Story Killers

Liosse de Velishaf said:

There are many people of both sexes who look good bald. But not all of them.

Personally, I would never want to be bald. I like my hair long.

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That's why someone invented wigs.

When I was a callow yoof I grew a beard because I thought it made me look older. More distinguished. A serious hexecutive.

Then my first (and to date only) divorce precipitated male pattern baldness. Or perhaps the baldness caused the divorce. Or both. I don't know tech stuff.

The combination of balding head and beard made it look as if my head was on upside down. But then Jean Luc made it cool to be bald in a way that Telly Savalas and Yul Brynner never could.

So please please don't tell me that in the future baldness would be cured.

King Neptune said:

Many women prefer men who are hair-free.

Becoming hair-free is not an "effect of aging"; it is a sign of maturation. Male children have full heads of hair, but adult males are hair-free.

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Could you maybe cite some sources on this?

Most sci-fi novels I read with bald people in them mention that either the baldness is either due to a fashion statement or being unable to get their hands on hair regrowth formula.

Liosse de Velishaf said:

Could you maybe cite some sources on this?

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Of course he can't because he made it up.

He didn't make up that there are women who prefer men who're thin on top. I don't know about 'many', but we do exist.

I'm not sure if it counts as proof, but it certainly gave me a smile...

http://allwomenstalk.com/7-reasons-bald-men-are-sexy

ClareGreen said:

He didn't make up that there are women who prefer men who're thin on top. I don't know about 'many', but we do exist.

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Uh, yah. I pretty much assumed everyone who read my post would know which of the two statements I meant he made up.

Liosse de Velishaf said:

Could you maybe cite some sources on this?

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I could, but it might be a better idea for you to do your own research.

RikWriter said:

Uh, yah. I pretty much assumed everyone who read my post would know which of the two statements I meant he made up.

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I don't have to make up the good stuff, as you can see.

King Neptune said:

I don't have to make up the good stuff.

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And yet you did anyway. The links you provided don't say what you said in your post by a longshot.

Your article said "In men with a genetic predisposition to baldness" as a qualifier.

I don't see any substantive evidence that baldness is a common consequence to male maturity.


I have no issue with the idea of bald men being sexy. Many men can carry off baldness with aplomb. But that is not true for all or even a majority of men.


Also, articles about some particular person's standards of attractiveness do not count as sources on or evidence supporting your claim. I have many male friends who find short hair on women very attractive, and yet this does not mean that women having short hair is some sign of maturity.


We're getting a bit off-topic here, so I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree.

the chosen one is tops on my list and then teenaged leaders/heros that go on to govern/save the world.

Am I the only person who actually likes a well-done "chosen one" story?

I suppose it's a bit like a steak. There is only a very fine line between well done and over done.

Personally, I prefer my meat rare and bloody.

Once! said:

I suppose it's a bit like a steak. There is only a very fine line between well done and over done.

Personally, I prefer my meat rare and bloody.

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Me too. For me, there's a fine line between medium rare and overdone.

But it's certainly true that we all have our tastes in fiction. Though I suspect a lot of the time, we overstate our dislikes as we think of the most egregious examples of badly written cliches and poorly developed characters.

Almost everything on my "dislike" list can work if the writer makes the story and characters interesting enough. And pretty much anything I think is cool can be ruined by blah characters and storytelling.

But then another person will say they loved a book I found boring, or that they hated a book I loved.

Any sort of world-destroying, plague, alien, post-apocalyptic story where the main character lives in the US (maybe it happens with authors/characters in other countries as well, but I've never read one), and we hear all about every single US city that was destroyed but there isn't any mention of the rest of the world. Small disasters are fine to keep local, but if it's something like a giant asteroid crashing into Earth, an alien-released plague, ocean levels rising dramatically, etc. that is world encompassing, it would be nice if the rest of the world got at least mentioned. It doesn't need to be a lot of mention, but if they're listing damage in 20+ specific US cities, and there isn't even a throw away comment about other major cities and/or countries....

The Idiot Effect. Where the problem at hand could be solved with a short conversation but the characters are twisted every which way to ensure that this very simple alternative doesn't happen. Often linked in SFF, I find, to the old mentor who prefers, for reasons only known to their ever more senile mind, to watch the MC stumble through life instead of flat out saying, "Hey kid. This is the problem, this is how we can fix it. Watch out for x and y. Oh, and by the way, this is crucial: listen up..."

Kweei said:

Not so much a plot point, but I hate when I am reading an excellent story, great plot and memorable characters, something terrible is happening in town, and everyone takes a break to have sexy times.

Um, there is a killer around and your family is in trouble, but who cares because Mister Werewolf is HOT.

I see this happen in a lot of urban fantasy. I love urban fantasy and expect romance in them, but please, make it make sense.

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Is it the same thing as the two main characters in the movie, "2012," (male and female) having a conversation about why they "up and divorced" as the plane is trying to escape a giant tornado? Because, you know, that's the time to have that conversation?

2012 is just one big horrible mess of story cliche piled on top of one another, but it is good when you need to see some major destruction go down. I specifically purchased* the bluray edition JUST to see hi-def Earth-kabloosions for when I want inspiration on how to FSUR.

As far as story killers, I second Solluna's opinion; as an Australian it's amazing how US-centric... well, basically everything is. It's becoming more jarring as time goes on, thanks to the shrinking global community courtesy of the internet and such. To think in such nationalistic terms in this day and age shows a real bias from authors/story-tellers I feel, a limited worldview.

Also, I really can't abide a conflict when the solution is so predictable I don't even need to read on to solve it. It makes the whole thing boring and makes it seem like it's just getting in the way of the story. I think that's why Game of Thrones excites me; it's the first story in a long while where I don't always know if X character is going to make it out alive, or if X solution is going to work etc...

SPOILERS BELOW just in case

The Mountain and Oberryn (sp?) fight - for the briefest moments I thought justice existed in Westeros, and then BAM. That happened. Crushed my dreams.

END SPOILERS

Anyway.

I shaved my head once in 8th grade. I looked like a criminal.

Sollluna said:

Any sort of world-destroying, plague, alien, post-apocalyptic story where the main character lives in the US (maybe it happens with authors/characters in other countries as well, but I've never read one), and we hear all about every single US city that was destroyed but there isn't any mention of the rest of the world. Small disasters are fine to keep local, but if it's something like a giant asteroid crashing into Earth, an alien-released plague, ocean levels rising dramatically, etc. that is world encompassing, it would be nice if the rest of the world got at least mentioned. It doesn't need to be a lot of mention, but if they're listing damage in 20+ specific US cities, and there isn't even a throw away comment about other major cities and/or countries....

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Am glad to hear this in my SF/F/Horror tome 70% of the world has been swallowed up in a major earth event except for a couple of thousand individuals and they are quite international, and quite diverse religously speaking as well. I wasn't sure if it'd work or not but to be honest like you I find it odd that ONLY inhabitants from the US would survive and even surviving transplanted US colonies are going to have someone there who is NOT from the US.

CrastersBabies said:

Is it the same thing as the two main characters in the movie, "2012," (male and female) having a conversation about why they "up and divorced" as the plane is trying to escape a giant tornado? Because, you know, that's the time to have that conversation?

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4burner said:

2012 is just one big horrible mess of story cliche piled on top of one another, but it is good when you need to see some major destruction go down. I specifically purchased* the bluray edition JUST to see hi-def Earth-kabloosions for when I want inspiration on how to FSUR.

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I think that's actually the point of the movie. It's a tongue-in-cheek take on the disaster movie, taking the disasters up to complete levels of ridiculousness while still masquerading on the surface as a serious movie.

It's fun if you don't take it seriously.

(If you think 2012 is bad, just watch Sharknado.)

rmw- Agreed. The 'story' was as paint-by-numbers as it gets, which it plays incredibly straight faced but never overly serious. It isn't trying to be the Shawshank of disaster porn. It's a fun watch, agreed.

Super-Sexy-Syndrome is bad enough, but when it combines with Sexual-Ice-Age, I can't stand it.

You have the MC(s) who are so damned hot they cause orgies to happen around them as they stroll through the town. Everything from the vampire in the church belfry to the rotting corpse at the morgue develops a thing for them, and the MC has to find something attractive about each of them. BUT, then Sexual-Ice-Age kicks in. Wounded and scarred by [INSERT DRAMA] in his/her/its past, the MC simply can't bring themselves to engage in a meaningful relationship. Until they find the one.

Can't stand it.

I actually gave one of my promiscuous MCs a scene where they have to get tested for STDs because, well, they get around.

When they try to give a logical explanation to something supernatural. It always falls flat for me.