Realism

For something simple, it's really complicated.

You'd think that I'd like realism. And you'd be right, to an extent. While all of the -isms up to this point had been concerned with emotion, with nature and the unseen, realism was all about the facts. Fact: Realism turned out to be boring. It was no longer about the potential that humans held, it was about the things that they had done. Which, okay, I can get behind that, take an objective look at our past to help us truly understand our present, okay. It was very cause and effect oriented, as opposed to abstract ideas and stories. Basically, they took a look at real life people, and examined how they lived.

Over a century later, this idea would go horribly, horribly wrong.

This isn't very interesting to read. Say what you will about romanticism, at least it could keep your attention. When I read something by a realist I feel like I'm reading absurdly long exposition to a hopefully more interesting story. For all that I dislike the realists, I have to admire their conviction. They believe in showing the way of life as it is, and dammit, they are going to. Even if they have to spend 50 pages describing the exactly how the butter was made. This is somewhat odd, as they also believed in verisimilitude, in which everything is just outright stated. Realist writing is a bunch of short, concise statements that described exactly what was going on in the lives of people who didn't have much going on in their lives. They believed in showing what was called "local color," which showed the culture or lifestyle of the people in a region.

The term "local color" being somewhat ironic in the South.

This is a good way to live your life I guess. Not everyone has to be the hero, or the chosen one, in fact few of us are. The problem is…that isn't very interesting to read. Sure, tropes and cliches are annoying and sometimes cheap, but they're used because they're effective. Elaborate plot twists, deus ex machina, vampires, these are all things that are unrealistic, but are put into stories because authors know we enjoy reading them.

Realism came about in a time of rapid change. Religion was falling out of favor due to science, the industrial revolution was rendering people quickly obsolete, slavery had been abolished, and people were feeling frightened that their way of life was being threatened. I guess having everything written down in simple, easy to read, realistic statements made them feel better. Like they wouldn't be forgotten. And I can respect that. Just keep it the hell away from me.

Three stars, because while it's boring, it's also not damning me to Hell.