Life Imitates Art: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~pingpongmyth_350px_975~~.jpg|frame|Can you raise a sunken boat with nothing but ping-pong balls? [[Myth Busters|Yes, actually.]]]]

[[File:pingpongmyth 350px 975.jpg|frame|Can you raise a sunken boat with nothing but ping-pong balls? [[Myth Busters|Yes, actually.]]]]

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* A fan of ''[[Iron Man]]'' built his own personal digital life assistant and named him JARVIS.

* A giant sign in the shape of a bull was built for the movie ''[[Bull Durham]]''. Placed over the outfield fence, if hit by a home-run ball it would light up and make noise, and the person who hit it would win a free steak. The real-life Durham Bulls baseball team kept it.

* In the movies of Sacha Baron Cohen, the artistic premise of the story and characters is always deeply intertwined with the real-life behavior of those who aren't in on the joke. So to say that [[Life Imitates Art]] is [[Captain Obvious|somewhat trivial]]. Nonetheless, there were some moments in ''[[Bruno]]'' when the real-life external circumstances surrounding the film's production evolved similarly to the fixed prior notion of the movie's plot, as it had been conceived of before filming. This occurred when they were in Italy for Fashion Week. The plot of the movie was that Bruno would cause a major disturbance at a fashion show, resulting in his being thrown out, black-listed, and possibly even arrested. In fact, all of these things happened in real life, and so when he is later disallowed from entering fashion shows, it is because he was actually black-listed by that time.

* In the movies of Sacha Baron Cohen, the artistic premise of the story and characters is always deeply intertwined with the real-life behavior of those who aren't in on the joke. So to say that Life Imitates Art is [[Captain Obvious|somewhat trivial]]. Nonetheless, there were some moments in ''[[Bruno]]'' when the real-life external circumstances surrounding the film's production evolved similarly to the fixed prior notion of the movie's plot, as it had been conceived of before filming. This occurred when they were in Italy for Fashion Week. The plot of the movie was that Bruno would cause a major disturbance at a fashion show, resulting in his being thrown out, black-listed, and possibly even arrested. In fact, all of these things happened in real life, and so when he is later disallowed from entering fashion shows, it is because he was actually black-listed by that time.

** Later, when Bruno sits down at a restaurant and commits "carbicide" by gorging himself on several ice cream sundaes, it was carbicide for both Bruno and the actor, [[Sacha Baron Cohen]]. Cohen had actually spent many months prior refraining from carbs, in the course of body sculpting for the role.

* A dark, tragic version occurs in ''[[The Return]]''. {{spoiler|Father is given a [[Disney Villain Death]].}} One of the film's other actors, 15-year-old Vladimir Garin, {{spoiler|had one in [[Real Life]] just one month after shooting had completed;}} he never even lived to see the premiere.

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** Likewise, one fella who tried to patent a method for lifting sunken ships ran into trouble because it was described thoroughly earlier - in a [[Carl Barks]] comic!

** The word "grok", now a widely-used term, originated in Heinlein's ''[[Stranger in A Strange Land]]'' as a word from the Martian Language spoken by the protagonist.

** Heinlein's [[Powered Armor]] is on its way to reality thanks to defense contractor Raytheon and several other groups. As of 2008, development is at the stage of strength-amplifying mechanical exoskeletons. No word yet on bulletproof plating and [[Arm Cannon~~|Arm Cannons~~]].

** Heinlein's [[Powered Armor]] is on its way to reality thanks to defense contractor Raytheon and several other groups. As of 2008, development is at the stage of strength-amplifying mechanical exoskeletons. No word yet on bulletproof plating and [[Arm Cannon]]s.

*** One [[Powered Armor]] prototype is [[2001: A Space Odyssey|named HAL]] and made by [[The Terminator|Cyberdyne]]. Seriously.

*** 'Skynet' is the [[wikipedia:Skynet (satellites)|UK's Military Satellite Communications system]].

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* In ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'', it's mentioned that local wags near the [[Peace Through Superior Firepower|Strategic Air Command]] HQ joked that the relatively new (at the time) Command Center was made so that the actual place matched up with the common Hollywood depictions of the facility, which were better than the original structure.

* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle invented [[Sherlock Holmes]], perhaps the most famous detective in history. Not content with writing about a detective, Doyle actually ended up becoming something of a detective himself, proving the innocence of two men who had been wrongfully convicted in separate cases.

* Orson Scott Card predicted the internet in ''[[Ender's Game]]''. Although he was not the first person to propose the idea of a global communications network, Card actually called it 'the net,' and he even anticipated [[~~Troll|trolling~~]].

* Orson Scott Card predicted the internet in ''[[Ender's Game]]''. Although he was not the first person to propose the idea of a global communications network, Card actually called it 'the net,' and he even anticipated [[troll]]ing.

* The topper might be Murray Leinster's prescient short story ''A Logic Named Joe''. In it, he describes a networked computer system in homes across the country that allows people to learn how to cheat on taxes, find hangover cures, kill their spouse using hard to trace household chemicals, and most of all allows young children to discover porn. He not only predicted the internet, but he predicted search engines, online porn, filtering software, and the sinister uses people have for Google. In ''March of 1946''.

* A throwaway reference in the backstory of [[John W. Campbell]]'s "Frictional Losses": the Japanese attempted to counter an invasion (by space aliens) by supercharging airplane engines, packing the planes full of explosives, and [[Ramming Always Works|ramming them into the invaders' ships]]. He published this in July 1936.

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** When Candi performed "One Quiet Moment" by songwriter Bob Kauflin for her church around Christmas, a brutal massacre occurred around the same time. Only four years after that scene was written, the author performed that same song at a Christmas service at his church in Michigan - unaware that a brutal massacre was occurring around the same time in Texas. (It was later reported the New York Daily Post's website.)

** Stan and Shalia Flippo during ''The Battle for Gerosha'' adopted the brown-haired Erin Wyer. Erin was 12 years old at the time, but going on 13. When the author's parents later decided to adopt some kids, the oldest child they adopted conveniently turned out to be a brown-haired girl who was 13 years old at the time.

** A discovered treasure made Stan and Shalia rich, and allowed them to found the town of "Gerosha" on top of the remains of their former town. The author later found a seashell with a Gerosha "G" carved into it by nature - somewhere on the shores of Cocoa Beach in Florida. The seashell's significance towards Gerosha's naming was later [[~~Retcon|retconned~~]] into the narrative, to make art and life ''even more'' consistent.

** A discovered treasure made Stan and Shalia rich, and allowed them to found the town of "Gerosha" on top of the remains of their former town. The author later found a seashell with a Gerosha "G" carved into it by nature - somewhere on the shores of Cocoa Beach in Florida. The seashell's significance towards Gerosha's naming was later [[retcon]]ned into the narrative, to make art and life ''even more'' consistent.

** Candi's isolated lifestyle (while somewhat justified in the story due to the [[Everything Trying to Kill You]] [[Death World]] she lives in) is shown leading to extreme paranoia, romantic desperation, and low self-confidence. Three years after the story was written, the author was placed on an internship where a very similar sort of social isolation set in. (In an Everything Trying To Eat Your Money world.) Leading to mistrust of women and low self-confidence.

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== Other ==

* Leonardo Da Vinci thought of a helicopter 500 years before it was made.

** As noted at the top of the page, [[Life Imitates Art]] [[Art Imitates Art|Imitates Art]] [[Truth in Television|Imitates Life]]. Chinese toy helicopters from circa 400 BC may have been depicted in European painting prior to Leonardo's time.

** As noted at the top of the page, Life Imitates Art [[Art Imitates Art|Imitates Art]] [[Truth in Television|Imitates Life]]. Chinese toy helicopters from circa 400 BC may have been depicted in European painting prior to Leonardo's time.

* [[Ray Gun~~|Ray Guns~~]] were common in fiction for decades, but it was not hard science, because you just couldn't actually make a weapon just by shooting energy alone. Then the laser was invented in the 1960s.

* [[Ray Gun]]s were common in fiction for decades, but it was not hard science, because you just couldn't actually make a weapon just by shooting energy alone. Then the laser was invented in the 1960s.

** Though you still can't build a gun out of them. Heavy artillery, ''maybe''. Pistols? It's going to take a while.

*** You can buy a laser "pointer" powerful enough to set fire to paper. It's not a lethal weapon but we're getting a lot closer.

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[[Category:Trivia Trope]]

[[Category:Meta Concepts]]

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[[Category:Life Imitates Art]]