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I usually refer to this as the Fight Club Effect, but is there another name for it?: Basically, that the Message of your story isnāt what you can argue in a paper, or how you wrap up the last 5 minutes or whateverāthe Message is whatever most peopleās takeaway is.
So it just feels specious and avoidant to go āno no no, you see, in those last 2 minutes, the clear message isāā āOkay, last 2 minutes, sure. Now what about the hundred-whatever minutes before that? Which set of minutes probably sends a clearer message?ā
@the_wilderless āthe treatment of minorities, outsiders, and the less fortunate as though theyāre second class citizens is wrongā āhey! most of the sentence was about mistreatment & thatās badā yeah, but the whole point of uttering the sentence was to say the end. story meaning is the sameā¦
@the_wilderless but youāre right, the effect of fight club is to entice you into empathizing with the āwrongā perspective before revealing its flaws so Iād say the misunderstanding people take away from the story is their own deliberate one, not the storyās revealed preference or smth
@the_wilderless tvtropes call this ādo not do this cool thingā which iāve always loved as a name for it. the torment nexus tweet captured something related really well: https://t.co/VSucsUUWmw
@the_wilderless also this discussion https://t.co/JWoZXQKAJy
āfocus your energy on what you want to see more ofā has some distressing implications for the whole genre of dystopian fiction. it suggests that dystopian fiction doesnāt successfully act as a warning, and if anything makes dystopias look cooler, more familiar, more thinkable
@QiaochuYuan This is a big part of it, but sth closer to likeā¦ a bit of indeterminacy or unskillfulness about where your time and energy are focused. *thinking* itās focused on one thing, but not realizing that itās unintentionally on sth else
@QiaochuYuan like fight club for example, maybe the creators did consciously want a particular message, But clearly they were subconsciously enamored with Tyler and project mayhem, and that shows through really potently
@the_wilderless they cast brad pitt and everything. really wanted to make him look extremely cool and succeeded. i feel like this is a whole trend in american culture, to performatively criticize something while shadowily enjoying it
@the_wilderless ādeath of the authorā? https://t.co/GG8mpyI65o
