Dark theme poll

[Kyriakos]

Back in the mythological age of CFC OT, where valiant posters were battling trolls and other revolting creatures, i also had created a series of eponymous threads, to examine which ideas seemed darker as central plots for a literary story.

Now it's been years since the whitewalkers and other monsters were permanently banished on the other side of the Wall, and we appear to live in the end of the Long Summer, so maybe i could re-institute this thread, at least partly

Anyway, it is more likely that it won't pick up, but it is just a poll with some ideas, and you are meant to pick which one seems to you as more interesting to use in a fictional story setting..

So here we go:

Which of the following plot ideas do you find more interesting?

1) [In or out of the labyrinth]One is reading about a mythical labyrinth, but goes on to form the view that he actually lives inside it.

2) [Ancient barrier]A locked door in some part of the huge apartment-building is finally opened, but it appears that it was so difficult to operate because the outcome of this action is gruesomely catalytic.

3) [Easier remembered than done]The narrator tries to recall what he had written down the previous day. He has a diary, but even trying to turn the pages seems to evoke an emotion of panic. The story is an attempt to bring back the memory indirectly, without looking at the previous pages.

 

[Takhisis]

The Ancient barrier actually leads into the labyrinth, IMO.

 

[Kyriakos]

Depends on who/what built it

 

[brennan]

3 reminds me of Soldier in the Mist by Gene Wolfe. Slightly different premise though.

 

[Tigranes]

Why not write historical fiction? Like Maurice Druon. Every plot is even cooler when set in real historical context.

 

[Kyriakos]

I have never used a historical setting in the forefront of a story, no. Although sometimes there are sub-subplots (ie lesser than an actual sub-plot) which have historical themes (eg the charge of the Varangian guard in 1122, the egyptian Scarab-god Keper, or presocratic trivia etc). The stories usually are either ambiguous as to whether the narrator is delusional or not, OR they have other focal points (eg violence or slavery by more intelligent beings, human or alien).

Although i do not really have a mythos in my storywork, i think that in general they do feed back to some form of personal mythos where all humans (us, in other words) live in a maze built by superior creatures, and serve as pretty much either fuel or science experiments (which make use of human special kinds of logic that the aliens have no clear point of view of).

Oh, of course other stuff are just drool to be published in magazines/sent to lit contests :\

 

[JollyRoger]

3 reminds me of necro'ed threads where there is a black dot indicating that I posted. The full panic sets in while wondering whether I will discover that my posts were either god awful or show that I have now lost my edge. Either possibility is terrifying.

 

[Kyriakos]

3 reminds me of necro'ed threads where there is a black dot indicating that I posted. The full panic sets in while wondering whether I will discover that my posts were either god awful or show that I have now lost my edge. Either possibility is terrifying.

Closer to the plot would be to click on such a thread and read stuff you do not recall at all (eg 'i told you for the thousandth time, it was a damned dice-roll which decided that i would have to chop his hands off ')
Anyway, moving on

 

[JollyRoger]

Well yeah, that would be awful. You would think that such a missed opportunity to make a post like that more clever would have nagged me over the years.

 

[Kyriakos]

Whatever, you wrote it

 

[JollyRoger]

One of me did.

 

[Tee Kay]

1) [In or out of the labyrinth]One is reading about a mythical labyrinth, but goes on to form the view that he actually lives inside it.

Eh.

2) [Ancient barrier]A locked door in some part of the huge apartment-building is finally opened, but it appears that it was so difficult to operate because the outcome of this action is gruesomely catalytic.

Sounds like a great plot for a thriller with lots of explosions.

3) [Easier remembered than done]The narrator tries to recall what he had written down the previous day. He has a diary, but even trying to turn the pages seems to evoke an emotion of panic. The story is an attempt to bring back the memory indirectly, without looking at the previous pages.

Prime psychological horror fiction material; might be difficult to write well though.

 

[Kyriakos]

I agree (and it seems to be clearly winning in the poll too by now..). An issue with such a plot, though, is that it pretty much begins with a barrier the narrator has passed over, or run past so as to escape from something. Not many people are inclined to return to a room they feel physically sick just by watching some strange symbols they believe its eroded door woodwork has formed.

Think of the short story, The Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa never even tries to explain how he got to his current state. Ultimately this makes it certain what his end will be, forty pages later.

 

[Takhisis]

You simply have to come up with some reason for the man to have to return to that room.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Personally, I'd probably be most interested in (3). It sounds like something that doesn't need to be that dark, even, could simply an introspective slice-of-lifey thingy which personally I prefer over more darker, psychological thriller sort of things.

 

[warpus]

2 is my favourite.

2) [Ancient barrier]A locked door in some part of the huge apartment-building is finally opened, but it appears that it was so difficult to operate because the outcome of this action is gruesomely catalytic.

For some reason this reminds me of the hatch in lost, which was an excellent plot device, even if they didn't really resolve it well enough for my tastes.

 

[Borachio]

Surely the best dark plots have to involve some tied-up guy in a pit and a razor-sharp blade swinging hypnotically ever closer to his bits?

Anything else - doors and the like - are just flummery elaboration. ("Flummery", excellent word though it is, is inappropriate here. I don't know why it popped into my head.)

 

[Kyriakos]

Think of my own work as the door and Foucault's pendulum :\

 

[azzaman333]

Whichever works best with reverse mermaids.