grapes Tropes]] is grousing about is something the viewer can genuinely fix (e.g. dissatisfaction about their undeveloped education as opposed to dealing with the fact that they will die someday), it can encourage them to stay in their bad situation rather than [[Dare to Be Badass|doing something about it]]. Notice that a lot of these tropes have the stealth [[Aesop]] of 'so don't try to better yourself'.

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''... [[The Rolling Stones ~~(Music)~~|But if you try sometimes]]''<br />''[[Waxing Lyrical|You just might find]]''<br />''You get what you need!''

''... [[The Rolling Stones|But if you try sometimes]]''<br />''[[Waxing Lyrical|You just might find]]''<br />''You get what you need!''