Seinfeld Is Unfunny/Literature: Difference between revisions

* ''[[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|The Catcher in The Rye]]'': J.D. Salinger's novel started a [[Wangst]] revolution in literature that it's never come out of. As a result, those who've read similar-style books before reading Salinger's book often write ''Catcher'' off as okay at best, a poor man's [[Chuck Palahniuk]] at worst.

** [[Wangst]] has been a part of literature ever since ''[[Wuthering Heights (Literaturenovel)|Wuthering Heights]]'' or even ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', it was just presented in such eloquent language that it seemed more legitimately emotional.

** The same goes for the inventors of "classic" detective fiction, [[Arthur Conan Doyle (Creator)|Arthur Conan Doyle]] and [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] in particular. Many of the stories and novels by both are stuffed with clichés and twists that a modern-day reader has seen a bit too often - but they invented them.

* The ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Equal Rites|Equal Rites]]'' was originally a subversion of the "witches = bad, wizards = good" trends in fantasy. However, the conventions used have since become so commonplace that today the book just sounds preachy.

** [[Terry Pratchett]] was amused to be told he was 'following in the grand tradition of [[JKJ. K. Rowling]]', given that he's been writing and published for two decades longer.

** To a lesser extent, this happened to Dracula's precursor, ''[[Varney the Vampire (Literature)|Varney the Vampire]]'', which invented the idea of a vampire with fangs, puncture marks on the throat, and [[Anti-Villain|the sympathetic vampire]]. However, despite its influence it was never a particularly good book to begin with.

* The ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' books. People new to it (and in particular the [[Forgotten Realms]] novels) and who scoff at Drizzt being the emo badass rebel from an evil society don't realize just what hot shit those books were in the early '90s--and that they inspired a lot of the clichés they deride the books for using. Author R. A. Salvatore has even had readers come up to him at conventions to say "A good duel-wielding Drow ranger? How cliche!"

* [[HPH.P. Lovecraft|Howard P. Lovecraft]]. Compared to some of the tropes they've arguably spawned, certain stories of his can come across as charmingly old-fashioned and not necessarily all that horrifying to the modern reader. Or, in the case of his obvious racism, not-so-charming.

* ''[[Lensman]]''. [[EEE. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s classic saga can seem like a [[Cliché Storm]] of [[Space Opera]] tropes, but, of course, it ''started'' most of them.

* ''[[Lost Souls]]''. While [[Poppy Z. Brite]]'s novel probably didn't originate of a lot of vampire clichés -- bisexual, seductive vampires, New Orleans, Goths, [[Ho Yay]] -- these tropes were a lot fresher when she and [[Anne Rice]] wrote their books.

* [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)|JRRR. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': This book popularized most of the cliches found in fantasy today, but modern readers may well find it unspeakably boring, purely because everything in it has since been subverted, inverted, parodied, and otherwise done to death. Aside from that though, it also has lots of [[Unbuilt Trope]] which are actually not like what non-readers think the book contains.

* [[Michael Moorcock]]. A good bit of his work falls into this, especially ''[[The Elric Saga]]''. Like ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' he created or expanded upon many fantasy tropes that are commonplace now. Hell, even one of the introductions to the new paperback collections of Elric's tale states this. Also all that crazy-ass, sexually deviant, creature-of-their-time, lone wolf super spy stuff (different from the way [[James Bond]] does it, mind you)? Well, that's [[The Cornelius Chornicles|Jerry Cornelius]], possibly Moorcock's second most famous creation.

* ''[[The Neverending Story (Literaturenovel)|The Neverending Story]]''. Similar to ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', it can seem an awful lot like a rather standard read, albeit a [[Doorstopper|long one]] for children. A child finds a mysterious book that appears to be a gateway to another world. He appears to have found himself written into the story of this mysterious new world, and finds himself embarking on all sorts of adventures in a realm of fantasy powered by human imagination, becoming part of it all along the way, then finally departing home at the end after almost losing himself to his own fantasy and defeating the [[Big Bad]]. Even if the entire story wasn't replicated ''too'' too much (''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' comes close, however), a lot of the book's themes seem a bit...well, cliché. The plot itself doesn't seem to be anything new either.

* ''Paul Clifford''. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's fifth novel, was an immense commercial success when first published. Today, it is remembered only as the origin of the notorious opening "[[It Was a Dark Andand Stormy Night]]".

* "[[A Sound of Thunder]]", a short story by [[Ray Bradbury]], was about time travelers who went back to prehistoric times, killed a butterfly, and accidentlyaccidentally caused a fascist candidate to win the presidential elections. Which was a really original plot, when it was written. However, those story elements are so trite now that when the movie loosely based on the story was made, it was criticized for using old, tired cliches.

* [[Stephen King]]'s books have fallen into this due to so many modern horror writers copying his style. When he first published ''[[Salems'Salem's Lot]]'' and ''[[Carrie]]'', the idea of bringing horror out of gothic castles and into average New England towns revitalized the genre.

* ''[[Stranger in Aa Strange Land]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]] features a Jesus-like human from Mars who can perform telekinesis, telepathy, and miracle healing simply by meditating. He spends most of the novel trying to "understand earthEarth behaviour" and ends up bringing his followers sexual liberation. Most people nowadays tend to forget that Heinlein wrote the novel in the ''fifties'' but that it was published in the sixties, It was deemed publishable only when the hippie movement was already well on its way and ended up as a huge influence on the mentality of the '60s and '70s (predating Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by over a decade). Many attitudes in modern New Age philosophy are taken directly from Heinlein's work, often disguised as ancient Eastern wisdom.

* ''[[Uncle TomsTom's Cabin]]'': The characters seem incredibly stereotyped to modern eyes because the popularity of the book -- and the minstrel shows inspired by or at least [[In Name Only|named for]] it -- ''established'' those very stereotypes.

* ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'': This book heavily influenced geek humor during the 1980s but now the humor seems too cerebral to today's audience. Also, Douglas Adams' humor doesn't translate well from the written page to the spoken-out-loud format due to his verbosity and the lower attention span of the modern audience. That would explain the 2005 movie which either didn't include most of the iconic lines from the book, altered them to sound more American, or substituted visual humor.

* ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King ArthursArthur's Court]]'' (1889) has fallen victim to it. It was one of the earliest [[Time Travel]] novels, and the protagonist's efforts to introduce "modern" technology and values in [[The Middle Ages]] was groundbreaking on its own. However this idea was followed in (among others) ''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]'' (1941), which was itself influential in the [[Alternate History]] genre, ''[[The Cross Time Engineer (Literature)|The Cross Time Engineer]]'' series, the ''[[1632]]'' series, and ''[[Timeline]]''.; Whilewhile ''[[The Man Who Came Early]]'' (1956) by [[Poul Anderson]] served as an influential [[Deconstruction]] of the concept. Nowadays its hard to realize what was unique in the original novel.

* [[William Morris (Creator)|William Morris]] (1834-1896) attempted to revive the [[Chivalric Romance]] genre with novels ''The Wood Beyond the World'' (1894) and ''The Well at the World's End'' (1896)., Creatingcreating "an entirely invented fantasy world" as their setting. These works and his earlier [[Historical Fantasy]] novels influenced writers such as [[Lord Dunsany]], Eric Rücker Eddison, James Branch Cabell, [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)|JRRR. Tolkien]], and [[CSC. Lewis (Creator)|CSS. Lewis]]. Problem is that they are among the founding works of [[Medieval European Fantasy]]., Andand had a noticeable influence in the development of [[Heroic Fantasy]], [[High Fantasy]], and even the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. There is now nothing innovative about creating an invented world, and his works were considered dated by [[The Seventies]].

* ''[[The Great God Pan (Literature)|The Great God Pan]] (1894)'' was a prototype [[Cosmic Horror Story]], notable for "the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds". It was cited as a major influence by [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]], and (more recently) [[Stephen King]]. But part of the suspense is killed for the modern reader, who knows what to expect from the genre.