I was reading By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. Paulo Coelho is a gifted writer, but the overtly Christian undertones pissed me off! The love story pissed me off too. It just seemed so insane. They (the guy and girl) both seemed insane. Anyway, what story lines pissed you off?
Once there was this really long line in Wal-Mart. I tend to avoid that place as much as possible, but my car was stuck in the ice and I needed a good, metal shovel to dig out. Well when I got in there, of course there were only a few cashiers and, of course, the lady holding everyone up had no less than two dozen coupons to use. It didn't help, of course, that the lady checking us out seemed to be new and didn't much know how to enter the coupons. So what I thought originally to be a ten minute trip turned into a forty five minute fiasco! Store lines do indeed piss me off.
LOL Rob. I don't think there's really any story line that irritates me...I do, however, get annoyed when I read multiple things by the same author and the storyline is exactly the same, just with different character names and a new setting. That stinks.
There are stories that make me angry, but these stories are intended to incite anger, at least in part. Sophie's Choice is a good example.
Funny. The original post has been corrected. Perhaps it's my polemic nature. Adam Bede pissed me off also. I thought the author was being unfair to Hetty.
Crappily written fiction that becomes popular. Plots with holes in them. If it's not an absolutely airtight plot it makes me mad.
Maybe there were overtly Christian undertones because Paul Coelho is overtly Christian, or, writing for an overtly Christian audience?
Books that try to cash in on other books' success. Example: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or all the "readers' guides" and unneccesary, unauthorized books about Twilight. I've noticed that there are the actual books, and then there are all these books ABOUT the books, written by other authors trying to cash in on the sudden sucess of the series.
^ I am ashamed to admit that I recently bought a book called: "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer". I honestly think it's just cashing in on the Twilight mania. Still, I couldn't help myself to reading about Abe hacking at vampires with an axe. A good read, but it's rife with plotholes, things that don't make sense, and cliches like the author had Abe's mom dying of a vampire bite be the reason he hunts vampire or Abe doing a "Hero Training Montage" with the Wise Old Man Henry who is the author's fictional vampire. (Plus, I think he even pulled a 300 where after Abe killed a vampire, he assures the panicking person who says there will be more coming, "Then I shall need more stakes.") Plus, the author takes actual pictures and photoshops them, like there's a picture of dead Civil War soldiers that he photoshopped Abe with an axe onto and blacked out their eyes and underneath, he wrote, "Abe with his vampire victims". An interesting concept, but poorly executed and in some areas, done in bad taste. I mean, I don't mind insane historical fiction novels, I really don't, but I just wish this guy had done a bit more research and didn't pull a Dan Brown by saying that everything that happened in the book ACTUALLY HAPPENED. It just pisses me off. =(
99% of fantasy. For a genre where imagination is supposed to be open to almost anything, it blows my mind how cut and pasted most of it really is. Read the backs of a dozen books and you have about 2 different stories.
I saw the Youtube promo for that book, and I am also ashamed to say that it looked like a funny depiction of one of my favorite presidents. However, those books aren't original, and I don't know how they weren't all sued for copyright. And that's another one. People who act like their stories are actually real, like they're some sort of untold story covered up for so long. It CAN work for some books, but that doesn't mean it always DOES. And that does sound in really bad taste. There's just something awful about taking actual pictures of the dead (albeit paintings, but still) and using them for some ridiculous book. And cliches annoy me too. The whole book sounds like a 300/Rocky remake with Abe Lincoln and vampires.
I don't like the vampire thing. I just don't get it. I'm not a big fan of any book with vampires. Even Cooney's. I'll read hers though.
The world is coming to an end by sort-of-but-not-quite zombies. Enough! You are not being original, you are just holding back what we all want in these sort of things: zombies! Either that or the writer who has to face the supernatural - I'm looking at you Mr. King.
Why do zombies have to be all bad? I played Fallout 3 and was surprised that the ghouls (their zombies) are not the zombies from the books and movies. They're just people who've been heavily irradiated and just want to be left alone. I want to see a fantasy book where a lich isn't an insane monster bent on conquering the world. Maybe the lich is a nice creature for a chance? And I don't mean to sound racist or un-American, but in most Hollywood films, the hero is almost always a white American man. What's wrong with having a hero who's of a different ethnicity, national origin or of a different sex?
I wasn't talking about Fallout, I was talking about stuff set in the modern world. Like Dawn of the Dead sort of thing; I love those films.
I think this is actually where some of the humor of the book lies. OF COURSE it didn't happen. That's entirely the point, actually.
If you can say that - I like books that look at small groups of people, and really find it interesting when a small group of people are facing off against an increasingly hostile world.
THE romantic comedy storyline used for every single romantic comedy movie. Every single romantic comedy movie goes like this: Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with. Either boy or girl finds out about big secret that boy or girl was keeping and it leads to a big fight and break up. Boy/girl decided to move to another state or back home and heads to train station/airport. Boy/girl desperately chases down boy/girl who is on way to train station/airport. I don't think I have ever seen a romantic comedy that does not follow this template. Another trend that pisses me off royally is all of these "out of the ghetto" movies. You know, the ones where a kid or group of kids drums, dances, cheerleads, spelling bees, basketballs, footballs, baseballs, swims, chesses (is that a word), maths his way out of the ghetto.
I agree completely with the romance thing. As for the "Out of the Ghetto" thing, arguably, you could say that it's all about determination, going from a crappy beginning to a wonderful ending. (And I liked Akeelah and the Bee, btw. ) Lemme see...what other story lines do I not like? Well, it's not a story line perse, but it's a scene especially in Disney movies where a secondary character overhears the main characters talking (They're usually angry) and the secondary character misunderstands them, assumes the worst, and just walks away with the infamous looking back over the shoulder with a disgusted look. (See Shrek 3 and observe the character Archie.)
And then the main character, having every chance to explain his/herself never does- just plays the victim- or allows the other character to.
You guys are seriously reading my mind here!! Romance follows that exact template. They meet, fall in love, there's some sort of big secret being let out, fight, chase down, get back together. Nicholas Sparks has mastered this annoying template perfectly. Every one of his books is just the same template, switching locations and character names. The only good "romance" (and it's not even totally a romance, because there are so many other things) that sort-of follows that template that is a GOOD movie is Cars. They meet, fall in love, (no fight, but Lightning leaves), and then they end up together again. Disney/Pixar can work magic. And yes, that whole "big misunderstanding/dramatic forgiveness scene" thing annoys the crap out of me, too. Another one that gets me: Movies (with the exception of The Hurt Locker) that use the war in Iraq as fodder (i.e. "Dear John") for the book. Some use it well (see The Hurt Locker), and yet some seem to think that it's only a potential storyline to use for their crappy book/movie. I can get behind people who criticize the war, document it, etc. (in essence, using it usefully and not just as some kind of "creative backdrop/setting"), but when people use things like that as simply a platform for a story, I am annoyed. Perhaps not a plotline, but the way Avatar is so anti-American military is annoying. I can see where James Cameron is coming from, but he seems to forget that these guys are the ones who fight so he can have the freedom to make his movies. I don't agree with all things military, but these are brave men and women being slandered for some project filling Cameron's pockets.