Genre Savvy/Literature: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** Of course, it's really a 'heads I win, tails you lose' situation; Ishtar does ''not'' [[Woman Scorned|take rejection well]], and spends the rest of the tale trying to screw Gilgamesh over in ever more creative ways. And very often succeeding.

* In the [[Framing Story]] of [[How Kazir Won His Wife]], the sorcerer implies that he got his position through [[Knights and Knaves|knowing how to deal with pairs of people of whom one always lied and the other always told the truth]]. In the [[Story Within a Story]], the king was genre savvy enough to realise that Kazir was familiar with the [[Knights and Knaves]] puzzle, so Kazir ended up [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] when the king set a slightly different puzzle.

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] features quite a few characters like this, thanks to the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]. Several of the witches, especially Granny Weatherwax, have a feel for "stories", and can use them to their own ends if they have to. Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is pretty [[Genre Savvy]] when it comes to tropes of detective stories and police procedurals. Malicia from ''The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents'' is either ''too'' [[Genre Savvy]], or [[Wrong Genre Savvy|not savvy enough.]] She insists on ''always'' seeing things in terms of stories, ranging from fairy tales to [[Kid Detective]] novels like ''Tom Swift'', ''The Hardy Boys'', and ''The Famous Five'' (she even claims at one point that four kids and a dog is "the right number for an adventure"). Furthermore, she has trouble in coping with subversions and exceptions, and [[Heroic Wannabe|always makes herself out to be the main character of the "story"]]. Rincewind the Wizzard [sic], meanwhile, is very much aware of [[Finagle's Law]] and similar narrative conventions that keep his life interesting. He hates them.

** "...Exactly one in a million?"

** [http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/target256.html Well, ''technically'' they're only little old men in robes...]

*** And all the moreso, in that the Horde's dangerous actions were spurred on by their belief that the time of heroes has passed. It has, but only for ''their'' kind of kick-in-the-door, rob-the-temple, big-thug-with-a-sword hero. Carrot, who routinely risks his life for a city salary the Silver Horde wouldn't consider enough to tip a barmaid, represents a new '''type''' of hero: one who's simply determined to do the right thing. The Silver Horde are confronted by this generational and cultural transition -- from hero''ing'' to hero''ism'' -- and it floors them.

*** Taken to its logically subversive extreme when the Silver Horde meet up with Evil Harry Dread and his minions. They spend quite some time reminiscing about how Evil Harry used to follow [[Genre Blind|The Code]] by doing things like having the standard dress code for his soldiers include helmets that fully covered his face, hiring ridiculously stupid henchmen who couldn't tell the difference between an old washerwoman and a hero dressed like an old washerwoman, and so forth. Basically how Evil Harry always did everything the [[Evil Overlord List]], something with which he is clearly [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|intimately familiar with]], says not to do -- [[Contractual Genre Blindness|on purpose]]. After complimenting Harry on the utter stupidity of his current batch of minions, they go on to complain about how the current generation of Evil Overlords go about doing everything The [[Evil Overlord List]] says to do, which just isn't right. That is, if they bother with the Evil Overlording at all and don't just go straight into bureaucracy.

**** At the same time, Evil Harry Dread is complaining about how the new heroes are refusing to live up to their end of the bargain by doing things like sabotaging the Evil Overlord's escape tunnel. Guys like Cohen always left the escape tunnel intact, [[Contractual Genre Blindness|even thought they knew the Evil Overlord would inevitably escape through one]]. The reasoning behind this is that Evil Overlords are a hero's bread and butter, so killing them all off would leave them unemployed.

*** Rincewind demonstrates a PERFECT level of this trope in this story. At one point, he announces to Lord Vetinari that he does not wish to volunteer for the mission. He's GOING, of course, because he's perfectly aware that that's how his life goes, but he wants it known that he doesn't WISH TO. The other wizards present, knowing what kind of things he's gone through (for what appears to be rather more than 20 years by this point) concur with him on this point.

*** His nephew, the new Count is just as [[Genre Savvy]], but more ambitious. As savvy as he is though, he's not quite a match for Granny Weatherwax.

* Johnny and Kirsty in ''[[Only You Can Save Mankind]]''. Of course their genre awareness is actually influencing the setting to some degree.

** Note that this is an [[Affectionate Parody]] universe where genre savviness is actively taught to people; Cimorene's education included things like the right way to scream when being carried off by a giant.

** Her son, Daystar, is even more so, to the point of being a [[Tyke Bomb]].

* In ''[[Cold Comfort Farm]]'', a satirical novel about a young woman who goes from the city to live with her backward relatives on the titular farm, Flora Poste has read [[Weird Al Effect|all sorts of novels about young women who go from the city to live with their backward relatives on farms]]. She thus correctly guesses that they'll have names like Seth, Amos, and Judith, identifies Aunt Ada Doom as "the Dominant Grandmother Archetype", and keeps an eye peeled for subversions and exceptions.

{{quote| She remembered Peter's saying to her one day:<br />

'The heroines of thrillers deserve all they get. When a mysterious voice rings them up and says it is Scotland Yard, they never think of ringing back to verify the call. Hence the prevalence of kidnapping.' }}

::She rings back to check, and discovers that the call was a fake. (Dorothy L. Sayers, ''Gaudy Night'', ch. 18, p. 349).

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]]'' series uses this idea -- indeed, it is central to its premise. The idea is that the world in governed by a mysterious force called "The Tradition" which forces peoples' lives to follow traditional story tales, like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc. The main characters are either Godmothers or are being helped by Godmothers to achieve the story's end -- or to change the story from one with a fair amount of deaths to one with a happy ending. As such, all Godmothers need to know what story they are in and, preferably, numerous other stories they can try and manipulate.

* [[The Longing of Shiina Ryo|Shin-tsu]] begins to joke that he's in a novel and both Kouma and Ryo try to utilize story structures to make sense of his life. It works.

* Many characters in [[John Ringo]] and Travis Taylor's ''[[Into the Looking Glass]]'' series of novels are perfectly aware they've been thrown into a science fictional situation. In the second novel, ''Vorpal Blade'', being science fiction fans is seen as a useful characteristic for the new Space Marines and officers flying the first human starship, the captain of which takes a giddy delight in being able to give orders like "Ahead Warp 1" and "Engage warp drive".

** In the sequel ''Claws That Catch'' this is taken to a slightly surreal extreme when some conflicts between various alien technologies cause them to hallucinate that they are anime characters. One of the main characters laments the fact that he is clearly a secondary character since as anime characters the hero is clearly identifiable.

{{quote| ''A spinning kick, Butler. How could you?''}}

** Invoked in ''The Opal Deception,'' when Holly asks Artemis to think like a videogame character in order to divise a solution to their predicament (being attacked by trolls). Artemis decides to think like a character in a war game, tries to create a list of exploitable weaknesses that the trolls possess, and forms a plan based around their hatred of bright lights.

** Edmund also has a [[Genre Savvy]] moment or two near the beginning of ''[[Prince Caspian]]'', drawing upon his knowledge of adventure stories for ideas on how he and his siblings can get by after they find themselves in an unpopulated wilderness.

** He has another in ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' when they are considering what has happened to the man whose armor they have found; it is explicitly cited that he reads mysteries.

* Subverted in ''The Dumas Club'' by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Rare book finder Lucas Corso has read enough to recognize a trope when he sees one and insists on following them until he can nab the [[Big Bad]]. He's mostly right {{spoiler|but the [[Big Bad]] is someone completely different than he suspected}}.

* Subverted in ''[[A Dance With Dragons]]'': {{spoiler|Quentyn Martell knows that, in stories, princes always win fights against dragons and get the beautiful princess afterwards.}} Too bad for him it is ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' we're talking about, so saying that things go spectacularly wrong is a bit of an understatement.

* The online blogiform novel ''[http://toothycat.net/~hologram/UltimateDream/ Ultimate Dream]'' is pretty much defined by its [[Genre Savvy]] [[Deadpan Snarker]] narrator, who relentlessly mocks the cliched [[Role Playing Game]] of the title, which plays like a catalogue of [[The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches]]. She continues mocking the clich�s even after she and her friends get [[Trapped in TV Land|sucked into the gameworld]]. The subsequent discussions with the game characters attempts, in several cases, to [[Justified Trope|justify]] several of the cliches. The [[Big Bad]] is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], while [[The Man Behind the Man]] is [[Contractual Genre Blindness|aware of the genre's limitations]] and indeed tries to enforce them.

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', most of the good guys are pretty [[Genre Savvy]], since legends are a major form of entertainment in Middle Earth. In "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol," Sam wonders if he and Frodo have reached a part of the story that the audience won't want to hear. Frodo, however, rightly points out that it's the dark, scary parts that keep people interested.

** Gandalf in particular is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to recognise that Gollum is a [[Chekhov's Gun]]. "My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to pay"

* John Dickson Carr's detective Dr. Gideon Fell is well aware that he's in a detective novel.

** In ''The Three Coffins'', he stops the action to explain to everybody how a locked room murder mystery can be pulled off, explaining that there's no point in pretending they're ''not'' in a detective novel.

* The whole point of [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series|TheJenniferMorgue]]''. The villain, a [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] billionaire trying to take over the world, recognizes he's a living trope and creates a [[Evil Plan]] by creating a magic spell that turns everything around him into a [[James Bond]] adventure, so that only a British agent conforming to the Bond stereotype would be in a position to stop him and save the world last the last moment. The plan is to then end the spell, making the agent an ordinary person again and so easily contained and killed, with no one else able to get there in time. Unfortunately for him, the British are even more [[Genre Savvy]] {{spoiler|when the agent they send isn't really the Hero, he's the Bond Babe, acting as an initially oblivious decoy for his girlfriend who is the real Hero sweeping in at the last minute with commandos to save the day}}.

* In the comic mystery play ''Any Number Can Die,'' a wannabe detective urges a reluctant informant to tell him the name of the murderer, because otherwise she'll get killed and only have time to whisper him a cryptic clue. Sure enough, she gets shot, gives him a clue, and he says in frustration, ''This always happens in stories!''

** Some acquired genre savvy on Harry's part would be the issue of darkness - Wizards immediately call light, making targets of themselves. Harry has apparently never heard of the concept of night-vision goggles, or a similar spell, but he will call up a wall of lava somewhere else that wont make him a target.

* ''[[Left Behind]]'' has an "unintentional" variant that cripples the narrative from the get-go. Many of the characters, who should have shown emotions at certain times, seem to be aware of the type of book they are in; they thus either do not display the appropriate emotions, or merely go through the motions. This cripples the first book of the series to an extreme extent in regards to making the characters seem real.

* In Jeffery Channing Wells' online masterpiece, ''Mundementia One'', there exists the Humility Company. This group of bodyguards is the best in the entire world because they refuse to say that they are the best out loud. By continuously downplaying their own skill they manage to survive for another battle. They even have an android Cardinal Richlieu to tell them when they've become too badass and have to sacrifice the rookie to the mysterious monster in the darkness.

** Frankly everyone in ''Mundementia One'' is genre savvy, though Charles is still trying to fully gain his.

(in the next chapter, [[Gilligan Cut|the four pilots are in women's clothing]])<br />

'''Hobbie''': You lied to me. }}

* In the [[Emberverse|novels of the Change]], [[The Dark Lord|Lord Protector Norman Arminger]] actually puts out a rough approximation of the [[Evil Overlord List]] for his provincial governors.

* The children's book ''Dear Peter Rabbit'' shows that the wolves of both the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood tales show a rather remarkable dose of learning their lessons from their given genre (though we only see it for one page). The wolf from the Red Riding Hood tale consoles the Big Bad Wolf over losing his tail to the pigs and their brick house, and suggests that as painful as it would be, they would have to change their diets to exclude pigs and little girls - it was just too dangerous. The Big Bad Wolf, looking very glum and having an artificial tail being sewn on, doesn't look like he's too inclined to disagree.

* In the novel ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', Raoul seems to know he's the [[Betty and Veronica|"safe" love interest]] in a Gothic romance, given his utter lack of surprise at Christine's love for her stalker/kidnapper despite no recognition of [[Stockholm Syndrome]] as such at the time.

* In the [[Liaden Universe]] books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Clan Korval has had plenty of time to become accustomed to its own [[Weirdness Magnet]] and [[Coincidence Magnet]] nature. As a result, it takes some pretty bizarre happenstance to more than mildly startle its more-experienced members, and they are at least somewhat able to recognize and take it into account in their planning (as when {{spoiler|Daav advises Theo that she ''needs'' a dependable co-pilot to help deal with the trouble her Korval nature will attract}} in ''Ghost Ship''). To some extent, the rest of the galaxy has also realized that Korval tends to attract trouble, even if they don't rightly understand why. {{spoiler|(Even ''Bechimo'' was advised by his builders, hundreds of years ago, against having anything to do with Clan Korval, and yos'Phelium in particular.)}}

* The kids in ''[[Hero Dot Com|Hero.com]]'' and the protagonist in its sister series ''[[Villain Dot Net|Villain.net]]'' are familiar enough with superhero stories to hang lampshades and snark, though Lorna inexplicably wanted to try and garner [[Attention Whore|fame]] with their powers.

* Fisk in the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' manages to be this mostly through street smarts, almost compensating for [[Too Dumb to Live|Michael's less thought out actions]].

* In ''Privilege'' by Kate Brian, after Ariana kills someone and throws them in the lake, instead of just leaving, she puts her favorite necklace on the body and waits for the body to float back up. The police assume that the body was her trying to either escape juvie or kill herself and they cremate the body. She is now free to assume the identity of the person she actually killed.

* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', one of Tarkin's cohorts ask him why he doesn't just use the Death Star to blow up Coruscant and become Emperor himself. Tarkin replies that Palpatine obviously has measures to prevent this, and any attempt would just get them all killed.

* In Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant'', {{spoiler|Lyle and Lloyd}} aren't just [[Genre Savvy]], they're ''trope'' savvy, [[Conversational Troping|dropping tropes]] practically by name in some cases and reciting examples from the corresponding entries. The topper comes in the climax, when {{spoiler|Lloyd}} brags to [[The Dragon]]: "[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moment]] of ''kicked your ass''!" They also manage to piece together the [[Big Bad]]'s identity and some key elements of the [[Evil Plan]] through their [[Discussed Trope|encyclopedic knowledge of tropes]], blatantly suggesting that the characters (and the author) are [[One of Us]].

* Thrasymachus in Plato's [[The Republic]] calls Socrates out on his usual debate style, involving [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] and [[Armor Piercing Questions]], and demands he just get to the point.

 

{{reflist}}