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Rudyard Kipling: Difference between revisions
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{{creator}}
[[File:
{{quote|''If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue''
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* "[[The Three-Decker|The Three Decker]]"
He lost a son in [[World War
{{quote|If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied. |''Epitaphs of the War'', "Common Form"}}
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Has the rain wrecked the road? He must climb by the cliff.
Does the tempest cry halt? What are tempests to him?
The service admits not a "but" or
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail,
In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail. }}
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Parodied mercilessly in the ''Just So Stories'', specifically ''How The Whale Got His Throat'', in which we are reminded practically every paragraph not to forget that the protagonist wears suspenders (braces). In the end these do play a part in the story (he ties a grate in place with them in the whale's throat) but this is [[Anticlimax|hilariously minor]] compared to the leadup.
* [[City of Spies]]: Lahore in [[Kim]]
* [[Creator Breakdown]]: Kipling was an ardent imperialist. Then his only son died in [[World War
** Not to mention:
{{quote|''I could not dig, I dared not rob;''
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''Mine angry and defrauded young?]]'' }}
* [[Culture Clash]]: Several of his short stories are jokes about this.
* [[Defictionalization]]: Some of the dialect of [[Brits With Battleships|the British Army]] was actually made up by Kipling. Originally it was a device to give the atmosphere of how soldiers talked without using the words [[Moral Guardians|soldiers actually used]]. In [[World War I]] a lot of boys entered the army brought up on Kipling and imported the dialect they thought was "soldierly".
* [[Dialogue]]: Kipling is noted for his dialogue tricks.
**His imitation of soldier slang is almost a constructed language, and many a gentle-bred boy came to fight in Fr ance thinking soldiers [[Defictionalization|really talked like that.]] Naturally he [[Moral Guardians|couldn't give]] the real thing.
**Indian languages tend to be rendered in [[Purple Prose|King James English]] to give a scent of "otherness" and romance.
* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed Tropes]]: Lots of. E.g.
** [[Demonization]]
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* [[Friend to All Living Things]]
* [[Funny Foreigner]]: Played with in nearly every way possible.
**Often enough the ''English'' are the funny foreigners.
**Kipling had a reporter's attitude toward people and "superior", "inferior", and/or "equal" were just theories to him and often not that important of theories. The most important way of categorizing people was "colorful" as far as he was concerned. He did have prejudices against Germans and Russians which [[Your Mileage May Vary|sometimes seems]] to go beyond political or ideological rivalry.
* [[God Guise]]
* [[Greedy Jew]]: Subverted in ''The Treasure and the Law''. Jews are indeed greedy for wealth [[Not So Different|but then]] gentiles are greedy for power. And the Jewish narrator sacrifices his greed to help bring about justice in England.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: The gist of [http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-thousandth-man "The Thousandth Man".]
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: The poem "Brown Bess" describes the history of the musket that was standard for British troops for over a century. Kipling plays on the fact that lots of words and phrases referring to killing are also used to speak of being beautiful or making people fall in love with you, and writes as if this musket was actually a sexy woman:
{{Quote|At Blenheim and Ramillies fops would confess
They were pierced to the heart by the charms of Brown Bess.}}
** Also, the word "rout" can apply either to panicked retreat or to a fashionable party, so he says Brown Bess was responsible for many successful routs.
* [[I Have This Friend]]: In "Gloriana," the woman who tells the story implies she was a lady-in-waiting at the court of [[The Virgin Queen|Elizabeth I]]. But when speaking of Elizabeth's actions, she several times slips and says "I" did thus-and-such.
* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: The protagonist of ''Tommy''. Also a [[Deadpan Snarker]].
* [[Lawful Neutral]]: Some of his political opinions come across as this.
* [[Local Hangout]]: ''Ballad of the King's Jest'' is told between two caravaners hanging out at the local bazaar in Peshawar.
* [[Locked Out of the Loop]]: "Marklake Witches" plays with the trope by having it narrated by the character who's locked out of the loop -- and who, at the close of the story, still hasn't realised there's a secret being kept from her, let alone learned what it is. Recognising that her various moments of bemusement are connected, and figuring out the nature of the connection, is left as an exercise for the reader, and if achieved alters [[Rudyard Kipling/Tear Jerker|the tone of the story significantly]].
* [[Malaproper]]: The narrator of ''Just So Stories'', with such famous ones as "'satiable curtiosity" (for 'insatiable curiosity').
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* [[The Paragon]]: "Kitchener's School" claims the English in general are this:
{{quote|That the magic whereby they work their magic--wherefrom their fortunes spring--
May be that they show all peoples their magic and ask no price in return.}}
* [[POV Sequel]]: Several, including ''The Pirates in England'' vs. ''A Pict Song''.
* [[The Raj]]: The setting for most of his works. Kipling is largely responsible for spreading awareness of [[The Raj]] as a literary setting outside the former British Empire, and popularising it within the Empire.
* [[Rated "M" for Manly]]: His poem simply entitled "''If--''" is about as good a summary as you can get for what it takes to be a virtuous and well-adjusted manly man. Also a good account of what it takes to be a [[Knight in Shining Armour]] in the modern world.
* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: Invoked in ''Light That Failed''. ''The Return ''.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: some sci fi is affected by Kipling.
* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: Played straight in "Rikki Tikki Tavi." Averted in ''[[The Jungle Book (novel)|The Jungle Book]]'' and by the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake in the ''[[Just So Stories]]''.
* [[Retired Badass]]: Col. Dabney:
{{quote|Damnable! Oh, damnable! But I'll be considerate. I'll be merciful. By gad, I'll be the very essence o' humanity! Did ye, or did ye not, see my notice-boards? Don't attempt to deny it! Ye did.}}
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Invoked in ''Ballad of East and West'' when a British subaltern surrounded by Pathans warns the Pathan chieftain that his tribe will be ravaged by the British Army if he is killed.
** Also invoked in the short story "Wee Willie Winkie" about a six-year-old boy, son of a British regimental commander, facing down some other Pathans. One of them warns his comrades:
* [[Running Gag]]: The ''Just So Stories'' has lots, most obviously "you must never forget the suspenders".▼
{{Quote|"He is the heart's heart of those white troops.... [I]f he be taken, the regiment will break loose and gut the valley ... and we shall not escape. That regiment are devils ... and if we touch this child they will fire and rape and plunder for a month, till nothing remains.... I say that this child is their God, and that they will spare none of us, nor our women, if we harm him."}}
▲* [[Running Gag]]: The ''Just So Stories''
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: ''Wilful-Missing''
* [[Second Boer War]]
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* [[The Vamp]]: [http://www.online-literature.com/donne/921/ "The Vampire"]
{{Nobel Prize in Literature}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:World War
[[Category:Print Long Runners]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Rudyard Kipling]]▼
[[Category:Creator]]
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