Basic Trope: The author uses their work of fiction to preach about their beliefs.
- Straight: Bob's novel is an extended allegory on how collecting paperclips is harmful to society.
- Exaggerated: The novel is a Dystopia of paperclip collectors ruining the world. Literally every element of the plot, every detail of characterization, and every last snippet of dialogue conveys Bob's undying hatred for paperclip collecting. In the novel, everyone who so much as touches paperclips eventually crosses the Moral Event Horizon. The climax of the novel is a Character Filibuster explaining every single one of Bob's arguments, in case you didn't get it the first time around.
- Downplayed: There's a single throwaway line where the protagonist scoffs at the idea of paperclip collection.
- Justified:
- Paperclip maximizers
are a major real-world threat in this universe. - Bob’s society is fighting a war against a rogue paperclip maximizer, and the book is wartime propaganda.
- Paperclip maximizers
- Inverted: The antagonist of Bob's novel is a two-dimensional Knight Templar who despises paperclip collectors even more than Bob himself.
- Subverted:
- Very Special Episode: Where the morals are exclusively for only a specific installation.
- Everyone knows Bob hates paperclip collecting. There is an evil-looking paperclip collector's club somewhere in his novel. They don't even collect paperclips.
- Double Subverted:
- Filibuster Freefall
- But that group was just a front created by the Big Bad to lull the world into a false sense of security; the true paperclip collectors are Card-Carrying Villains.
- Parodied: Bob writes his unrelated novel, and in one section, he literally complains about paperclip collecting with all the furor and conviction of a political screed.
- Zig-Zagged: In a work with multiple authors, the anti-paperclip message moves in several directions, and ends up as a Lost Aesop.
- Averted: Despite the potential for Ripped from the Headlines commentary, Bob's novel doesn't even mention paperclips, let alone the subculture around collecting them.
- Enforced: There was a paperclip scandal in Congress/Parliament/the Assembly, which Bob's publisher wants to exploit for some easy money.
- Lampshaded: "What is this, a metaphor for paperclip collecting?"
- Exploited: The Big Bad in Bob's novel quietly moves his assets out of paperclip company stock, so he will be in a better position to face The Hero after she destroys the entire industry.
- Defied: Bob is quite aware that he can get overly passionate about paperclips, and makes sure not to bring the subject up in his novels so it doesn't detract from the story.
- Discussed:Jim: Okay, here's why we need to be wary of paperclip collectors...Kate: Aw! Here We Go Again!
- Conversed: "That book is garbage. I was expecting a thrilling adventure, and all I got were rants on how paperclip collecting is destroying America!"
- Deconstructed: The novel is a flop. Critics pan it because the message was overbearing, and paperclip collectors clip through Bob's paper-thin arguments. Bob's cause is discredited, and he himself begins to doubt it.
- Reconstructed: Years later, having improved his writing skills, yet retaining his disdain for paperclip collecting, Bob tries again, and the Spiritual Sequel is much better. That novel kicks off a discussion of the paperclip menace, and paperclip collecting becomes a national issue in the next election cycle.
- Played for Laughs: The novel is a satire on paperclip collecting, and Bob makes sure to point out as many foibles of the hobby as he possibly can.
- Played for Drama: Bob uses his detailed knowledge of the seamy underbelly of paperclip collecting to create a gripping plot, using real-world paperclip barons as inspiration.
- Played for Horror: In the novel, paperclips are alien life forms that control peoples minds, having already created fake factories and began selling themselves as part of a scheme to take over the entire world, with paperclips collectors as their co-conspirators. Slowly, they invade, working their way through the government until paperclips are required by law to feature in every house. Worse, there is no cure, once someone is turned into a paperclips collector there is nothing that can be done to save them and, if left alone, a single collector could infect entire towns…
"Oh, woe is me!" cried Alice. Little did she know that, had she returned to Author Tract, none of this would have ever happened.
