I found this in the wayback machine. This is here only because I can't find it on the internet. It belongs to John VanSickle and if he finds another spot for his efforts, I will remove this. |
Those of us who have read or seen a
lot of science fiction have seen certain story elements pop up over and
over and over. Some of these elements were actually pretty good ideas,
and when handled well make for a pretty entertaining story, but have become
hackneyed from overuse by the unimaginative. Others came into being through
the deliberate effort to avoid another clich�. Still other ideas were
lame from the get-go, and should have been dismissed from the author's
thinking. Clich�s are not in themselves necessarily bad, but their overuse shows that the writer has forgotten what separates the strong tale from the hollow: "the human heart in conflict with itself," as Faulkner said. Where there is this conflict, the tale stands; where the conflict is absent, the tale falls flat, and in neither case does it matter how many ships get blown up. The sophisticated reader (one who reads more than just SF) will note that some of these clich�s are not found solely in SF, but in other genres as well, and of course the lampooning of cliches is a time-honored part of good comedy. DISCLAIMER: The use of masculine/feminine pronouns and assignment of gender roles is not intended to preclude a reversal of gender roles. It is, however, intended to offend those who think that the Y chromosome is the root of all evil. Nyah. This list is no longer "new and improved". The "improvements" were too much work to maintain. |
The Symbols:
The green check marks those items which are not so bad, but have been used so many times that it takes a really strong treatment to lift them out of the slush pile. They will not destroy an otherwise well-written story, and some of the classics employ these elements (and employ them well). | |
The yellow check marks those items which were mildly interesting the first time around, but simply provoke a response along the lines of "been there, done that" on the re-runs. Only a truly bizarre twist on these ideas can give them new life. | |
The green cross marks those items which are baloney, but are tolerable for the sake of dramatic effect as long as the events of the story do not depend on them. | |
The yellow cross marks those items which are lame, and support the plot in some way, but can be saved if there is a supporting justification. For instance, having a robot bleed oil when it gets shot is pretty lame; having a hydraulically-powered robot leak hydraulic fluid when shot is creditable. | |
The red cross marks those items which flatly contradict the known laws of nature, introduce an irreconcilable contradiction, require the characters involved to have the IQ of a banana peel, or are abysmally stupid for some other reason. | |
The Starfleet logo marks those items for which Star Trek has been an offender. | |
The piggy marks those items that are unconscionably sexist. | |
The swastika marks those items that show racial, ethnic, or religious bigotry. |
Section I: Overused Plots and Storylines
Section II: Overused Settings and Characterizations
Section III: Overused story events and plot devices
Section IV: Silly Science
Section V: Rejected suggestions
The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clich�s is a cooperative effort. Due to my failure to keep track of things, not all of the people received credit for the clich�s they pointed out. But here are the ones I can credit:
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Send it to John (Address is spambot-protected; remove the capital letters before sending) � 2004 by John VanSickle. Permission to quote for non-commerical use is granted, provided that this copyright notice is included. Permission to link from non-commericial Web pages is granted. Permission to translate for non-commericial use is granted, provided that the resulting page credits the authors. All other rights reserved.
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