[PREV - ROMANCE_BY_DESIGN]    [TOP]

BITER_REBITTEN

                                             October  1-27, 2017
                                             December    7, 2017

The "biter bit" revisited.
                                                        BITER_BIT
I've written about this before, but begun
thinking about it again recently--

Some friends of mine have gotten interested in
retro-40s style radio drama, but I'm not sure
they quite understand the basic forms.

That seemed a little strange to me, but then the
"biter bit" is a pretty strange form, really...
maybe strange enough to think about some more.

   Typically we think of fiction
   as following a problem-solving
   structure: a difficulty arises,      There was a time when I would've been
   the hero struggles with it, and      more dogmatic about this: the only
   after much effort the problem        exceptions I could think of to the
   is solved.                           problem-resolution story didn't seem
                                        much like stories, e.g. Hemingway's
                                        "Snows of Kilimenjaro".

   One of Lester Dent's rules-- obvious once
   you hear it-- is that the problem must be
   solved through the efforts of the hero,          CHANCES_ARE
   not by luck, or outside intervention.

     In comparison, in the "biter-is-bit" form,
     no one needs to do anything to solve the      There's a cliche about
     problem.  The viewpoint character is the      "tragedy": the character's
     villain, an unsympathetic character who's     flaws bring about their
     character flaws will be his undoing.          downfall.  But the "biter
                                                   bit" is not a tragic form:
     The hero then is the nature of the            you're supposed to feel
     universe, perhaps some sort of divine         happy about the main
     justice... except that there's never          character's fate.
     any explicit mention this, there are
     no tag-lines about god's will or
     divine providence or anything like
     that.

  This might be compared to "romance fiction",
  where the protagonist typically wins the game
  (i.e. gets a high-status male) without effort,
  simply through a display of superior niceness.
  The main character's competitors (the coniving
  manipulative females) will typically sabotage
  themselves, receiving their comeuppance without
  any work on the main character's part.
                                                       
  It's also a relatively common aspect of adventure    
  fiction: the bad guys sabotage themselves with       
  their own badness-- they can not trust each          SKYLARK
  other, nor can they expect many allies once their
  nature is understood.


I find it suprisingly difficult to craft a good
example of a biter-bit story.  They tend to sound
jokey and contrived when sketched in outline-- it
could be the real trick in writing them is to get
the audience to buy into them.


An example I liked when I was a kid, from some
horror anthology-style comic-book from Marvel:
                                                    
    The main character has heard about an           
    immortality potion, and is determined to get it,     
    committing horrible crimes to do so.  He             
    believes in it implicitly-- and ignores all          
    warnings about it-- and downs the magic potion       
    the moment it's in his grasp.  He then freezes       
    in place; he becomes completely immobile...  and     
    begins sending roots into the ground.  This          
    "immortality" potion transforms you into a tree,     
    which do indeed have very long lifespans.            
                                                         
                                                        
                                                       


--------
[NEXT - PRISONER_OR_JAILER]