[bee_rider]

A very nice story, and an interesting reflection on the education system.

Also, and this is just an aside, but “the protagonist who is too special for the sorting hat” is a bit of a trope in young adult literature at this point. Is this the first real instance of it? 1957. That’s a while ago! I don’t even know if the “sorting hat” trope was established enough to subvert at the time.

[notahacker]

Not really an example of the trope, but suspect Asimov might have got some of his ideas from Huxley's Brave New World, where it turns out the occupation-segregated dystopia is actually run by an idealistic type who's committed to the system but finds nonconformists and forbidden literature really interesting study subjects to make it better, and exile to the Falklands is actually a reward, sort of...

[lern_too_spel]

Unlike hacks like Cline, Asimov gives the special character serious flaws like jealousy. The protagonist's skill is also merely rare, instead of unique, and his roommate seems to be on a higher level still.

[B1FF_PSUVM]

> who is too special

"Fans are slans."

[KerrAvon]

No one would have recognized any tropes in 1957 beyond Shakespeare. Even Joseph Campbell wasn’t popularized until decades later.

[jhbadger]

As mentioned, the word "trope" dates back to ancient times, although generally meaning rhetorical devices like similes and metaphors rather than in the "reused plot" sense generally used today. But even the ancients still recognized those. Aristotle's Poetics deals with plays in addition to poems, and he discusses what sort of plots work in tragedies.

[TMWNN]

>No one would have recognized any tropes in 1957 beyond Shakespeare.

Nope. Just within science fiction, early issues of Galaxy had many editorials denouncing/mocking science fiction stories with overused tropes, such as Western transposed to space, or babies being killed as aberrant after a nuclear war because they have ten fingers and toe.

[bee_rider]

Sorry, I can’t tell if this is sarcastic. Well I think it has a kernel of truth that overstates it for rhetorical flair.

I’m willing to believe the phrase “trope” wasn’t invented in 1957 if that’s what you are saying. But surely they had the idea of popular little trends in contemporary literature.

The must have known they were writing pulp sci-fi. At least when they got their copies they could feel the texture!

[lanstin]

Trope comes from classical Latin.

[onraglanroad]

It comes from Greek "tropos"