Forgotten Trope: Difference between revisions

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* A trope from Hollywood musicals of the forties and fifties was the [[Dream Ballet|ballet sequence]]—a segment in which the movie broke away from the main action to tell a mini-story through stylized interpretive dance. It may have [[Evolving Trope|evolved]] into the [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]].

** As a glance at many of the specific examples below will show, this is largely thanks to [[Gene Kelly]].

** First played with in the "Dream Ballet" from ''[[Oklahoma]]''.

** First played with in the "Dream Ballet" from ''[[Oklahoma!]]''.

** Then further popularized by the surreal title ballet from the Powell-Pressburger classic ''[[The Red Shoes]]''.

** It hit its stride with the ''[[An American in Paris]]'' ballet from the movie.

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* Invasion Literature was a popular British sub-genre of [[Science Fiction]] (not named as such at that point) in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. This genre focused on the invasion of Britain [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] (or earlier) by a foreign power. This foreign power was most often either France or Germany, depending on which seemed Britain's most likely enemy at the time. Its mainstream incarnation vanished during [[World War I]], presumably because they had ''actual'' wars with Germany.

** ''The Battle of Dorking'' (1871) by George Tomkyns Chesney, the [[Trope Codifier]], though not the [[Ur Example]]. This was written in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war, which had shocked Europe with the speed with which Europe's second-largest army was defeated by a numerically smaller but technically more sophisticated foe. This theme ran through the genre.

** Both ''The Riddle of the Sands'' (1903) by Erskine Childers and ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898) by [[H. G. Wells]] ended up having an effect on fiction long after the extinction of the original trope serving as the progenitors of modern espionage thrillers and the [[Alien Invasion]], respectively. The Invasion Fiction lives, but the invader has changed.

** Both ''The Riddle of the Sands'' (1903) by Erskine Childers and ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898) by [[H. G. Wells]] ended up having an effect on fiction long after the extinction of the original trope serving as the progenitors of modern espionage thrillers and the [[Alien Invasion]], respectively. The Invasion Fiction lives, but the invader has changed.

** A late example is [[Nevil Shute]]'s ''What Happened to the Corbetts'' (1938). By that time, of course, most people had a pretty good idea that something bad was going to happen, even if they didn't know [[World War II|quite how bad]] it would be.

** There were a few American examples of the genre, usually involving the [[Yellow Peril]]; the revival of that associated trope during [[World War II]] included a novel by Whitman Chambers titled ''Invasion!''.

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== Real Life ==

* The [[Rags to Riches]] trope has been pretty much [[Rescued ~~From~~ the Scrappy Heap|rescued from the Forgotten Tropes heap]] thanks to the advent of the lottery (the good kind, not the [[Lottery of Doom]]). There are countless [[Real Life]] examples such as Oprah Winfrey and "Dot Com" success stories that offer a [[Real Life]] [[Deconstruction]] and object lesson of sorts. Often though, there is a sour grapes Aesop at the end of modern versions of these tales. The newly wealthy person realizes that money has corrupted them and they give it all up to return to a simple life.

* The [[Rags to Riches]] trope has been pretty much [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap|rescued from the Forgotten Tropes heap]] thanks to the advent of the lottery (the good kind, not the [[Lottery of Doom]]). There are countless [[Real Life]] examples such as Oprah Winfrey and "Dot Com" success stories that offer a [[Real Life]] [[Deconstruction]] and object lesson of sorts. Often though, there is a sour grapes Aesop at the end of modern versions of these tales. The newly wealthy person realizes that money has corrupted them and they give it all up to return to a simple life.

* [[The Gay Nineties]]—at least, the sentimental depiction thereof. ([[The Fifties]] have pretty much replaced the 1890s as the fountain of historic sentimentalism.) Portraying [[The Gay Nineties]] as "wacky" or "nerdy" is still very much with us, however; just watch ''[[Family Guy]]'' for examples.

* [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08078/865947-42.stm "Columbia"] was a poetic 19th century name for the United States of America (it is the "C" in "Washington D.C."). [[wikipedia:Columbia (name)|Columbia herself]] was represented as a young woman (or goddess) and was a popular national personification into the early 20th century. Since then she has been displaced by another American personification -- "Uncle Sam". (The patriotic song "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" had a similar period of popularity.) About the only place you will see poor old Columbia these days is at the opening of a "Columbia Pictures" flick: she is the woman holding the torch.

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[[Category:The Silent Age of Animation]]

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[[Category:~~Forgotten Trope~~]]

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