A case in point ...

[blamebrampton]

So, there we were, having a chat on a friend's LJ about the differences between the US and the UK for purposes of a self-Britpicking list, with participants from both sides of the pond and beyond and frequent diversions into baiting and comedy from all sides, and apparently it has become a source of Flocked Drama.

Consider the argument very carefully: At least one American is very upset that British people prefer to be depicted in accurate ways.

And if you can't see why that's a bit dodgy, replace the word British with any other nationality.

I don't want to overstate the case, because really, it doesn't culturally oppress us the way that some other cultures have been oppressed by this sort of thing, since we don't deeply care and we had an Empire first. And while the original source of the complaint is a preference, it's certainly not a sine qua non, and we read heaps of stuff that gets us wrong, and some of it is good and some is crap, and really, at the end of the day we still pronounce and spell aluminium in ways that are scientifically logical, which in itself is enough. But, honestly ...

Interestingly, one of my points of difference was a tendency to soap-opera-like over-reactions in fiction. Clearly I drew the line too narrowly.

AND I left off the fact that it the entire United States has been the subject of mass-brainwashing to accept caffeinated flavoured beverages as coffee. Though I see Starbucks has dropped the word from their logo, truth in advertising at last!

Comments

[rickey-a.livejournal.com]

o.O I think there's a language gap here.
An American 'soap opera' refers to a daytime serial (usually containing a hospital, police station, and some insanely wealthy family's mansion as the main sets).

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I do know that, my point was that there is a trend in American writing to works that are overly influenced by the tropes of soap opera.

As examples, Lost in Translation: Not Influenced -- writing based on characters and situations that come about organically, people think about their actions at length, then rethink, minimal change occurs, but that change resonates in the audience because it seems real.

Law and Order: Highly influenced -- plot searches for the bigger shock and bigger twist to a point where it becomes almost pornographic, highly unlikely chances are commonplace, no one notices when an actor who previously played character X comes back as character Y (that one you can sort of look past because people deserve work), melodrama rather than naturalism being the model. I have to say that I haven't watched enough episodes of L&O anything to know whether it picks up on the trope of misunderstandings and half-overheard things being the basis for significant disasters, but I would not be shocked if it did. Change does not really resonate in the viewer because you are fairly sure it will not be lasting and the same disasters will be back next week.

Does that make more sense? Greys Anatomy would have probably been an even better example for the second, but I am not at all convinced it's not an actual soap, despite its claims to be an adult drama. kestrelsparhawk said something very clever above, which was that soap opera may also been a strong influence on the way people react on reality TV, because that is what they are used to from people on TV. It has reached the point where if I was flicking past Survivor, or even Ellen or Oprah, and saw someone reacting with quiet modesty, I would be surprised ...

(edited because I forgot to actually write a sentence, oops!)

[rickey-a.livejournal.com]

I'm still horribly confused about your point. So what American writing are you talking about? Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, John Grisham? (picks names off current NYtimes best sellers list) or are you specifically talking about fan fiction? Or talking about screenplays?

The night time dramas definitely evolved from day time soaps. The first big push was in the 80's w/Dallas and Dynasty then it morphed into the serial dramas like LA Law and hospital shows like ER. So yeah, it's serial tv. I don't watch it, but it's a guilty pleasure for a lot of folks. I don't watch too much tv, but tend to lean towards scifi and fantasy - but a lot of that stuff has that serial/episodic with seasonal running plot format also. Does serial TV have an effect on current American writing? I don't really see it in current American literature. Some longer fanfics do feel a bit more like serials to me than novels, but I think that's it's own genre and don't see it only w/American ff authors.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I'm talking about American writing as a whole. So if we are looking to the bestseller lists, I would definitely lump Twilight, Carol O'Connor and probably Jeffrey Deaver into the overly influenced camp. Charlaine Harris and John Grisham teeter on the edge, sometimes falling over, more often having enough irony and political subtext to stay clear of anything but a referential usage of the tropes. Tom Clancy is old-school American writing of the 1940s and Stephen King varies wildly depending on which book we're talking about. Haven't read enough Dean Koontz to say.

Serials are a different issue because they lead to a certain genre of writing, which grew out of 19th century publishing trends, so the TV model followed the writerly one, which has been around for so long as to be wholly entrenched in the way that we think about narrative in the English speaking world. This is not the same as the soap influence, which shares some elements with the late 19th century fashion for melodrama, but is distinct in enough ways to make it not just a repeat.

[rickey-a.livejournal.com]

Yeah I don't see it. I'm not familiar with some of these writers you've mentioned, but from what I've read (a sampling of some popular authors), I don't see that melodramatic "oh my god you slept w/my twin sister at our wedding" - HUGE slap - cue music da da da - fade to commercial. But I don't read romance as a genre, so perhaps it's more in that genre. Dunno.

What I do see is the influence of movies. Sometimes books feel like they're edited with the pace and feel of what will translate nicely into a 2hr film, sometimes it's just scenes that you can practically visualize with the camera cuts and all. I'm not sure if that's something deliberate by the author (to get the book made into a movie) or subconscious because movies are such a pervasive part of our lives. Maybe it's just us as readers being so entrenched in visual entertainment that sometimes we visualize in that way as we read. Not sure. But I definitely think it's not just an American trend.

JKR has done it to me a number of times. As an example, the opening chapter of DH feels that way. Dark room of Death Eaters around a table. Camera pans around the room then upward to reveal- Muggle Studies teacher. Dark speech by Voldy. AK - cue snake. "Dinner, Nagini." Snake attacks- quick cut to black. So yeah, when I saw it in film, it sort of confirmed how well that scene was written to translate to film. Could be completely subconscious because 5 movies were made by the time she was writing DH and yes, I'd seen 5 movies when I went to read DH. But I have to point out the obvious line of Molly's "not my daughter, you bitch" - if that wasn't written for the move, I don't know what else it could've been.

So nope, I don't see that trend you're talking about, but I think my image of soap opera melodrama may not quite match yours.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same thought when I read "Not my daughter, you bitch!" It was completely out of tone with the character and the books, and seemed like it was calculated to make the audience cheer at the soundbite.