I have a friend that keeps telling me his book ideas. He doesn't read much fiction, if any. When we were in high school, he was very into science fiction novels. I basically don't read scifi and haven't really since high school. I've read Gravity's Rainbow, Super Sad True Love Story, and some Octavia Butler. George Saunders. Some other really famous stuff that sits between the pulp and literary fiction line. I'm not sure what else else I've read since I was maybe 20 that could possibly be called science fiction. I certainly haven't read much that could be called full-on Orson Scott Card type basically pulp.
My friend keeps coming up to me and pitching me these novel ideas. They always involve an incredibly simplistic dichotomy of some strong beautiful man who is virtuous and who is friends with some hideous, evil mad scientist. Then, somehow what he's telling me starts borrowing from Dune. I've never actually read Dune, but I've heard so much about it over the years I've known this guy that I pretty much know most of what happens in Dune.
I'm not honestly trying to shit on science fiction, but my friend tells me these things and seems to expected me to be excited to write this story for him. I'm not exactly successful. I have had things published in the kind of online blogs you specifically don't mention in school applications because on the off chance a professor has actually heard of one of these stupid literary blogs run by a 19 year old basket case, they pretty much publish writers who haven't been published anywhere else because they suck too much, and the things that get put on these websites really don't belong in public - not by virtue of being grotesque or anything but just by their not being good enough.
This is exactly the kind of thing he comes to me with. "I got this idea." Here's the part where it involves an attractive man and an ugly man. The ugly man is evil and jealous of the attractive man, and the attractive man is good. "It's about these two scientists. One is ugly..."
My friend gets mad at me when I don't feel like listening to him tell me idea he's basically based on Dune in some round about way. It's like, holy shit. Even if what you're pitching me is the greatest idea for a sci fi novel that's ever been pitched, I'm so ignorant about the science fiction landscape that I wouldn't know.
The way I've handled the situation recently is to tell him that the story would be more interesting if the two scientists were exactly the same as he's describing, but in addition to all of the ugly shitty genius scientist getting jealous of the good look, charasmatic, also genius but slightly less genius scientist, the two scientists should be gay. And they should hate fuck each other at different points in the novel.
When my friend gets tired of hearing this, I always tell him the other option is to make it a polyamorous situation. He could bring in women that way, unless he wants to make the ugly scientist a woman and pretty scientist a man. It can't be the other way around or it starts looking really rapey.
If my friend objects, I tell him I have a friend on good reads who must spend 90% of his free time reading self published MM romance novels that he gets for free in exchange for reviews. I don't read MM romance, but I figure I can get my friend to send my good reads friend his book when he finishes.
My sci fi friend has reacted to my suggestion the way I suspect I act when he tell me he has a book idea.