Fairy Tales and Thrillers: The Contradictions of Formula Narratives

Abstract

What is behind the broad appeal of formula narratives? Why do so many people turn to Westerns and mysteries, romances and techno-thrillers? Or rather, why do some of us dote on some genres, returning repeatedly to find solace in galaxies far away or in ravines from which lone gunmen ride? There's never been an adequate answer to that large question, in part because explanations of sociologists based on broad content analysis never capture the allure of one genre over another, much less of a particular text. And while close study of specific texts—of distinctive settings, characters, even narrative strategies—may help explain a local appeal, we are still left to wonder at the larger social and historical pressures that make them into such monsters of popularity. Yet if answers to why are not forthcoming, the answer to what binds formula narratives together may be less elusive. For genres with broad appeal are split by large, even obvious contradictions. And this seems so because popular culture itself is split, divided against itself, embracing values that are multiple, diverse, arrayed against one another. Freedom or equality, which one do we prefer? Individual rights or group security? Calm kindness or invigorating excitement? Mature wisdom or youthful spontaneity? The pairings go on and on, with one meritorious gesture pitted against its converse in guises that seem to require their opposite. That is why the most popular narratives can never be simply allegorical, concluding with a moral tag that earmarks what is at stake or otherwise proffering firm advice on how one should act. For even in successful allegories, at least since Aesop's fables, we delight in ways they so often defy their own concluding truths, by stressing an ethical good that is then coupled with its opposite. Among other considerations, praiseworthy traits like forbearance and patience, modesty and self-esteem, steadfastness and simple self-possession—these quiet virtues require a loud dramatic foil to reveal them for what they are. The meek may inherit the earth, in short, but the day of inheritance will be full of celebration, punctuated with eulogies and encomiums whose very expression defies the meekness that won them.