What is boring and repetitious and deserves "newness"?

[DrSketchpad]

The title includes kind of what I want to express, but I'm not sure exactly what that is so I'll reserve a final judgement until maybe I DO know what I want to express. ANYWAYS

I was thinking, or recognizing how boring a lot of things are because they all hold patterns that no one ever DARES stepping out of. I think I'm thinking of things in media, but whatever you're thinking of that holds to the criterion from the title and a couple of sentences ago.

I think this is most definitely whatever amount of Ne that I use that should be held responsible. I'll give examples because that's what we've been waiting for, yeah?jk ok:

In dialogue I'll often mess around with words/sentence structure because it's more fun that way and it sometimes expresses the intended idea better.

A lot of fiction is boring. Like for real. There's actually a line- a graph of tension that's "the norm" for story telling. And it's boring. Characters, setting, whatever is introduced (low/no tension), conflict is introduced, quest/plot laid out(more tension (but sometimes someone loses a house or a family so tension is spiked very briefly or something blows up)), tension rises as people are introduced to conflicts in the path to their goal, tension peaks as main conflict is dealt with, tension lowers as things are being sorted and then tension is at it's lowest once the story ends and everything is still boring. I realize that not every story follows this (like sometimes it starts IN THE MIDDLE *gasp* but who cares 'In media res' was introduced centuries ago) and I'm sure there are interesting pieces of fiction that would could safely run free of this criticism, but it's disappointing that it's the norm and also that people eat it up so readily.

Same criticism basically goes to music. At least popular music. It's usually very boring. It usually follows already laid out patterns whether or not people are aware. It also has this habit of spreading ideas of people who should keep their ideas off the radio through the radio.


This makes me sound very pretentious, but I promise you I'm probably not that much. It's just something I realize that could change make me feel better. There's probably not much to say about it other than I think it's boring. Maybe that people should make a habit of creating and breaking patterns so that we have more ideas to work with in the first place. What do you think? Anything else?


EDIT: I was going to add this after the first sentence of the last paragraph, but I forgot:

This isn't to say that I don't enjoy things that have an air of familiarity. You can't escape it that easily, It's just a concerned criticism.

 

[Seteleechete]

A lot of fiction is boring. Like for real. There's actually a line- a graph of tension that's "the norm" for story telling. And it's boring. Characters, setting, whatever is introduced (low/no tension), conflict is introduced, quest/plot laid out(more tension (but sometimes someone loses a house or a family so tension is spiked very briefly or something blows up)), tension rises as people are introduced to conflicts in the path to their goal, tension peaks as main conflict is dealt with, tension lowers as things are being sorted and then tension is at it's lowest once the story ends and everything is still boring. I realize that not every story follows this (like sometimes it starts IN THE MIDDLE *gasp* but who cares 'In media res' was introduced centuries ago) and I'm sure there are interesting pieces of fiction that would could safely run free of this criticism, but it's disappointing that it's the norm and also that people eat it up so readily.

As someone who reads a lot of fiction... fuck this. Any time I think of the so called "literary curve" I want to punch someone in the face. I hate the very concept of literary norms.

 

[DrSketchpad]

^ YES. Thank you.

This is why I don't read fiction often. I've read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series a couple times(except for Mostly Harmless), but other than that I may have read one other thing that wasn't for school.

 

[Seteleechete]

The thing is, if I am going to enjoy a book I will enjoy it even knowing most of everything that will happen. I predict the events of a book with staggering accuracy after just a few pages and drop any I know I would dislike. Of course the true gems deviate from the norm and I am always ecstatic to read them. You just have to sift through the coal to find them.

 

[Frankie]

Religious rituals and dogmas. They're so repetitive that you can say them with the least cognitive awareness... Sunday after Sunday, year after year.

 

[StevenM]

Tv is worse.

Bad guy is bad. Good cop catches him. Almost got away. The end. Repeat and mass-produce on every station.

 

[Seteleechete]

I stopped watching tv years ago, I have a tv in my room collecting dust since I haven't turned it on for years.

 

[DrSketchpad]

Yeah TV is evil. Also magazines for the same reasons

 

[Pizzabeak]

life

 

[Azreal_Mistwalker]

Sometimes I'll use my knowledge of these patterns as a bit of a parlor trick. I'll go see a movie for the first time with someone and say what's going to happen before it does (this person is going to die, that person is going to betray the group, jumpscare in 3...2...1). I find it somewhat amusing to hone that skill to a razors edge, so I'm very impressed when something comes along that I can't predict. I highly recommend The Name of the Wind. It doesn't fall into all the same tired patterns.

 

[Mani]

I had this argument with my wife regarding bollywood movies. Same repetitive patterns in every movie.

My theory is that some people(possibly the majority) need repetitive drama.

 

[dark+matters]

Math and science instruction needs revision and newness!

 

[The Gopher]

This forum when I'm not here.

 

[Nikki 1635]

The mantra "education is the key to your future' is boring and should be outlawed.

 

[_whispers_]

The keyboard.

But all of the patterns, timing, tropes and stereotypes are useful. Take a look at movies. They have to set up the characters and give you the story and to proceed with the events in a limited amount of time. So they rely on tropes to get the information out of the way as quickly as possible. It's lazy, but it works. If they want to break out of the tropes they'll have to take the time and educate viewers. Not something I can see happening in mass media. And when it comes to timing people are already used to it and expect it. Get the timing wrong and they would think that the movie was too rushed or too slow. It's one of the reasons why a lot of people I know don't like foreign movies. The timing is different.

I wish the book industry was different, but it's about money making just like the others. So editors and publishes look for bestsellers.

Oh yeah, music. I've read that the brain actually gets a kick from predicting correctly what's going to happen in music. So the more repetitive the better. The reason for songs being short were technical limitations in the past that no longer exist. But no one seems to want to change things. Just like the keyboard.