M Tropes

This page lists tropes of literary work Always Visible (Another Prayer for the Dying Horror Genre) by Russian author Vitaly Ivolginsky, starting with the letter A.

For compiling the list, we bring our thanks to “tv|tropes” website.

^{Warning: detailed listing and analysis of tropes may partially or completely reveal the plot or other nuances. In addition, their number may be supplemented from time to time.}

^{Denial of responsibility: possible strange language constructs are caused by translation from the author’s native language into English.}

List of tropes

• Manchild: Jordan Thurlow, who chose to work as a culturologist because he really dislikes work.
• Mama Bear: Delia’s mother looks like this to her neighbor Jordan – she is the one who forces her husband to arrest the man, thinking that he was molesting her child.
• May–December Romance: Delia’s father is somewhere in his fifties, and his wife is twenty years his junior.
• Mind Rape: The entire third act looks like this – everything that happens around Galbarith seems to be deliberately trying to drive the inspector crazy. The author of Always Visible was inspired by Karen Shakhnazarov‘s film Zerograd when he wrote this part of the work.
• Mind Screw: The entire work carries this idea.
• Messianic Archetype: Galbraith considers himself this way when Delia dies. He believes that he is simply obliged to punish doctor Baselard (despite the fact that he himself let him get away from under his nose)
• Madness Mantra: A whacky psychic who tries to sell Jordan a book by running after him like a mongrel and repeating “Take a book!”.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Galbraith does not believe in miracles, but what he encounters cannot be described in any other way. Because of this, the poor inspector has to rack his brains in almost every chapter.
• Mythology Gag: The hotel Galbraith checks into when he arrives in London is called “Stait of Snow Lake”, a reference to the actor Brent Stait, who played a pimp in the film Omen IV: The Awakening.
• Meaningful Name: Delia Yonce’s own name is explained in two different ways in the work – as “always visible” in Greek and as an epithet of the Greek goddess Artemis. It is ironic that the characters consider the first option to be obviously incorrect.
• Mood Whiplash: Intentionally used as an homage to “Jacob’s Ladder” in the scene where Galbraith encounters three arguing Afro-Americans, followed by a hallucination that nearly leads to the inspector’s death.
• Motive Rant: When Galbraith catches Baselard red-handed, he decides there’s nothing wrong with preaching to the criminal. Guess what? The doctor escapes!
• Mr. Exposition: Delia’s mother tells Jordan Thurlow (and readers) about how she met her second husband, who helped conceive her daughter.
• My Greatest Failure: Galbraith blames himself for Delia’s death because he could not disobey mister chief inspector Schaeymoure’s orders to leave her family’s home, which results in the poor baby falling into the hands of an incompetent F.B.I. agent.
• Mood Dissonance: Apart from the moment of Delia’s death, in all chapters the characters just sleeping, eating, and shirking work. However, the author presents this as if it were something completely out of the ordinary.
• Mysterious Waif: The mysterious young mute guy with whom Galbraith flew to London meets and follows the inspector several times. He doesn’t have a single line, and no one seems to see him except Galbraith himself.
• Mystery Fiction: In essence, the work is somewhat similar to a classic story in the style of Jules Maigret, but with the addition of horror cliches (which are nevertheless ridiculed).