Metonymy in BL

There’s a Gothic literary trope (in the original sense of the word trope) purportedly originating in the 18th century European romantics, called 

metonymy 

“Metonymy is a subtype of metaphor, in which something (like rain) is used to stand for (or model/represent) something else (like sorrow).”

These days it’s less common in genre books than it is in the film industry, which loves to use metonymy as a shorthand, for example:

  • the dark grittiness of noir settings reflecting the personality of the main detective character (see Blade Runner),
  • or the way a messy room reflects an unstable emotional state (see Cherry Magic)
  • or the way it often rains during scenes of parting (The Untamed) or at a funeral.
  • or the sunrise in the background at the dawn of new love or beginning fo a new relationship stage (ITSAY) 
  • similarly sunset when a relationship is coming to and end or coming to its ultimate conclusion

In other words, when someone is sad, the setting reflects this with rain. When someone is happy, with sunshine. And so forth.

A classic example is “The Fall of the House of Usher" a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, in which the titular house is cracking and crumbling down, moldy and decayed, because of the moral turpitude of the house’s owner. This is also a foreshadow of the horrors that are about to unfold.

In BL metonymy is used a lot. 

1000 Stars 

Oxygen 

Why R U? 

Here’s a post about my... 

See You After Quarantine? is a Japan/Taiwan crossover BL set during COVID-19 and I am both extremely excited and extremely nervous about what this could be.

@absolutebl I will continue to be yours news everything Gaga, though this is also on Viki depending on where you are! Which is awesome.

dfgkjldf THE FIRST TWO EPISODES COME OUT TOMORROW WHAT?

And Aaron Lai from BLIH is gonna be in it!

this show will be the death of me I EVEN CRIED and i never cry !!!!! the last part of episode 10 was something i can't even begin to describe it

the pain in pat's eyes when he realises how bad of a person his father always has been and how he could have been friends with pran since his childhood if it wasn't for his father's bad decisions and selfishness is something that won't leave my mind for a very long time i can't honestly i just can't

you take away the scolarship from what is supposed to be your friend without even talk it out with her and without even needing it that much then you make your son's life a living hell since birth because you feel guilty and you want to justify a feud you started by being selfish wow what a nice man very mature of him

we hated pran's mom for all this time thinking she was the one who originated the feud when it was pat's dad all along that 4ss of a man i hate him so much he managed to be a bad friend, a bad husband and the worst of fathers all in one life nice job dude

i don't want to justify pran's mom because what she did was wrong too but come to think of it she simply wanted to protect his son from facing the same sh1t she went trough she probably was scared about pat growing up like his father considering it was indeed his father who was raising him THANK GOD pat grew up differently and pa too !!! she transferred him because when he saw them together she saw herself with pat's dad when she was younger and she tried to stop /things/ from happening little did she know pat wasn't even a bit just like his father

i also get pran's frustration towards his mom because nonetheless she raised him with hatred and sense of competition and of he is tired and at the end of the episode he still doesn't know what really happened between the parents

i'm so so happy about how all the story unfolded tho it was so original and well made i loved it so much the fact they didn't make it all about a bad relationship gone wrong the titular bad buddy is indeed that 4ass of a father pat and pa have poor things and also i'm so happy about how they're defending their love 'till the end they didn't even flinch they're protecting their love with all they have without being scared even for a second