Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,144
edits
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
(18 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 3:
# In which said Technique is very frequently used for [[Played for Laughs|comedic effect]].
# In which it is very frequently a [[Non-Indicative Name]].
# Being often varied with expressions such as "Being" and "Wherein"; wherein Nouns are capitalized and semicolons are present; [[Either-Or Title|or]] the ample using of Gerunds.
# Wherein it is the Author's duty to point out that such Titles have always been [[Undead Horse Trope|gently mocked]] by our illustrious Predecessors, who used them to [["Previously On..."|draw Eyeballs]] when a Work is published Serially, as will presently be revealed.
Author's Note: Tropes bearing Connection with this one, whether through Similarity or Contrast, include: [[Antiquated Linguistics]]; [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]], [[Exactly What It Says
----
== Anime and Manga ==
*
** ''[[Baccano
** ''[[
** ''[[
== Comic
* Every issue of ''[[
▲* Most Anime and some Manga use [[Excited Episode Title|Excited Episode Titles]] which will most likely sound like this.
▲** ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]''. Memorable episode titles include "Jacuzzi Splot Cries, Gets Scared and Musters Reckless Valor", "Isaac and Miria Unintentionally Spread Happiness Around Them", and "Ladd Russo Enjoys Talking A Lot and Slaughtering A Lot".
▲** ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]] Z'' ("Goku Dies! There's Only One Last Chance").
▲** ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'' ("The Sailor Warriors Die! The Tragic Final Battle").
▲** ''[[Slayers (Anime)|Slayers]]'' ("GIVE UP! But, Just Before We Do, the Sure Kill Sword Appears!").
▲** ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho (Manga)|Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' ("Koenma Appears", "Toguro Returns", "Death of a Spirit Detective".)
▲* Every issue of ''[[The Sandman (Comic Book)|The Sandman]]'' story arc "Season of Mists" -- for example, chapter 1: "In which the Lord of Dreams makes preparations to visit the realms infernal; farewells are said; a toast is drunk; and in Hell the adversary makes certain preparations of his own". The issues/chapters of "Brief Lives" also have something similar.
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''
* The comic book ''[[
* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[
* ''[http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/dw5.shtml Drunkard's Walk V: Another Divine Mess You've Gotten Me Into]'' by Christopher Angel and Robert Schroeck uses chapter titles in this style.▼
* Twoflower's ''[[Slayers (Anime)|Slayers]] Chaos'' has such chapter titles as "...in which old enemies taunt each other, fortunes are won and lost, strange bedfellows are made, and plenty of clowns are set on fire." and "...in which breakfast is served, we go once more into the breach of fear and loathing, a chimera goes postal and Xelloss tells a secret."▼
* ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'': [http://adaliseranis.livejournal.com/17652.html "Tangled Webs"] by adaliseranis has chapter titles of the "not what you'd first assume" variety. For example, chapter 14 is called, "In which Ginny finally gets into Draco's pants, and Ron is jelaous" but involves Ginny ending up in a pair of Malfoy's expensive brand-name Quidditch breeches and Ron wishing he had one of those instead of, um, yeah.▼
== Fan
▲* ''[[Drunkard's Walk]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110822202941/http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/dw5.shtml
* ''[[Dogville]]'', which starts with "The film Dogville as told in nine chapters and a Prologue." and then proceeds to do [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|exactly that]], with a description for each chapter.▼
▲* Twoflower's ''[[
▲* ''[[Harry Potter (
▲* ''[[Dogville]]'', which starts with "The film Dogville as told in nine chapters and a Prologue." and then proceeds to do [[Exactly What It Says
==
* ''[[Flatland]] A Romance Of Many Dimensions''
* ''[[Bulldog Drummond]]''
* The long epic poem ''[[La Araucana]]'' by [[Alonso De Ercilla]].
* Used in ''[[Vanity Fair]]'', e.g. Chapter XXVIII: In Which Amelia Invades the Low Countries
* ''[[Stardust (
** ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[To Say Nothing of the Dog]]'', by [[Connie Willis]] and its inspiration, ''[[Three Men in
* ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]''
* Robert Louis Stevenson's ''[[Kidnapped
* ''[[
* ''[[The Diamond Age]]'' by Neal Stephenson. In which the [[Future Imperfect|Victorians rise again]]; Extensive use of nanotechnology and robot-horses in [[Post Cyber Punk]] China.
* In Which The Author Notes That The Moist Von Lipwig Books From ''[[
* [[Stephen King]] in ''[[The Langoliers]]'', ''[[The Mist]]'', and possibly others presently unrecalled.
* [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (
* ''This is the Way the World Ends'', a novel about nuclear war, uses headings with its characteristic [[Gallows Humor|bitter, bitter humor]]: (paraphrased) "In which the limitations of civil defense are explored in a manner that some readers may find disturbing."
* As it is a parody of Dumas's work, the ''[[Dragaera|Khaavren Romances]]'' have chapter titles in this style, sometimes playing off of specific Dumas chapter
** Several of the author's Vlad Taltos series books have '''front-cover blurbs''' in this format. "In Which Vlad and His Jhereg Learn How the Love of a Good Woman Can Turn a Cold-Blooded Killer Into a '''Real''' Mean S.O.B. ..." or "In which Vlad must survive among an alien race: '''his own.'''"
* The 18th century Spanish novel ''Friar Gerund'' makes fun of this with titles like "In Which We Accomplish The Promise Made By The Previous One", "In Which Something Happens", and "In Which Someone Sneezes And The Story Continues".
* [[Ellery Queen]]'s ''The Roman Hat Mystery''
* A Notable Case, By A Mr [[
** Strongly Illustrative Of The Proposition That No General Proposition Is Without Exception: A Troper Notes That Mr. Dickens Once Avoided Spoilers By Providing A Chapter With The Ingenious Title ''Too Full Of Incident To Be Described.''
** In Which A Troper Notes Mr. Dickens Also Employed A Form of This Device in ''David Copperfield.''
Line 64 ⟶ 59:
* ''Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'' by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig.
* [[Jules Verne]]'s ''[[Around the World In 80 Days]]''
* William Caxton's printing of Sir Thomas Malory's ''[[Le Morte
* [[Older Than Print]]: The ''[[
* In Which the ''[[Larklight]]'' Books By Philip Reeve, Which Take Place in a [[Steampunk]] Version of Victorian England, Are Given Their Due.
* Every chapter of ''[[
** Then It's [[Inverted]] in Some Chapters that don’t Summarize really Anything:
{{quote|
Part II, Chapter 66 WHICH TREATS OF WHAT HE WHO READS WILL SEE, OR WHAT HE WHO HAS IT READ TO HIM WILL HEAR }}
* ''[[
* The majority of chapter summaries from ''[[
{{quote|
* Umberto Eco's book ''[[
** Done largely to avoid having to put something like 'In which it is revealed that {{spoiler|go and read the damn book... or watch [[The Film of the Book|the movie]]}} is the murderer'
*** Trying to kill us all, anonymous troper? Perhaps the murderer is you!
* ''[[
* Daniel Defoe's ''
** And to lesser extent ''[[
* [[
* ''[[The Three Musketeers (
* Kim Stanley Robinson's ''The Years of Rice and Salt'' is divided into several sections, but the first section features chapter headings in this style.
* ''[[How Not to Write A Novel]]'' had this as the subtitles to most of their [[Stylistic Suck]] segments.
Line 87 ⟶ 82:
* Used in [[Lloyd Alexander]]'s ''The Remarkable Journey Of Prince Jen'', with short collections of titles, such as ''Mafoo Comforts His Toes - The Ear of Continual Attentiveness'' and etc. However, chapters dealing with the six [[MacGuffin|key items]] are simply titled, ''The Tale of the Thirsty Sword,'' et alia.
* [[Cormac McCarthy]]'s ''[[Blood Meridian]]''
* ''[[Percy Jackson
** Many of Rick Riordan's young adults novels feature this. Such as in the [[Kane Chronicles]]: "I Have a Date with the God of Toilet Paper"
* Fielding's ''[[
* Howard Whitehouse's ''Mad Misadventures of Emmaline and Rubberbones'' has three books:
** ''The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken''
Line 96 ⟶ 91:
* Occasionally used in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''.
* The early novels of ''[[The Saint]]'' used chapters title in this fashion.
* The ''[[
* A few of the chapter titles of ''[[Les Misérables]]'' are of this form.
* Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles uses this trope extensively.
Line 104 ⟶ 99:
* Since it's a homage to Victorian serials, many of the chapter titles of [[Beyond the Western Sea]] are in this style.
* The novel ''Nameless Magery'' plays with this by giving its chapters titles beginning with "In Which I Don't..." (e.g. "In Which I Don't Keep My Dress Clean").
* The chapter titles of Forward the Mage by [[Eric Flint]] use this. Notable in that several chapters consist solely of their title. See, for example, this chapter: http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/23-{{Dead link}}[[The Eastern Front CD]]/1635TheEasternFrontCD/Forward<!-- 20the20Mage/0743435249__21.htm -->
* ''[[
* [[This Is the Title of This Story|This Is the Title of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times in the Story Itself]], because... [[Captain Obvious|yeah]].
* [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''A Maze of Death'' [[Subverted Trope|subverts]] this; the table of contents contains a brief summary-like name for each chapter, but every such "summary" is about one of the fourteen characters doing something that has nothing at all to do with the chapter contents, or even the entire novel. {{spoiler|It might be symbolic of how all the events and backstories in the book are just virtual simulations, hundreds of which the characters have already experienced, every of them different.}}
* [[Voltaire]] uses this in ''[[Candide]]''. Given how short the chapters are and the straightforwardness of their titles, a reader can get a pretty solid gist of the book just from the table of contents (though there are a few titles that don't directly state what happens). Considering the satirical nature of the novelette this may very well have been intentional. Chapter titles include:
{{quote|
"How the Portuguese made a superb auto-da-fe to prevent any future Earthquakes, and how Candide was publicly whipped"
"Candide and his Valet arrive in the country of El Dorado. What they saw there" }}
* [[Terry Pratchett]] uses this trope in the Moist von Lipwig novels
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Private Practice]]'''s [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]] takes this effect.
* A Television Series, Being A Merry Situational Comedy, Concerning [[Friends]], In Which Some Episodes Are Named "The one with ''''" and [[Butt Monkey|Ross]] [[Running Gag|Obtains A Divorce]].
* A first season episode of ''[[Fringe]]'' is entitled "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones." In it, [[Wicked Cultured]] villain [[Shout-Out|David]] Robert [[David Bowie|Jones]] is, in fact, introduced.
* ''[[
* Each episode of the Steed-and-Peel era of ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' opened with some cryptic, usually punning statements describing what would happen in the episode. They did not actually contain with the words "in which," but the effect was otherwise similar.
* ''[[
== Music ==
* "Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite!," a [[Beatles]] song whose lyrics John Lennon adapted from an actual
== [[Tabletop
▲* "Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite!," a Beatles song whose lyrics John Lennon adapted from an actual victorian-era circus poster.
* The [[Tabletop RPG]] campaign "The Shackled City" uses this for each sub adventure, often stated from the villain's point of view. For example, when a sinister cult attempts to kill the players, the adventure is given the description "Wherein the local Clergy makes the terrible mistake of not hiring enough assassins for the job".
* In ''[[
== Theatre ==
== Video
▲* [[Bertolt Brecht (Creator)|Bertolt Brecht]] does this in some of his plays.
* ''[[Jade Empire]]''. "Chapter 1: Wherein a master foretells of doom, A rival challenges for station, And the past haunts the present." {{spoiler|And your [[Doomed Hometown|adoptive hometown blows up, your real hometown having been destroyed 20 years earlier]].}}
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony]]'' does this for all of its chapters. For example:
{{quote|
==
* ''[[
** And a number of episodes following {{spoiler|Pete/R2-D2
* In which it is noted that individual ''[[Wondermark]]'' comic strips are titled in this manner. Such as [http://wondermark.com/154/ this] or [http://wondermark.com/363/ this].
* The ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' strip titled [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/
* [http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=565675 This]{{Dead link}} ''[[Stickman and Cube]]'' comic, In Which Thaddeus J. Cube, Being Without a Story Idea, Finds Himself Crushed Beneath a Large Weight for the Readers' Amusement.
* The chapter titles of ''[[Hanna Is Not a
* A large number of the comics in ''[http://swounds.com/2010/02/04/billy-shax/ Shakespeare Ensues]'' follow this title format.
* In ''[[
** It goes on.
* ''
* ''[[Roommates 2007
{{quote|
▲{{quote| [[http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-183-Parent-Trap-256823412 In which a clever fabrication and the skillful application of glamour absolve the characters from having to explain what really happened over the last thirty-some pages,<br />
▲== Web Original ==
* ''[[Tales of MU]]'', in which the chapter subheadings are all ironic.
** Of course, all are perfectly logical once you read the story. For example, the title "Girly Fight" in conjunction with the subtitle "In Which Mackenzie Gets The Finger", implies that dear old Mack is in a word fight. You're wrong if you think so. In one of the most hillaristurbing scenes in the world, she [[Mind Rape
* Each new episode of [[Kevin Smith]]'s podcast, [[S Modcast]], is summarized via this, e.g "Episode #150: In which our heroes meet Melf (aka Sugartits, the antisemitic house elf)."
* A recent side story of ''[[The Descendants]]'' used this in the chapter titles combined with [[Antiquated Linguistics]].
Line 173 ⟶ 156:
* A lot of screenshot-based [[Let's Play|Lets Plays]] on [[Something Awful]] forums are like this.
* The infamous ''[[Dirty Potter|Dirty The Pooh]]'' "audio books" usually start with these. Like everything else in the ''[[Dirty Potter]]'' series, they're full of potty humor.
* Every chapter of ''[[Pay Me, Bug
* Fantasy epic parody ''[
== Other Media ==
▲== Other ==
* A number of people undertaking [[NaNoWriMo]] like to take advantage of the bonus wordcount this trope confers.
* The classic textbook ''Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'' does this. For instance, the chapter on knowledge representation begins with:
{{quote|
----
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]
[[Category:Prepositional Phrase Equals Coolness]]
[[Category:Literary Tropes]]
[[Category:Self
|