Watersheds and Tropes

I've touched on this before, but I wanted to flesh out my thoughts on tropes. Somewhere between "Lord of the Rings" and "Dungeons and Dragons", sylvan elves and deep-dwelling dwarves became common, even an old hat. It wasn't just Dragonlance or "Crystal Shard", Dennis McKiernan's "Iron Tower" trilogy featured halflings in the form of warrows. The other example was the change from the monstrous vampire of Bram Stoker to the Anne Rice/Camilla sauve immortal. These trends are not accidental, nor are they entirely acts of cynical plagarism.

E.B. White said it best when he wrote "Let [the writer] start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and he is good as dead, although he may make a nice living. Any reader of R.A. Salvatore or fan of Drizzt Do'Urden can readily feel the heart felt sentiments in his early novel. Imitation has been called a form of flattery, but that statement misses the joy that sends the newborn fan to the library or bookstore fiending for more.

Out of the thousands of fans, a handful may combust and try to become creators themselves: writers, artists, film makers, game makers, etc. The first inspirational work was actually a vector with direction and the impulse that sent the fan moving. The vector may be dominant or it may be nearly lost amidst a plethora of different influences, but it is there and all of the influences are still there. Inspiration does not happen in a vacuum.

The analogy that I propose for these tropes is a watershed. A river cuts its own path through erosion. As rain falls, it gathers and reinforces the river. Tolkien's pen let flow the first stream. As other authors, tributaries, linked up with Middle Earth's conception, swelling the stream into a fullbore river.

The same idea applies to yaoi. These girls found the BL images to be beautiful. The few who decided to become mangaka had these moving images in mind when they first put pencil to paper. When they reached out for other fans, they connected with those that had similar inspirations. And when they reached the stage where they began publishing, their art reinforced the current of shounen-ai work, then a new generation opened their works and a few of them picked up their pens.

The rushing river reinforces itself as it down cut into the bedrock, but even mighty rivers meander and die, but that is an article for another time.