TIOLI SEPT 2022 #17 TV Trope Back to School Challenge

Challenge #19: Read a book for the TV Trope Back to School Challenge

Short(ened) & Sweet version:

Go to https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SchoolTropes ¹

Read a book that includes a trope that has one of the words (or variation) below in its name or description.

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

There are two ways to find books for this challenge.

1. BROWSE

Scroll through the web page until you see a trope that seems interesting, Click on the trope then on Literature. Choose any book mentioned as fitting that trope.

If an entire series is mentioned, you may read any book in the series.

2. SEARCH

In the Search bar near the top, enter the name of a book you want to read. Scroll down and look for or do a "find" for one of the below words.

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

NON-FICTION

For those want to read non-fiction, look in the Real Life section. You can choose a book that closely relates to that specific school/educational subject or person as long as their school history is mentioned more than in passing (at least a few pages.)

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

WORD LIST

All words must be in reference to a place of learning, i.e. not "a school of fish," "senior citizen," or "medical exam." Embedded words and variations allowed, i.e. classroom, graduation.

Education, Academic
School, Academy, College, University, U, Campus, Ivy League
Student
Teacher, Principal
Class, Homeroom
Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior
Homework, (School) Work, Study
Test, Exam, Grade
Graduate, Degree

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

More details, *lots* of examples, and additional links can be found on the TIOLI SEPT 2022 #17 TV Trope Back to School Challenge thread.

If there is *any* confusion, please check the other thread then ask there or here or even DM. I'd rather spend the time and help walk you through it than have you not want to participate because it's one of THOSE ones I do. LOL.

ETA:

#1 If you have a book about school, student(s), education, etc. and want some help verifying it's acceptable for this challenge, PLEASE let me know here, on the challenge thread, or DM.

#2 In addition to Literature, you can also look in Visual Novels and Manga (found in Anime and Manga.)

Long & Lengthy Version:

Go to https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SchoolTropes¹

Read a book that includes a trope that has one of the words (or variation) below in its name or description.

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

There are two ways to find books for this challenge.

1. BROWSE

Scroll through the web page until you see a trope that seems interesting, for instance, Boarding School of Horrors. Click on Literature. Choose any book mentioned as fitting that trope.

Examples: Jane Eyre, Never Let Me Go, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or Deathly Hallows

If an entire series is mentioned and not one specific book (most are by specific title but on occasion you may see "second book in series"), you may read any book in the series.

Example: For Absurdly Divided School, you could read any Harry Potter book.

An example for description...

Everybody Hates Mathematics: Anne of Green Gables, any in the Honor Harrington series, any in the A Song of Ice and Fire (that Sansa appears in), Confessions (yes, by St. Augustine), Math Doesn't Suck (nonfiction), I Hate Mathematics! (nonfiction)

2. SEARCH

In the Search bar near the top (should be just under the "tv tropes" banner), enter the name of a book you want to read. Scroll down and look for or do a "find" for one of the below words.

Example: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Cool Teacher), Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner (Ivy League for Everyone), The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Huge Schoolgirl), There There by Tommy Orange (A Degree in Useless)

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

NON-FICTION

While you can find a few nonfiction books mentioned in the Literature tropes, they are rare, so...

For those want to read non-fiction, there are some tropes* that have a section called Real Life. You can choose a book that closely relates to a specific subject or person as it relates to a subject in Real Life, e.g. not an author unless the author is well known for writing about that particular subject.

Please keep the book related to school or education in some fashion. For instance, you can read a (auto)biography or memoir about a person mentioned as long as their school history is mentioned more than in passing (at least a few pages.)

Example:
-TITLE-
Phony Degree: Degree Mills by Allen Ezell

-DESCRIPTION-
Brilliant but Lazy - "It's shown that a student with bad grades is actually very smart, they just lack the motivation to do their schoolwork properly.: (Real Life/George Sanders) - Memoirs of a Professional Cad by George Sanders (a chapter about schools he went to)

*I'm going to work on a list of tropes that have a "Real Life" section.

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

WORD LIST

All words must be in reference to a place of learning, i.e. not "a school of fish," "senior citizen," or "medical exam." Embedded words and variations allowed, i.e. classroom, graduation.

Education, Academic
School, Academy, College, University, U, Campus, Ivy League
Student
Teacher, Principal
Class, Homeroom
Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior
Homework, (School) Work, Study
Test, Exam, Grade
Graduate, Degree

.

.

.

¹ You can search throughout the site for a trope; however, TV Tropes is very good at indexing. I can't image you'll find a school trope that's not on this list.

Other helpful links:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Authors

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AuthorsOfThe21stCentury

Done!

must be in reference to a place of learning, i.e. not "a school of fish," "senior citizen," or "medical exam"

LOL!

I have a question. It took me all evening to figure out how to select a book for your challenge. Now that I understand it, I’m not sure my book even qualifies. So I chose the trope “Eating Lunch Alone”. Sailor Moon was used as an example. I have that book. However, that is a manga series, and I can only find Volume 1. I don’t know if that scene is from Volume 1 or not. Will it qualify? Do I have to look through the book to see if I can find it? Should I choose a different trope instead?

As an FYI for others, the link to Literature is way on the bottom of these pages. If you scroll all the way down, you’ll find it.

Morphy, how do you ever think these up?! They are so complicated!! LOL!!

ETA: So does this mean I can read Volume 1?

If an entire series is mentioned and not one specific book (most are by specific title but on occasion you may see "second book in series"), you may read any book in the series.

ETA 2: I clicked on anime and manga instead of literature to get to Sailor Moon. Is that acceptable or not?

>5 SqueakyChu: I noticed the Anime and Manga thing and in this case, I'll take it.

The issue with Anime and Manga is that anime is film and manga is print.

However, *IF*, as in this case, they mark the difference between the two once you "drill in" a bit, then yes, you can read manga. Occasionally, there is also a section for Visual Novels that would also be acceptable.

For Sailor Moon, I clicked on (which landed on the anime page), Manga.Sailor Moon (just below the title and tags), then because Sailor Moon has such a huge number of tags they split it into two lists - Tropes found in the 1990s anime and manga and Tropes found in the manga.

Within those I found Higher Education is for Women, Late for School, One-Gender School, and Ordinary High School Student.

P.S. I don't MEAN for these to be so complicated! I'm just trying to come up with something fun and original. To make them easier, I've been putting a tl;dr version first for those that don't want a lot of instruction.

I suppose I could not post the longer version and just wait for questions?

Or if someone knows how I could have explained this one better, please let me know?

>6 Morphidae: Yay! Thanks! This book was my daughter’s when she was younger. I saved it because it was her first ever manga. My grandson turned it down this week because it’s too “girly”.

>6 Morphidae: Well, it can be lots of fun delving into new websites and seeing what is out there. For those who prefer not to dig so deep (and I’ve done that in the past), there is always the option to either share a read or read some of the suggested books. So you’re good. Sometimes I just laugh or groan at the more complicated challenges, but I know that challengers have groaned at some of my challenges in the past. That’s what keeps it interesting as well as challenging!!

I changed my trope to “Late for School” because that is definitely in my book. Actually, it is in the opening pages! :)

What is trope?
I have searched, but can't find a definition that makes sense to me.

>9 FAMeulstee: It's like a classification, but it's more specific to what's popular at a specific time.

I found this definition which I think works:
"A trope is a recurring element or a frequently used plot device in a work of literature or art."

I'm not sure it would fit but alas, The Golden Enclaves doesn't come out until Sept 27 and I'm unlikely to get it for a couple of months minimum. Maybe I should re-read A Deadly Education.

>10 SqueakyChu: Thank you, Madeline.
Now I think I understand this challenge :-)

>12 FAMeulstee: Dagnabit. What happened to my post? I worked on it for hours yesterday and didn't go to sleep until I hit send! Arrrgh!

(Thankfully I've learned to type up the important bits of my posts somewhere else. I've had these "blips" happen far too often.)

.

As usual my post is longer than heck but I've split it up so you can stop after any section and say, "Enough!

.

A cliche is a trope but a trope isn't necessarily a cliche. It's something... a plot device, a location, a character type, etc. that can be found in common with other media (books, movies, comics, etc.)

For instance, in the book you read last month (and that is now on my Mount TBR) Quicksand by Junichirô Tanizaki, I found some of the following tropes (I hid the ones that could be spoilers):

Format:

Trope
Link
Examples from your library

Blood oath
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BloodOath
(The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Song of Ice and Fire Series)

Faking the Dead
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakingTheDead
(And Then There Were None, The Leper of Saint Giles) * can't seem to link more than one book under the spoiler tag

Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon
(The Picture of Dorian Gray - Dorian, Three Musketeers - Constance)

Character Narrator
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterNarrator
(The Divine Comedy, Storm Front)

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

I saw you've been reading the Belgariad by Eddings. It is intentionally *filled* with cliches/(overused) tropes.

"David Eddings wrote the series after taking a course on literary criticism, digging out all the tropes he could find, and deciding to build a world that was simultaneously Strictly Formula and really, really good..." "He also deliberately focused on the characters..." "...a simple blacksmith, a notorious thief, a berserker, a princely horseman, a paladin, a noble outlaw, a snotty princess..." "...rather than the tropes, injecting liveliness and sardonic humor into stock situations."

It has so many cliches and tropes that its TV Tropes page has them separated out by letter!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheBelgariad

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

If you are interested in learning more about tropes, some of the most common ones can be found on the page Tropes of Legend.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/JustForFun/TropesOfLegend

ƸӜƷ.•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

I'm sorry this took so long. I was trying to find examples in your library and kept getting "sucked into" the website. I've spent half my day "playing" at TVTropes.com! At least I learned my lesson and kept to one tab instead of opening up 20 to 30 to "read later." Ha! As if that ever happens...

>11 quondame: Scholomance is referenced in Academy of Adventure as a series so have at it! Any of the books with that setting are eligible.

>12 FAMeulstee: The ultimate test is if you pick a book for this challenge! :D

>15 Morphidae: Oh...

:p~~~~~~~

>15 Morphidae: Thank you!

>16 SqueakyChu: Looking if one of my planned reads fits, the scedule is tight with two very big tomes to read this month.

>14 Morphidae: So if the main narrator is the main character in a book, I could list it under "Character Narrator"?
If so, my present read Daar op het plein is niemand would qualify :-)

>19 FAMeulstee: Unfortunately, no. I was using that as an example of a trope.

The book would need to be listed under one of the school tropes with one of the words I listed.

If the book, in general, relates to school, students, or education, post the title and I'll look through the tropes for you.

ETA: Most likely any book that is not translated into English will not be listed in any trope.

>1 Morphidae: I made some additions that I've expounded on here.

*******

#1 If you have a book about school, student(s), education, etc. and want some help verifying it's acceptable for this challenge, PLEASE let me know here, on the challenge thread, or by DM.

I'm more than happy to help and since I'm very familiar with that site, I might have thought this challenge easier than it seems to be. Plus, I think it's fun looking them up.

#2 In addition to Literature, you can also look in Visual Novels and Manga (found in Anime and Manga.)

For Manga readers only...
Be careful with Anime and Manga. Anime is film and Manga is the comics. Once you are in the Anime and Manga section if you click on a book or series name it will tell you which media it's from - Light Novel, Literature, Manga, Visual Novel, etc. As long as it's a written/drawn visual form and not Anime, it's acceptable.

>21 Morphidae:, I can't get the links to work. Would A Gate at the Stairs work. The protagonist is in attending a Midwest college and working as a nanny.

>22 Kristelh: I've found the links sometimes need to be refreshed as LT puts weird symbols in them. Not sure why that happens.

I'll go take a look to see if that book is mentioned. I may have to change the challenge for a book to simply fit one of the tropes rather than be mentioned within the trope. Once again, I think I made my challenge too confusing.