That forum dude who's always asking questions
Why is Author Appeal a trope, but Author Phobia a trivia?
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Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Better example sorting
, started by HersheleOstropoler on Sep 13th 2010 at 10:39:19 PM
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: It appears there's been a problem with the reorganization, started by feotakahari on Apr 3rd 2011 at 12:03:10 PM
I came across this when trying to find out if there's a trope for one aspect of something I'm writing. I started writing as a graphic novel script; then went over to prose because I can't draw.
But I can't help feeling that if the comic actually existed, the majority of the fandom would be pregnancy fetishists. (over a 3-year/5-volume arc plot, every female character gets pregnant at least once). Like, it's not sexualised by the story, but I get the impression that if there were fans a lot of them would see it that way.
I guess to be 'Author Appeal', it would have to appear in other works by the same author. And be an actual finished work. But it's left my "that must be a trope" sense tingling now.
Now I must resist the urge to read through all the examples. Maybe.
A surprisingly large number of examples listed seem to be about authors liking female characters with large breasts. Seriously, nearly a quarter of the lists talked about said author and their love for 'insert-breast-euphemism-here'. Shouldn't that belong in buxom is better?
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Buxom Is Better is "When characters in a work view having large breasts as a positive feature. ", so no, the breast examples don't fit over there.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hi
This page is well over 400K characters. The examples need to be split into medium subpages.
Edited by 71.143.189.118
Is there any particular reason for the "no quotes or images" note? All it says is "let's just get on with what we have to say", which is kind of baffling.
If it's about trying to avoid complaining, the following quote describes the trope well in regard to an in-universe storyteller;
"Hodgesaargh was an original storyteller and quite good in a very specific way. If he'd had to recount the saga of the Tsortean War, for example, it would have been in terms of the birds observed, every cormorant noted, every pelican listed, every battlefield raven taxonomically placed, no tern unturned. Some men in armour would have been involved at some stage, but only because the ravens were perching on them."
— Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum
Edited by 85.210.127.158 Hide / Show Replies
I suspect that, given the tendency for this trope to be fetishy, that was the fundamental reason for the note. That's a pretty good quote, but if we're going to try to persuade Eddie to allow a quote, it should be something shorter but still punchy.
The description for this trope is WAY too bias. The laconic is MUCH more fitting. The laconic description is 'the author includes something they like', the actual description makes it sound like the author has a fetish for it.
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Agreed. Can we get, say, a redo on the main page? It's almost making the assumption that I'm some creep with a laundry list of sick fetishes, and that I want to put my monkeys eating underwear fantasies in every book I write!
My Namesakes
What if a author/writer/director likes putting a specific trope in all his works? Can that still count as Author Appeal?
Edited by Kersey475 "Think like a man of action, act like a man of thinking, and don't be a dumbass." Hide / Show Replies
I think as long as it fits into the definition, "A kind of Fanservice where the presence of a particular gimmick or kink is so widespread and prominent that it is interpreted as a specific reason the creator actually produced the work."
Does it have to necessarily be fanservice? Like, if the author likes red hair, would making one of the main characters a redhead count?
Could I just ask why people generally act as if this is a bad thing? What's wrong with the author adding in things they like? It doesn't have to be squicky (ie: The author may feature a Ford Mustang just because they like the look of the car). Unless this is only for kinky sexual fetish examples.
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Who knows. Maybe the editor got traumatized after some rather disturbing examples of this trope.
Could we add an example for purpleeyeswtf (yes, that one); in both his Abridgement series, there are random scenes from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (episodes 3 and 4 of None Piece, and episodes 9, 11, and 13* of Code MENT). purpleeyes may be a brony.
Can Author Appeal be non-sexual? For example, Isaac Asimov has several (I can think of three off of the top of my head) societies in which everyone lived in a confined space. (Asimov was a claustrophile)
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Maybe. I think it's a sign though when the author insists on having the first panel in every graphic novel show a close-up of the protagonist's foot. You know, real subtle.
Edited by Stoogebie
I noticed the first thing in the source says "No Quotes or Images Please" which I guess is because this particular trope is usually best illustrated by some tired fetish.
I wanted to propose (rather than disrespectfully add it myself) a pretty good illustration for this trope that I think captures the essence of "Author Appeal." I want to juxtapose the 2nd frames of http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/2010/03/11/03112010/ and http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/2011/03/04/03042011/
Thoughts?
So, the author has a thing for six-armed busty ladies? Yeah, that kind of makes a usable image. I think...
Oh come on - if you think a female author never writes the Male Gaze, pick up a drug store romance novel. I read once recently where the positioning of the heroine's lips was described as "more enticing to men than she realized" - in a scene where she was alone in her room, packing up her things to flee from an angry mob.
I think people need to be careful about what they put in this page; a lot of it is based on nothing but speculation, and can be damaging.
One example that I felt was unfair was the Jim Butcher example, which made the claim that all of his female characters were repeatedly described as busty and beautiful. Not only is this likely based on only his Dresden series (the Codex Alera very much averts this), but an objective view of the Dresden Files should rescue this from the Author Appeal list. One has to remember that most of the beautiful female characters in this series are vampires, fae, and other supernaturals that are going to be seductive strictly by their predatory nature. Further, when you look at the good female characters, they are largely described with more down-to-earth appeal that reflects the protagonist's old-fashioned, chivalric appreciation for all women.
I'm seeing examples on Comic Book pages where Author Appeal is listed because the writer's reused particular characters they've written before and seem to view as favourites within a new project (especially for cases where much of their work's set within big shared universe settings like Marvel and DC).
The trope, as written, only talks about a recurring "gimmick or kink", not characters. Is this sort of scenario in scope?
Edited by Mrph1