A conversation last night about post-structuralism and tropes got me thinking quite a bit about how tropes, both in the sense of the word as it applies in normal context to figures of speech – such as metaphor, allegory, synecdoche, etc – and in the more specific and technical form of trope theory as applied to such things as metaphysics and epistemology, realism, nominalism, and such.

Tropes are an important tool in understanding how to connect disparate views that span across cultures and forms, and can be a powerful tool in helping authors create stories. Hollywood has longed use various “devices” to push plots and develop characters. But how have major tropes in modern culture changed over the course of the last decade? Have technologies such as Twitter or Facebook had an impact on generalized cultural tropes that span across groups, whether they be of the same gender, age, race? Are there tropes that can be seen as being more universal (and “universal” in this context is not meant in the metaphysical or nominal sense)?And how many second-order signs are media and technology companies creating to drive people into patterns of conspicuous consumption?

It’s very interesting to think about the ability of the digital bourgeois to use powerful tropes to create second-order signs for the specific purpose to getting people to consume their content or purchase their goods in the ways they want. Apple is notoriously successful at this – the fact that most people believe that Apple computers are the computers for creative people, therefore creating the fallacy that by owning your own Apple computer will make you more creative and allow you to “Think Different”.

What tropes have been created by marketers specifically to improve their sales, and what tropes have been born out of a more grass roots process of transference of memes? I’m sure this will keep me awake for many nights to come…