I just realized...

[pyrephox]

There is a whole sub-genre of creative works where Boy A meets Free Spirited Girl B, and they have delightful adventures together, form a friendship and/or romance...then the girl dies horribly or tragically, and the boy learns a Life Lesson.

Am I the only one to find this more than a little disturbing?

Comments

[archangelbeth]

There was a recent thread on the Bujold mailing list which... pretty much had that, yeah. Bujold herself pointed it out.

I don't know if there's a sub-genre where Boy A is the one who perishes, etc., though.

[cappadocius.livejournal.com]

It's very small, and I usually just file them under the same sub-genre as the dead-girl ones.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Not really. And in my admittedly small sample of manga, the Untouchably Awesome Dead Girlfriend/Sister/Childhood Crush Who Eternally Affects The Boy's Future Romantic Relationships trope is way too common. It's right up there with the Obligatory Dead Parent(s) of console RPG cliches.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

There is a particular movie out there that is otherwise very good except for that. Yeeeeeah.

Something something 'beautiful woman as symbol (in this case of freedom)' internalized instead of externalized as masculine norm ceases to need an exemplar of the concept...

[siadea.livejournal.com]

Oh. I was too exhausted last night to continue, but. This actually, I think, ties into artistic trends: moviemakers in this case, I think, are borrowing from the long-standing tradition of having female personifications, the male norms, et cetera.

In any case. Yes. It is kind of freaky, regardless.

[brianh]

It is disturbing, yes. >_< The oldest one I can remember is Bridge to Terebithia, which is about to be a movie! (Is that what brought this up?)

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Yep. A movie that the trailers are billing a lovely fantasy adventure like Narnia.

I suspect that there will whole theaters of weeping children come premiere.

[archangelbeth]

Maybe they're going to change the ending. O:/

[brianh]

I was just thinking that when I saw the trailer. Either it's going to have no resemblance to the books at all, or it's going to really, really cause some problems.

I kind of hope that it -does- retain it. Even though it _is_ a Disturbing trend, there is the semi-important message about dealing with loss. And changing it to a completely fantasy novel would be, I think even more disturbing. Especially if she still dies. Could you imagine that? It's Pan's Labyrinth: The Early Sequel!

[bimmer1200.livejournal.com]

I cried when I had to read that damn book when I was eight.

I cried because it bored me to tears. I'd say I can't believe they are making a movie out of it, but Hollywood's done scraped passed the bottom of the barrel and is digging into the nightsoil beneath it at this point.

But..no, I've never really noticed the trend. It may be that I tend to prefer more heroic fiction instead of tragedy, however.

[letiwolf.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's never a trend that I noticed.

...probably because I don't tend to like Tragedy, I identify far more strongly with the Free Spirited Girl than with the male of any kind, and if she dies, I lose interest.