I am suspecting currently that *all* stories are really just information in compressed forms of various efficiency, to be unpacked in the brain. Unexpected ideas require more context.
What's interesting is that in fandom/genre fiction/comics/romance novels/etc/etc, people latch on to shorthand. um. keys, which improve efficiency for the reader *familiar* enough with the conventions that they can match concepts without having to skim over hundreds of excess words of explanation... at the expense of casual readers, who are forced to spend a lot of effort to assign meaning, and may, in fact, be doomed to miss a lot of subtleties in the information given. (Like: the hyperspace through which spaceships go; in-jokes about capes from people who've seen the Incredibles; variations on "Resistance Is Futile"; stories beginning with John slowly turning his head to find a naked, sated looking Rodney snoring in his bed, and saying 'Damn aliens. Don't they have *anything* better to do with their time?'"...)
(Or maybe it is a feature? My Fandom Is Encrypted.)
*nodnods* I'm a huge fan of genre shorthand -- not just for the skipping of explanations, but also for the hundred and one fun games an author can play with their audience's expectations. *grins*
But I hadn't quite thought of it as Fandom Encryption before, though I like that image. *pictures a load of harried looking mathematicians sitting in Bletchley Park muttering to each other about Those Dashed Fangirls adding another wheel to their infernal squee code*
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What's interesting is that in fandom/genre fiction/comics/romance novels/etc/etc, people latch on to shorthand. um. keys, which improve efficiency for the reader *familiar* enough with the conventions that they can match concepts without having to skim over hundreds of excess words of explanation... at the expense of casual readers, who are forced to spend a lot of effort to assign meaning, and may, in fact, be doomed to miss a lot of subtleties in the information given. (Like: the hyperspace through which spaceships go; in-jokes about capes from people who've seen the Incredibles; variations on "Resistance Is Futile"; stories beginning with John slowly turning his head to find a naked, sated looking Rodney snoring in his bed, and saying 'Damn aliens. Don't they have *anything* better to do with their time?'"...)
(Or maybe it is a feature? My Fandom Is Encrypted.)
From:
no subject
But I hadn't quite thought of it as Fandom Encryption before, though I like that image. *pictures a load of harried looking mathematicians sitting in Bletchley Park muttering to each other about Those Dashed Fangirls adding another wheel to their infernal squee code*