Let’s take a look at a recent image:
If this tells you “Well, this show is going to be garbage” you
are not alone. You are one of a vast number of people with the power of basic
pattern recognition.
We’ve all seen this play out and know how a ‘subversive’
fantasy will play out, like we’d know the most formulaic of trad-pub schlock
will play out.
To add insult to subversion, the Wheel of Time is one of
the most ‘classical fantasy style’ stories of classical fantasy style stories. It
is not a ‘subversive’ story by any means.
And because it is not subversive, despite heavy criticism
from many corners, it is an immensely popular even long after the author’s
death.
Why would anyone think it is a good idea to ‘subvert’
something that worked so well for so many? Fans want to the story they enjoyed
come to life in a new medium. Some changes are inevitable with medium changes,
but the idea that it needs to be ‘fresh’ is inane and insulting to the extreme.
But in the end, that’s the point.
Suspense and subversion
The curse of English is that we have a messy language. On
the one hand, ‘subverting expectations’ can (or used to) simply mean it
surprised the audience. A good detective story, for example, could easily subvert
your expectations when it reveals that Bill the mailman was actually the killer
all along. At its best, this is a clever example of suspense being built up,
clues laid out that a savvy reader can pick up on or at least suspect, and
coming to a thrilling conclusion that the majority simply didn’t see coming.
This is fundamentally a side effect, not a goal in and of
itself.
A good test to see if this is good is asking yourself, “Can
the reader enjoy the book after reading it once?”. If they can, then congratulations,
you have the ‘good example’ on hand. The ability to enjoy reading it again is a strong indicator of a story’s quality. Even in mysteries, surprise happens once but suspense is forever.
This is the innocuous version, and some would have you
believe that is all it is. They’ll often equivocate as well and claim that’s
all it ever is. But we’ve seen this pattern before, they said the same thing about
‘strong female characters’. But we have more than enough data to form a pattern
of angry square-jawed men with breasts and bad haircuts to know it’s not
innocuous. The same goes for ‘subverting expectations’, we know it doesn’t mean ‘Bill
the mailman is the murderer after all? What a well set-up, nicely crafted surprise!”.
To quote Dan Miucchi, "subverting
expectations" has come to mean "deliberately craps in your
popcorn."
If re-readability is a mark of quality, most mainstream entertainment
doesn’t pass the test. It is ephemera, doomed to be forgotten and soon. Look at
how quickly Game of Thrones fell from popular grace. This is, in part, because
it put shock value above storycraft and thus failed.
I neither read not watched it, and have no plans to, but
from what I have been told it is obvious the show writers and GRRM are more
interested in playing a game against the audience than they are with actually
telling a good story. It didn’t matter what the setup was, what the most
logical act for characters was, how it affected themes, or anything of the sort.
All that mattered was the ability to go, ‘bet you didn’t see
that coming, did you?’ to the reader. It is sadly common. Both as a way for petty writers to
pat themselves on the back and for readers who only want that brief rush of ‘Wow,
I’m surprised!’ and nothing else. It is the low quality, chemical rich, junk
food of the story world.
But this doesn’t explain why so much of the subversive
sphere has become so painfully predictable. There is another level to this.
What is it, and how does it work?
Let's ask a doctor:
“If ever I
should tell the moment: Oh, stay! You are so beautiful! Then you
may cast me into chains, then I shall smile upon perdition!”- Faust’s deal with the Devil, from Faust, Goethe.
The old story goes that Dr. Faust’s deal was that the demon
Mephistopheles would serve him for his lifetime, and in return he would serve
the devil for eternity. In folkloric fashions, Faust made the deal for a number
of reasons, but most come down to wanting to know basically everything there is to know and see the greatest secrets of the universe. To go beyond mortal bounds
and dare for it all.
Faust dealt with Mephistopheles in search of a grand vision. He
swiftly fell into a petty need for novelty and an inability to be truly
satisfied with anything or dwell on anything too deeply lest he be caught by
his ‘benefactor’. And so, Faust became an even more miserable SOB than he was
when he was simply angry at God for his own limitations. His increasingly petty
and disgusting actions lose even the surface level of his original vision of
knowing all in the world. He becomes such a slave to a hunger he cannot satiate
that he almost might as well be in hell already.
Some later versions have him repent when he steps outside
his own misery and starts seeking the good of others, but older and many other versions
have him take the elevator straight down to the bottom floor of the afterlife.
A petty, angry, repulsive being whose inability to be happy
or achieve anything worthwhile has led him to lash out at others who are happy
because misery loves company. Did I describe Faust, Mephistopheles, or tortured
artist types they force on English class students?
Whether Faust repents or falls deeper and becomes
more like his benefactor depends on the version. But there is a level lower
than the need for novelty, which can be achieved once that brief pleasure wears
off. Once you become less like a human and more like a demon, you reach this
level.
Demons can’t create.
In some plays back in the day, a demon coming on stage was accompanied
by a cease in music to represent this fact.
You see this metaphorical truth play out in reality in the skinsuit
IPs they march out with regularity. Whether it be the new He-Man, Wheel of Time,
or something else entirely. They hollow out the original, wear its skin, and
demand respect while spitting on anything that made it good in the first place. No longer can they get pleasure from novelty. No longer do they even try for it.
It is simply angry desecration and insults towards what they themselves cannot make or have. The same feeling extends to those who enjoy the original, good stories which pointed at some truth the subversives cannot stand.
They are eternal enemies of the old ways and stories, yet cannot exist without leeching off them. So they try and desecrate them and invert them.
Super-author Jon Del Arroz has a number of videos showing
examples of this in the world of comics. Here’s his most recent on Superman (who
was honestly always inferior to John Carter) shows the nature of the situation
well.
Like Jon says, in this fantasy world, racism is the highest crime
you could commit. Murder isn’t that bad, assault isn’t that bad, nothing is
that bad as long as they like it and can frame it as an -ism no matter how huge
a stretch it must be.
Truth, justice, virtue, the american way, or even simple healthy lifestyles are all made into vices in this inverted world. Neither Faust nor Mephistopheles can stand to be too near them.
Not to mention it will be irrelevant bad-think soon enough. They cannot say ‘stay, you are so beautiful’ even to their current favorite ‘-ists’
and ‘-isms’. We’ve this happen plenty of times as well in the long decline of
fiction. JK Rowling was turned on by her own mob for one famous example. They
always need to focus on ‘current year’ issues and so are doomed to the ephemeral, yet ironically are also doomed to always repeat themselves.
The snake always eats its own tail.
Let’s take a look at one last illustration:
Gandalf bad because he represented and sided with civilization. Orcs good because 'oppression' in a society they weren't part of.
Their subversive myths are so predictable the takedowns of Tolkien
(who has outlasted so many of these already, because of course he has) obviously
have never read Tolkien.
“What if Sauron was good?” is literally what lead to the
creation of the rings of power in the first place.
Which is what they want, just like it is what Sauron wanted. To ensnare you in their own
fantasy and be company in their misery.
The difference being that at least those rings were actually powerful. Subversion is not.
Those who have gone all in on 'subversion' as a philosophy want stories where the evil monster, angry that there
is happiness and joy not far from him, and he can never have anything like that,
is the good guy because he whines, is miserable, some sort of ‘-ist’, and the
happy, good, virtuous people are all really Snidely Whiplash level villains.
They don’t want Beowulf to show up and defeat Grendel. They don’t even want to think about
the hero unless they think they can mock him. He represents something they can never attain and thus despise.
In the end, that’s what gray goop subversive story-telling
is. It’s a fantasy world for villains, the pettier, the better. They want dragons
without St Geroge, giants but no Jack, Grendel but no Beowulf.
They don’t even want the tragedy of Faust to be told, it
reminds them that they have already fallen and taken the deal. Even in tragedy,
we see the light exists and know there is a better way than the doctor's.
Grey goop is fantasy written for the monsters. It is a world
of monsters, with nothing to stand in their way. In it, they’ll still be as
miserable as ever. Because they can no longer build anything, or be happy with
anything.
And they want everybody else to be like them.
You don't have to deal with Mephistophele's shysters. He won't come through on his end of the deal anyway.
There’s a whole other, better world out there besides their schlock.
-
If you would like some actual fresh and exciting fantasy
written by a non-subversive, check out my novel “A Stranger in Sorcererstown”.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KWBV4LY?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420
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