Afterword: Authors and Their Tropes

Monica Valentinelli & Jaym Gates

 

 

trope, n.

1a: a word or expression used in a figurative sense

1b: a common or overused theme or device

—Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleveth Edition

 

Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling represents a motley collection of fiction in multiple literary forms. Each work was inspired by a specific, unique, and omnipresent trope found in science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction. Some tropes, such as the Asian Scientist, The Girlfriend in the Refrigerator, or Love at First Sight, reach far beyond the boundaries of genre fiction and are so heavily relied upon they may be found in comics, TV shows, movies as well as others, like The City Planet, remain grounded in genre fiction.

To be considered for publication, authors were first tasked with selecting a unique trope. Then, they were encouraged to creatively explore (e.g. “smash” or “invert”) it in their fiction. A few authors selected a prominent trope because they wanted to experiment with it for some tropes (e.g. The Chosen One) are so commonly found, their exact opposite (The Unchosen One) is also considered a trope. Other writers, however, picked problematic tropes depicting race, gender, sexuality, etc. (like The Black Man Dies First or the Asian Scientist) because they identified that these stereotypes perpetuate harm and do not accurately reflect their identity or culture. After all, what is the point of fiction but to allow all of us to see ourselves as the believable stars of our own story? Other authors were tired of seeing the same trope used over and over again and opted to tackle tropes including the City Planet, Chainmaille Bikini, and The Super Soldier in both a direct and indirect fashion.

Because these devices were crucial to the author’s storytelling process, we felt that identifying the trope would heighten reader satisfaction. Revealing the trope, however, either in the Table of Contents or at the end of an author’s story, proved to be problematic. By taking either approach, the trope’s identification would devalue the stories by solidifying the reader’s expectations before they read the first paragraph. Though some authors, such as Kat Richardson, did choose to reveal their tropes as a clue in their story’s title, other writers, like John Hornor Jacobs, took a different, subtler approach. Thus, to separate the author’s intent from the reader’s experience, we decided to include an afterword to serve a dual purpose: one, to list and define the tropes, and two, to help readers discover more about the authors as well.

Since the essayists have addressed and defined their selected tropes in a direct manner for the purposes of offering their insight, expertise, and nuanced perspectives, we opted to avoid repetition by redressing them in the afterword. Their essays can be found directly before this afterword, and their tropes are defined in the context of their arguments.

By taking the readers’ expectations into account, we wish you will enjoy the stories more so than if we matched the tropes to the authors in the Table of Contents. We also hope that the anthology will do what we set out to do: to facilitate deeper conversations about commonly found tropes in response to the creative and analytical efforts of over two dozen unique and talented writers.

Happy reading!