Things That Are Cool - Part 3

[khiemtran]

3) Poignant Irony

Children being sent away on a dangerous journey are given cake because that's all the adults can do for them. Songs sung by a general's daughter imprisoned and soon to be murdered turn out to ultimately create a force for good. A telepathic secret agent knows exactly how much the people he will endanger himself to save despise him.

I do use this a bit, but probably not enough in fact. Overdoing it is more likely to be attempting it too many times in scenes too close to each other. For me, this is what "real" writing feels like - being able to play situations and emotions against each other, rather than just playing it straight.

These are the scenes that will linger in my head.

Comments

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I have large numbers of little scenes (Mossflower style) where some character is defeated, crawls away to pull the leaf-mold over his head and cry himself to sleep -- while the camera pans back to show that he's accidentally uncovering and is pillowing himself on the MacGuffin or whatever, and Something Good Will Come of This.

Speaking of irony, try Andre Malraux's memoirs. I remember one bit about a traditional Catholic children's feast/procession (in Spain?) where the big saint effigies also included Disney characters, and there was a rain or some diaster, and he ended it with a picture of the children huddled sheltering under the effigies.

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

These posts you're making are all giving me insights into things that I also consider very cool in writing, but I hadn't reflected about. So thank you :-)

And yes, playing things against each other is so much better than playing straight -- deeper, more poignant. Life can be sloppy: writing can be tighter, and therefore it should be.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're getting something out of them. So, what sort of things would be on your list? Would they be very different from mine?

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Thing is, you see, it's been literally years since I've written any fiction that isn't the Damn Novel -- so I can't really think in terms of things that I do repeatedly.

I'm also not sure I'd be able to articulate things at the same level of abstraction -- which is why I'm so enjoying your list: not only it points out to me some specific things that are cool, but it also pushes my brain a bit in the direction of thinking that way. New brain-tools are always cool :-)