{"id":5145,"date":"2022-04-20T02:12:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T01:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edgeverse.org\/?p=5145"},"modified":"2025-04-16T04:40:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T03:40:41","slug":"a-trio-of-tiresome-titling-trends-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edgeverse.org\/?p=5145","title":{"rendered":"A Trio of Tiresome Titling Trends"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A Tiresome Trio of Titling Tends<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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As I probably mentioned in my alleged book \u2018A Novel Approach,\u2019 the role of a work\u2019s title is to sell it to an audience that otherwise is unlikely to care. It should give them just the right balance of enticement to trigger curiosity and make them feel that it warrants a deeper inspection. If I didn\u2019t mention all this, then I\u2019ll be sure to add it in the second edition.\u00a0<\/p>

Unfortunately, some people responsible for creating titles were obviously taking a sickie the day this was covered at writing school, as evidenced by the following irksome trends. Not all of these are inherently bad if used correctly. It\u2019s just that often, they\u2019re not, which means they are.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Triple Entendre<\/h2>

A good title should ideally have more than one interpretation. For example, \u201cBody of Evidence\u201d refers to the totality of collected evidence in a criminal trial, but also refers to a literal dead body that is evidence of a crime.\u00a0<\/p>

This is very commonly done by having one of the readings be the character\u2019s name, which is sort of cheating, but we\u2019ll let it slide for the moment. For example, \u201cGood Will Hunting,\u201d where William Hunting is actually a good person, despite being portrayed by Matt Damon. In the original script, he was literally being hunted by government agents, but they handed that subplot off to the Bourne series folks because it was a terrible idea in the first place. Expanding on the therapist scenes, it was Robin Williams\u2019 job to find the good will in Will Hunting, who is good. It sort of works, if you look directly forwards at it sideways.<\/p>

Even more adventurous writers take it a little further, preferring at least three different interpretations of the title. This is a gamble that doesn\u2019t always pay off.<\/p>

A good example is \u201cThe Family Stone.\u201d It is about the Stone family getting together at Christmas or some made-up American holiday that\u2019s almost entirely like Christmas, but isn\u2019t. The adult children spend the movie squabbling over who will receive the heirloom, a precious gem, the family stone. Stopping them all from killing each other to death is the elderly mother, who is like a rock, the family stone as it were. Without commenting on the movie itself, I give the title 10 out of 10 for creativity.<\/p>

On the other hand, you have \u201cThe Glass House.\u201d Like the previous example, it features a family named Glass. No problem so far. There\u2019s also a kind of low key \u00e6sop about not throwing family stones in glass houses, which apparently was played up more in the novel, but mostly left on the cutting room floor for the movie because subtlety has no place in cinema. Also, inexplicably, their house is made entirely of glass. There is no explanation for this, nor does it offer any relevance to the plot whatsoever. I will comment on the quality of this one: it was terrible. It is best known for a scene where a little boy is given a video game and he immediately starts mashing buttons on it before he\u2019s even turned it on, and Leelee Sobieski in a swimming costume.<\/p>

Proper Nouns Sans Context<\/h2>

As previously established, including proper nouns (which are inherently arbitrary) in the title are perfectly acceptable providing they have an alternative interpretation, or there\u2019s something else to work with.<\/p>

Some good examples include \u201cFinding Nemo,\u201d \u201cHouse MD,\u201d \u201cChasing Amy,\u201d \u201cThomas the Tank Engine,\u201d \u201cHarry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone\u201d and \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory.\u201d There are enough extra words in the title to hint at a wider context.<\/p>

Some on the fence examples are: \u201cThe Simpsons,\u201d which I would allow as the definite article tells us it\u2019s a family, and the name itself is very atypical sounding; \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d which I would not allow for the same reason; \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap\u201d which I\u2019ll allow as it hints at a documentary format; and \u201c\u201dLittle Miss Sunshine\u201d which I\u2019ll also allow\u2014it was the name of the pageant, but it also described the young female protagonist who was the only pure soul in the film\u2019s universe.<\/p>

Egregious examples include \u201cMary Poppins\u201d and \u201cAlly McBeal\u201d because who the hell are these people and why should we care?!\u00a0<\/p>

There was an obscure TV series in the early 2000s called \u201cHuff\u201d which was all about Mr Huff (played straight by Frank Azaria) and his mid-life crisis, which was actually the example that inspired this article. Now that I think of it, that kind of works. For some reason I thought it was called \u201cTusk.\u201d I\u2019m going to put it as a fail simply because of how memorable the title evidently wasn\u2019t.<\/p>

Disembodied Adjectives Sans Subtext<\/h2>

Adjectives are a great way to imply multiple interpretations because they\u2019re so inherently vague. It amazes me therefore that some simply don\u2019t work.<\/p>

An example of a single adjective title that works is \u201cLost.\u201d The passengers were in a literal (depending on how you interpret the ending) sense lost on a magical island that was trying to kill them and nobody knew where they were. At the same time, each character as shown through flashbacks was lost in life in their own way.\u00a0<\/p>

Another example is \u201cDie Hard.\u201d On the one hand it points to the protagonist\u2019s determination not to have his Christmas ruined. On the other, the bad guys did die pretty hard when their number was called. The word \u201cDie\u201d is quite flexible that way, as evidenced by every James Bond movie ever. Almost. It\u2019s a pity they still found a way to ruin it in the sequels with \u201cDie Even Harder\u201d and \u201cA Good Day to Die Hard\u201d which both fail on multiple counts.<\/p>

On the flipping the bird side, we have Disney with such classic titles as \u201cTangled.\u201d Her hair was like a mile long, so obviously she was going to have bad hair days, but this was not a prominent feature of the story. You could at a stretch say that the title did not in fact refer to her hair (which never at any point tangled) but the psychological effects of an overbearing parental figure on her psyche, her \u2018mother\u2019 being inextricably entwined in her sense of self. That\u2019s pretty good actually, but I really had to work at that, because I love telling people they\u2019re stupid and wrong, and that includes me.<\/p>

Similarly, we have \u201cFrozen,\u201d so named because it was set in a place that was really quite cold, and that\u2019s about it. Now, you could argue that the character Hans had a frozen heart, because he was the only decent person there who cared about the citizens he served. He cared so much, in fact, that he was willing to commit treason in order to free them from the oppression of the giggle-sisters as they galavanted around the mountains singing awful songs, bringing fragile sentient beings into existence, and freezing everyone to death. What an arsehole. You see, it doesn\u2019t fit. It literally just means it’s a bit cold.<\/p>

Inconceivable Word Use<\/h2>

People often use words, only for others to point out that the word does not mean what they think it does. This is doubly so when it comes to the rule-of-cool in titling.<\/p>

There are no good examples, so let\u2019s jump straight to the bad.<\/p>

\u201cThe Avengers.\u201d What are they avenging? Nothing, that\u2019s what.<\/p>

\u201cDoctor Who.\u201d He\u2019s not a doctor, and we know who he is.<\/p>

\u201cFriday the 13th.\u201d Irrelevant to the plot.<\/p>

\u201cDivergent.\u201d It\u2019s like they came up with the title and based the plot around it, poorly.<\/p>

\u201cAxwyn Axylgrynden\u2019s Antagonistic Aunt.\u201d 10 out of 10 for alliteration, 0 out of 100 for being irrelevant to the plot, because there is no plot\u2014it doesn\u2019t exist, unless I can think of a story to base around it.<\/p>

\u201cThe Virgin Suicides.\u201d One of them was not a virgin when she committed suicide (spoiler). I\u2019ll give this one a pass because it had James Wood in it and the soundtrack by Air was so haunting it makes me want to kill myself every time.<\/p>

Inexplicably Poor Grammar<\/h2>

Everyone likes to use words wrong, or at least in ways that don\u2019t quite sound right. I always wondered, for example, why in the song Bohemian Rhapsody that when he talks about a gun, he pulls \u2018my\u2019 trigger, not \u2018the\u2019 trigger, or \u2018its\u2019 trigger. Is there a deeper meaning, or was Freddy Mercury just illiterate. I guess now we\u2019ll never know.<\/p>

This can be done well in titles, if done well, but when done badly, the results are often bad.<\/p>

A good example is \u201cSex and the City.\u201d Instinct says that is should be Sex \u2018in\u2019 the City, but this deliberate choice was to present \u2018sex\u2019 and \u2018life in the city\u2019 as two separate but overlapping concepts. It was also the name of the column the main protagonist wrote, probably. So well done for that.<\/p>

A bad example is \u201cGone Girl.\u201d A girl literally disappears (assumed murdered). She is, in effect, gone. And because she was really such a bad person, perhaps everything that made her who she was was gone too. But why the poor grammar?! There\u2019s no good reason for it. There\u2019s no bad reason for it either. It simply is.<\/p>

\u201cGood Will Hunting\u201d probably fails here too.<\/p>

Other shoutouts go to \u201cHoney, I shrunk<\/i> the Kids,\u201d \u201cTwo Weeks<\/i> Notice\u201d and \u201cThe 40 Year-Old Virgin<\/i>\u201d (\u2018virgin\u2019 should be plural).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"A
A glass house allows people to see the horrendous mess inside. It's kind of like a J.J. Abrams script.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"The
The actress who played 'single female lawyer',Ally McBeal went on to better things ater the show imploded.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"A
A real writer. Image provided for Hollywood reference.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Titles
Titles are complicated things and this is why so many are crap.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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To summarise, if you find yourself in a position where you have to provide a title for a work, try to avoid doing any of the things I just mentioned as being bad, and instead emphasise everything I mentioned about being good.\u00a0<\/p>

Or don\u2019t.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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