WWotD - 14 March 2012

I read an article called "Great American Losers", comparing the trope of modern American male writers writing about omega-type modern emo men versus the trope of the bravura of alpha males at the center of Sixties and Seventies novels (and the American alpha male writers who created them). The article goes on to explain that where older and newer novelists meet is the male characters maintain their self-absorption; older novels have men obsess about how awesome they are, and newer novels have men obsess how execrable they are. Why the change occurred?

"The younger American novelists, they want to be liked. <...> The male novelists performing elaborate genuflections toward female readers are perhaps not exactly bargaining so much as trying to draw us into a new contract: I, the author, promise always to acknowledge my characters’ narcissism, and you, in return, will continue to take an interest in it. Okay? Agreed? Sign on the dotted line please, Ms., and I will countersign my book for you."

But really, what's to like about these losers? Modern women [allegedly] cheer for these guys in fiction, but in reality women don't want losers. Emo translates well in fantasy [drama drama DRAMA!!!], but living with a guy who always steals your eyeliner and talks about how much the world sucks is a bit of a Debbie Downer. Modern men [allegedly] sympathize with these characters in fiction, but men don't exist in a world of complete desolation. Do modern novels unfairly run men down, to blunt normal male characteristics and make the unlikable likable? Can a story have purpose and progression without putting a man either at the apex or the nadir of attractiveness?

I'm not really sure that this is a phenomenon outside the US. Not only does the author mention a French author, but I found Stieg Larsson's Mikael Blomkvist to me more alpha than omega.

trope

 noun \ˈtrōp\

Definition of TROPE

1

a : a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speechb : a common or overused theme or device : cliché <the usual horror movie tropes>

2

: a phrase or verse added as an embellishment or interpolation to the sung parts of the Mass in the Middle Ages

from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope