We Pause Now ...

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I find it fascinating how old science fiction movies often have a lot of infodumps. Just a long moment where the action pauses and our Loremaster—Our Hero, Dr. Science, a news reporter, etc.—introduces us to everyone, tells us how they’re getting from point A to point B, and restates the plot so far. While some of it has to do with the plot, most of it is just background.

 

I think nowadays they expect us to be more sophisticated about some of that—it’s implied rather than spelled out. And they’re getting more creative about how they do the infodumps, too—I always liked Jurassic Park’s cheesily entertaining “Mr. DNA,” and even Contact’s newscaster infodump was more interesting.

 

I’m not sure what this says about viewers now and in the past, but it is a contrast I’ve always been curious about.

Comments

[packbat.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting pattern - I think it is correlated somehow with the generations of writing advice writers who told their students to avoid "awkward" blocks of infodumping.

I wonder if there will be a swing back towards the explicit infodump sometime...

[evilcresyluna.livejournal.com]

My favorite infodump is in Heinlein's first book, For Us, The Living where Future Lady's* entire back story and social history is in a footnote.

*you know, those Heinelin Future Ladies who don't wear clothes and are in polygamous relationships.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

I've never been able to integrate infodumps gracefully into my fiction writing, partly because I don't find most RL infodumps boring so I can't tell when someone else would if they were the ones who were listening to it. This is one thing I like about documentaries over fiction - it's like a doctor from one of those fiction stories only he gets to talk the whole time without some bonehead interrupting with "In English, doc! Am I right, people?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

... Upon short reflection, I've seen contrived infodumps that have made fiction I've watched very awkward to the point of interfering with the storytelling, and I can't really condone that in others. I think I wrote that previous comment in part because I was focusing on my own inability and in part because in fiction I often resent the hero's assumption that the viewer has to be too dumb to care just like him because science is for nerds and weirdoes, right?