Nerds in the 21st century think a picaresque is badly written

Odradek · 2018-03-14 03:54:40

Discuss

TitleName · 2018-03-14 04:09:02

Is this a real thing or...?

I have no context for picaresque either.

Bee · 2018-03-14 04:26:54

like any particular picaresque

or just the abstract concept of picaresque

Odradek · 2018-03-14 13:11:00

They think stories in the form are poorly written

TitleName · 2018-03-14 16:41:39

anyone in particular or just saying all nerds?

Odradek · 2018-03-14 16:48:17

Nerds

TitleName · 2018-03-14 18:04:12

That's a really broad statement though.

Odradek · 2018-03-14 18:08:06

They do though

it's an observable fact

Odradek · 2018-03-14 21:24:04

Discuss

Calica · 2018-03-14 21:28:46

What's a picaresque

Obā-san · 2018-03-14 21:48:27

Quasi-episodic rambling satire about of a young man adventuring and stuff

Bee · 2018-03-14 21:57:15

Specifically, a low-class roguish and dishonest hero, usually satirizing high society and corruption. It's a genre with a lot of gold to be found, but also more prone than most genres to devolving into teenage bullshit. At best you get Han Solo. At worst you get Rob Liefeld.

If you want to make Myr cringe, think Catcher in the Rye, but instead of a well-to-do academy kid Holden is actually Sluggo. That's basically a picaresque.

Odradek · 2018-03-14 22:36:58

I don’t hate Sluggo, I hate Guy Gilchrist

Bee · 2018-03-14 22:39:39

Right, and the bad picaresque would be all of that run through Guy Gilchrist.

Like instead of being about how the wealthy are horrible people for systemic abuse of the poor and universal hypocrisy, it's about how they're horrible people for not liking the Beach Boys.

Odradek · 2018-03-14 22:40:33

Sluggo isn’t even rogueish in Gilchrist’s Nancy, he’s just poor and lazy

Odradek · 2018-05-14 13:28:38

V. Odd

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 14:12:31

some examples of nerds who equate the picaresque form with or perceive it to be bad writing would actually be nice

i'm not saying i don't believe you, in fact this seems entirely likely to me, but please could you give some examples?

Odradek · 2018-05-14 14:42:01

Some things I have heard nerds whine about:

The first Edge Chronicles book

The 13 and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear

A Christmas Story which is more slice of life, but nerds still whine about it for the same reasons

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 14:53:54

oh what? the first edge chronicles book was awesome

Obā-san · 2018-05-14 15:47:29

Odradek said:
Some things I have heard nerds whine about:

The 13 and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear

Ive never been angrier at someone's opinion than I am in this moment

Crystal · 2018-05-14 15:48:34

What do you like about it, incidentally?

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-14 16:29:25

what's a picaresque

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 17:13:47

Obā-san said:
Quasi-episodic rambling satire about of a young man adventuring and stuff

Calica · 2018-05-14 19:24:38

Jane said:
what's a picaresque

Bee said:
Specifically, a low-class roguish and dishonest hero, usually satirizing high society and corruption. It's a genre with a lot of gold to be found, but also more prone than most genres to devolving into teenage bullshit. At best you get Han Solo. At worst you get Rob Liefeld.

If you want to make Myr cringe, think Catcher in the Rye, but instead of a well-to-do academy kid Holden is actually Sluggo. That's basically a picaresque.

Tatterhood · 2018-05-14 19:50:49

Odradek said:
Some things I have heard nerds whine about:

The first Edge Chronicles book

The 13 and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear

A Christmas Story which is more slice of life, but nerds still whine about it for the same reasons

honestly I never hear nerds talk about edge chronicles at all but why on earth would it be the first one out of all that they hate

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 20:53:00

the first one has a looser structure, less of a plot, it's more a series of misadventures

it has that episodic quality that's common in a lot of much older novels

Tatterhood · 2018-05-14 21:29:11

I guess so. Weren't all the Twig ones a little like that though? I could be way wrong, it's been a longass time, but as I recall the second and third books were also pretty much a series of misadventures, even if the characters had more of a well-defined "quest" in those ones.

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 21:36:42

the well-defined quest is the difference, but you're not wrong

Tatterhood · 2018-05-14 22:04:55

Yeah I get that it is a difference, I just don't recall them really "feeling" all that different. Shrug.

Tatterhood · 2018-05-14 22:08:59

I guess I was just surprised to see the first one in particular singled out because I have fond memories of the Twig books overall, moreso than the rest of the series.

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 22:12:45

i do too, with the possible exception of the curse of the gloamglozer which i remember fondly

but i do think there was something distinct about the form of the original one, which made the whole thing feel less structured, more confused

i mean i liked that about it, if anything it was my favourite, it's just a story about a kid lost in the woods stumbling from one horrible thing to the next, and that's what made it so great

stormchaser and midnight over sanctaphrax never felt quite so aimless, there was always more of a clear objective

Tatterhood · 2018-05-14 22:16:47

Tachyon said:
i do too, with the possible exception of the curse of the gloamglozer which i remember fondly

Yeah that one's good too. I started to lost interest when things got a bit overly grimdark in the Rook ones.

(Though, I recall liking Freeglader and Winter Knights a little better, but then I never read after that, oops.)

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 22:20:40

i can't remember that much about the Rook stories, but i always liked the concept of a 'librarian knight'

Tatterhood · 2018-05-14 22:27:18

I found the revelations about what happened to Twig and crew very upsetting. But yeah, I don't really remember the actual plots all that well either, just how I felt about them at the time. Entirely possible I would have a different opinion if I were to reread em.

Tachyon · 2018-05-14 22:38:16

oh, yeah, that was dark

Nerds in the 21st century think a picaresque is badly written

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