You Don’t Have To Hang Yourself With Tropes

 

The term trope has a number of definitions, but for the purposes of this post it refers to a theme, convention or plot device that readers have come to expect in a work of fiction. In this context, tropes are prone to becoming clichés, and any literary genre you can think of has them. Many works of fantasy, for example, utilise the trope of the young orphan who (according to prophecy) is destined to save the day. And, in science fiction, how many tales have been written of scientists whose c...