I'm not surprised, hah. On the upside of tropes... long before TV Tropes, I had a copy of this article, "The Mirror of Fiction," one of several Plot Coupons that gave hope for the power of fiction to help change reality:
The Mirror of Fiction
http://www.keirsey.com/mirror_of_fiction.aspxIt talks about the relationship between fiction, especially Pygmalion, and Jungian/Myers-Briggs temperament theory. This paragraph really caught my attention, and applies just as much to tropes as to MBTI theory:
"As with all experience of a new vocabulary, I began to see the world around me with new clarity and in new detail, and very soon my family, my students, my colleagues, friends and foes alike, found their way into the categories of personality I was internalizing. Not that they were reduced from complex individuals, but the broader lines of their attitudes and imperatives came into focus."
These paragraphs remind me a bit of some of the challenges of Mr. Administrator's coercive nature, even though he's not necessarily trying to change people, as much as coerce them into complying with his demands of the moment. But that, by story design, leads to conflict due to the Cabal and the uncertain nature of reality. Any extended conflict potentially brings these challenges up, though:
"No longer able to appreciate our loved ones' distinctive ways of living, we try to shape them according to our own values or agendas. Like Pygmalion, in short, we take up the project of sculpting them little by little to suit ourselves. We snipe and criticize, brow-beat and bully, we sculpt with guilt and with praise, with logic and with tears -- whatever methods are most natural to us. Not that we do this ceaselessly, nor always maliciously, but all too often, almost without thinking, we fall into this pattern of coercive behavior."
"And like Pygmalion, we are inevitably frustrated, since our well-intentioned efforts to make over our mates bring us little more than disappointment and conflict. Our loved ones do not -- cannot -- comply meekly with our interference in their lives, and even if they were to surrender to our pressure, they would have to destroy in themselves what attracted us in the first place, their individuality, their distinct breath of life. Our Pygmalion projects must fail: either our loved ones fight back, and our relationships become battlegrounds; or they give in to us, and become as lifeless as Pygmalion's statue. In this paradoxical game, we lose even if we win."
Related tropes: Pygmalion Plot & Pygmalion Snapback. (They'll be on the test!
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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... malionPlothttp://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... onSnapBackAnyone have any thoughts on this stuff? Related experiences?
(I'm trying to change the *Wiki Walk* into a *writing walk* -- or something like that.)
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