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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama's mighty rhetorical skills, um,... er,... don't actually exist |
| 2010-06-16 |
One of the greatest time-sponges on the Internet is the "Television Tropes and Idioms" wiki, known affectionately as "TV Tropes." As the home page explains:This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction....Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations.... There is a trope (and a TV Tropes page) called "Informed Ability" which I think is extremely relevant to current events. A character's skill and abilities are frequently mentioned by the cast, but are nonexistent in practice. More or less anything can be an informed ability, from personality traits to combat prowess; either the skill is talked about but never demonstrated, or the reverse is demonstrated instead; a character widely commented on as a superb wit tells crude, unfunny jokes, the master gunfighter's only sign of mastery is that he hasn't been to the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, the great detective struggles to solve a mystery the entire audience worked out the minute it was introduced.... It's a common occurance with creative abilities such as painting, writing, choreography, and especially musical composition. When a "creative" character is introduced and said to be talented and their work later shown, it frequently can't live up to the hype -- but we are still supposed to treat it as if it has. This is more likely the more talented the person is supposed to be; reaching the point of outright hubris on the part of the screenwriter if the character is supposed to be the greatest in the world in their field. It should be noted that this can be evaded by showing evidence that the person is successful and well-regarded or has skills their profession would give them without showing their work directly; it's only an informed ability if there is no meaningful evidence they have it at all (or clear evidence they do not),... Sound like anyone we know? Say, a prominent political figure who is supposed to be a master orator, whose power to inspire or persuade is unmatched by mere mortals--or so everyone was saying before the election, at least. It appears that even his staunchest supporters are noticing that Obama's "brilliant speaking skills" are a TV Tropes "informed ability" if'n ever there was. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 I for one, won't stand for this show of disrespect for TOTUS. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-06-16 20:28 |
| #1 "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" -The Emperor's New Clothes |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2010-06-16 12:05 |