LitCrit terms wanted for Bujold re-read

[There may be minor spoilers here, but I think nothing major.]

So I've been re-reading Barrayar, and noticed a few interesting techniques that Lois is using. But they're a bit hard to talk about, because I don't have names for them. I figure someone in my Friends list probably knows, or at least can make up something that sounds good :-)

A) A story which, if you know nothing about its context, seems to start out very slow and bucolic -- but which if you do know its context, has a aura of impending tragedy. I'm thinking here of Cordelia's exulting over the hordes of children that she can now have. Other examples include Dumas' Twenty Years After, and Brust's pastiche of it, Five Hundred Years After, both of which feature protagonists attemptng to prevent a disaster that the reader knows will not be prevented.

B) The characters exchange information that is withheld from the reader, but in a way that the reader is encouraged to mentally fill in the blanks. The Barrayar example is where Cordelia enumerates (off-page) the Rules of Sexual Politics on her new home planet, and she then has a conversation full of lines like, "So, darling, want to violate rule fourteen with me?" A less charming, but very frequently used version of this is often seen in TV/film, where a monetary amount is written down, but the viewer is left to judge from the character's reactions how large a sum it is. Oh, and it just now occurs to me, the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction is another good example.

LitCrit terms wanted for Bujold re-read

[There may be minor spoilers here, but I think nothing major.]

So I've been re-reading Barrayar, and noticed a few interesting techniques that Lois is using. But they're a bit hard to talk about, because I don't have names for them. I figure someone in my Friends list probably knows, or at least can make up something that sounds good :-)

A) A story which, if you know nothing about its context, seems to start out very slow and bucolic -- but which if you do know its context, has a aura of impending tragedy. I'm thinking here of Cordelia's exulting over the hordes of children that she can now have. Other examples include Dumas' Twenty Years After, and Brust's pastiche of it, Five Hundred Years After, both of which feature protagonists attemptng to prevent a disaster that the reader knows will not be prevented.

B) The characters exchange information that is withheld from the reader, but in a way that the reader is encouraged to mentally fill in the blanks. The Barrayar example is where Cordelia enumerates (off-page) the Rules of Sexual Politics on her new home planet, and she then has a conversation full of lines like, "So, darling, want to violate rule fourteen with me?" A less charming, but very frequently used version of this is often seen in TV/film, where a monetary amount is written down, but the viewer is left to judge from the character's reactions how large a sum it is. Oh, and it just now occurs to me, the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction is another good example.