Magnum Opus Dissonance: Difference between revisions

What happens when a writer or artist deliberately tries to create their ''[[Magnum Opus]]''? They slave over it for years, pouring 110% of their heart and soul and energy and sanity into it, and confidently expect it to be [[This Is Going to Be Huge|huge]], monumental, [[Genre Busting]], and assure them eternal fame and honor... and what is the response? "Meh, it's [[So Okay Its Average]]."

But what happens when the same artist just writes or creates something for fun or [[Money Dear Boy|profit]] with no big plans, hopes, or expectations for its success? Heck, they know it's not that good but figure it will at least pay the bills this month. They're so busy working on that inevitably earth-shattering ''magnum opus'', they don't even give this other silly little project much thought. Whoever commissioned it is sure to be disappointed, but it's no big deal; the public won't even notice its existence enough to laugh at its pointlessness anyway.

[[Sub Trope]] of the [[Centipedes Dilemma]] and [[Sister Trope]] to [[Creator Backlash]] (often a good source thereof, too). [[Sub Trope]] of [[Murphy's Law]]. Compare [[Self Deprecation]], [[Sweet and Sour Grapes]], [[Springtime for Hitler]], and [[It Will Never Catch On]]. Also see [[Consolation Award]] for when the work that ''is'' considered the best by public is not the most awarded.

{{examples|Examples:}}

* [[Cupcakes]] is an extremely [[Gorn|gory]] [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]] fanfic that was written on a whim because the author wanted to see if it would actually get any attention. The result: a fanfic so infamous that reading it is more or less a pre-requisite for understanding many of the in-jokes and references in the Friendship Is Magic fandom. It's spawned an incredible number of spinoff fics, and most recently, one of the show's animators made a rather gruesome [[Ascended Meme|music video]] based on the fic. The chances are very high that Lauren Faust, creator of the show, knows what Cupcakes is. Most [[Periphery Demographic|bronies]] might not even know that the author actually wrote more 'normal', more serious works that don't exactly get a ton of attention compared to Cupcakes.

* This is something of a recurring narrative in the [[New Hollywood]] era of the 1970s, with numerous directors agreeing to do studio pictures in order to get the funding for the more personal pictures that they wanted to make. The studio pictures, which were usually made under [[Executive Meddling|some level of studio observation (however minor)]], would go on to be widely acclaimed as great films, whereas the more [[Auteur License|personal pictures]] -- usually made under an atmosphere of [[Protection From Editors]] and [[Small Name Big Ego|the director's ego]] having spiraled [[Prima Donna Director|completely out of control]] -- would bomb disastrously.

* Out of all the actors to play [[Batman]], [[Batman Forever (Film)|Val Kilmer]] has never been very well received. Many loved [[Batman (Film)|Michael Keaton]] and hated [[Batman and Robin (Film)|George Clooney]] but were really just indifferent to Kilmer, finding him [[So Okay Its Average|dull]]. However Batman creator Bob Kane felt that he played the character best (Granted Kane died before [[Dark Knight Trilogy|Christian Bale]] donned the cowl).

* [[David Cronenberg]]'s (arguably) two most popular films, ''[[The Fly]]'' and ''[[A History of Violence]]'', were actually born out of [[Troubled Production]] on two films - he went into the director's chair on the former after he was fired from production on ''[[Total Recall]]'', and in the commentary, says he was "interested in it somewhat" (he didn't write the original script, just some patchwork), and admitted that he didn't like the original 1958 film. The latter film is one which he did [[Money Dear Boy|primarily for the paycheck]] after having to defer his salary on the now-forgotten ''Spider''. Unlike many of the creators here, he has come to appreciate these projects, and talks in interviews about doing a potential companion piece to ''The Fly''.

* Philip Larkin, meanwhile, wanted to be a novelist rather than a poet. His two novels are read only by a few academics, but his poetry remains popular, acclaimed, and even quoted (even if his most-quoted poem is mainly so because of its [[Cluster F Bomb]]).

* At [[The Cavalier Years]] in Spain, money was found in [[Theater]], and glory was found in [[Poetry]]. Miguel de Cervantes wrote a comedy book that didn’t get noticed by the critics. Nonetheless, it was successful enough for the editor kept asking for a [[Continuation]] because [[Money Dear Boy]]. But Cervantes had [[Attention Deficit Creator Disorder]] and wanted to write a lot of projects that would bring him glory, like “Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda”. [[Comedy Ghetto|No one took the comedy book seriously, not even Cervantes.]] Maybe that continuation would have never seen the light of day if not for a [[Fan Fiction]] writer that wrote himself the second part, doing the worst insult you can do to an author: A [[Fix Fic]], because Cervantes wrote some characters deserving of a better writer. Cervantes [[Even Better Sequel|decided to write the best second part he could]], and so we have now [[Don Quixote]].

* While ''[[Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (Music)|Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' would become renowned as one of the best and most important rock albums ever, the members of [[The Beatles]] themselves were divided on the issue; certainly, [[George Harrison]] and [[John Lennon]], while not exactly disliking it, later admitted they couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Lennon himself preferred ''[[The White Album]]''.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' has an [[In Universe]] example with Brian Griffin. His labor-of-love novel, ''Faster than the Speed of Love,'' becomes a massive bomb due to its being an incredibly trite [[Cliche Storm]] that unintentionally rips off the ''[[Iron Eagle (Film)|Iron Eagle]]'' series. After he trashes schlocky self-help books and says anyone could make one, Stewie [[Let's See You Do Better|challenges him to do so]], so he throws together ''Wish It, Want It, Do It,'' which becomes a smash hit.