Shout-Out/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Artemis Fowl/Shout Out|Artemis Fowl]]''

* ''[[Ciaphas Cain/Shout Out|Ciaphas Cain]]''

* ''[[The Dresden Files/Shout Out|The Dresden Files]]''

* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant/Shout Out|Skulduggery Pleasant]]''

* ''[[Stuck/Shout Out|Stuck]]''

 

* In ''Wolves of the Calla'', book 5 of [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, there is a manufacturing plate on a round, flying weapon which reads: "SNEETCH" HARRY POTTER MODEL. Serial # 465-11-AA HPJKR. CAUTION EXPLOSIVE" JKR, of course, refers to [[J. K. Rowling]], author of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series of books; the name "SNEETCH" refers to the Golden Snitch, one of the "balls" required to play Quidditch, which is similarly small, round, flying, and dangerous. "SNEETCH" may also be a reference to the Dr. Seuss book ''The Sneetches''. ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' is full of things like this, up to and including [[The Wizard of Oz (film)|a green city that can only be entered if you have red shoes]].

*** EVERY Steven King book EVER has a long list to obscure to vague shout outs to his sixty other 900-page books.

* The first book of ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'' has Twoflower from ''[[Discworld]]'' make a subtle and brief cameo in a marketplace for magical items containing demons (Twoflower's camera, or "iconograph", is powered by a tiny demon painting pictures ''really'' fast).

** Although it was written earlier, the original ''[[Redwall]]'' book had a line about a rat named Wormtail losing a paw.

*** Voldemort's talking down to his minion (a traitor nicknamed Wormtail) is reminiscent of Saruman's abusive treatment of a henchman (a traitor nicknamed Worm''tongue'') in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

* In ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] has several characters quote passages of ''The Robbers'', a play by Friedrich Schiller. There are also a lot of [[Shout-Out|shout outs]] to the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, Alexander Pushkin, and Voltaire. Naturally, given the book's religious themes, [[The Bible]] is quoted very often.

* A recurring character in Robert Rankin's books is the "psychic youth and masturbator" Danbury Collins. This is based on Andy Collins, author of dubious New Age work ''The Knights of Danbury'' and a rival of Robert's.

* In P. D. James's ''Death of an Expert Witness'', there are several subtle references to the much earlier detective novels of [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], the most prominent being a discussion of whether a man struck on the head could have regained consciousness and locked himself into a building before dying, as in ''Busman's Honeymoon'', and a character's saying "I'd rather make love with the public hangman", as in ''Murder Must Advertise''.

* ''[[House of Leaves]]'' has shout outs mostly to the works of French thinker [[Jacques Derrida]]. The structure of the novel is reminiscent of [[Vladimir Nabokov]]'s ''Pale Fire'', and colored text could be a subtle [[Shout-Out]] to Nabokov's synesthesia. There are also an unusual number of similarities between the {{color|blue|house}} and the House of Change from [[Michael Ende]]'s ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]''. [[Jorge Luis Borges]], Sylvia Plath, and Franza Kafka are also paid tribute in various, small ways throughout the book.

* [[Kim Newman]] loves them even more than Pratchett. The ''[[Anno Dracula]]'' series is an extended [[Shout-Out]] to every work of fiction involving vampires, ever, and any other work of fiction he likes as well.

** Newman really does love these. His [[Warhammer Fantasy]] and [[Dark Future (novel)|Dark Future]] novels are [[Reference Overdosed|crammed full of them.]]. Who else would make [[Iain Banks]] mayor of the Isle of Skye?

* The ''[[Mass Effect]]'' novel ''Ascension'' is one ''long'' shout out. Specifically, it involves a [[Firefly|mentally-ill girl with incredible mental powers being rescued from an Academy by a loving family member after being experimented on by a shadowy organization devoted to "improving" mankind, and takes refuge on a ship whose captain's nickname is Mal.]]

* David Weber sometimes does these in a fairly explicit fashion.

** At one point, [[Honor Harrington]] enjoys a [[Horatio Hornblower]] novel. Consider that the ''Honor Harrington'' series is best described as ''[[Horatio Hornblower]] [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]]''.

* In John Barnes's ''[[One for the Morning Glory]]'', Deacon Dick Thunder is a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Robin Hood]]. Indeed, the prime minister Cedric explicitly says they can draw him into certain plans because he wouldn't miss the chance to play [[Robin Hood]].

** Also, the Riddling Beast's [[Riddle of the Sphinx]] ends "[[The Hobbit (novel)|And what has it got in its pockets]]?"

* ''The Game'' by [[Diana Wynne Jones]] makes several shout outs to much of [[Greek Mythology]], [[Russian Mythology and Tales]], "[[Hansel and Gretel]]", ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Lord of the Rings]]'', and many other fantasy stories from across the entire genre. She also makes a less obvious reference to the TARDIS from ''[[Doctor Who]]'', as the characters use it at one point in the book without naming it. (Nearly every other reference has at least a name you can associate with a book or myth, but the TARDIS shout out has no way to tell unless you know about [[Doctor Who]].)

* In Dean Koontz's ''[[Odd Thomas]]'' novels, Odd says of his abilities, "[[I See Dead People]]," in a knowing nod to ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'', adding, "but then, by God, I do something."

** Tolkien made several self-Shout Outs in his work, arguably, quite apart from the myriad in-universe references to 'older' tales: not expecting his 'ancient histories' of Middle Earth (which often genuinely were written much earlier) to ever be published when he was writing ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', he occasionally recycled names from his existing mythology into the latter. These would have remained private S.O.s, but for ''The Silmarillion'' appearing decades later and highlighting them - as well as throwing up odd inconsistencies such as a name migrating from one race to another (e.g. Denethor, Gothmog; some instances were [[Retcon|retconned]] in supplementary works as in-universe [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] where the later users were said to have taken their names from heroes of old - or of the ''The Silmarillion'' character Glorfindel, whose First Age death was [[Retcon|retconned]] via a [[Deus Ex Machina|one-off offscreen miracle]] to retrospectively make him possibly/probably the same person as the ''LotR'' character of the same name.

*** Don't forget all of LOTR's shout outs to ''[[Macbeth]]'', all taken from Act IV, Scene i, when the Witches tell Macbeth their prophecies of his death. First of all, the phrase "Crack of Doom" was coined by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] in this scene. The Ents' besiegement of Isengard and the Witch-King's defeat by Éowyn are references to two of the three prophecies—namely, that it will not happen until "Great Birnam Wood...shall come against him" and that "[[No Man of Woman Born|none of woman born]] shall harm" him. Of course, the trees do come to the castle when Macduff's army uses their branches as camoflauge, just as the Ents come to Isengard, and Macbeth is killed by a man who was not ''[[Exact Words|born]]'', but removed from his mother's womb, just as the Witch-King, who can be killed by "no living man," is killed by a woman.

* In ''[[Sharpe]]'s Tiger'', Sharpe briefly sees (and is warned not to steal) the Moonstone from, well, ''[[The Moonstone]]''.

* In ''[[Young Wizards|High Wizardry]]'', a man apparently fitting the description of the fifth [[Doctor Who|Doctor]] saves Dairine from the servants of the Lone Power chasing her.

* The [[S.M. Stirling]] novel ''Conquistador'' features South African villains with the same names as the South African antagonists of the [[Harry Turtledove]] novel ''Guns of the South''. There is also a reference to a landholder named Morrison, like the titular hero of [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''Lord Kalvin of Otherwhen''. Morrison's House motto is "Death to Styphon!," a reference to the "Gunpowder God" cult of the Kalvin stories.

* Malik's admission that he's a fan of both Sherlock Holmes and Spider-Man in [[Wandering Djinn]]

* In ''[[Duel of Sorcery|Changer's Moon]]'': What does this [[Dragonriders of Pern|bring to mind]]?

{{quote|When she turned back to the Mirror, there were excited voices coming from it, a great green dragon leaped at them, mouth wide, fire whooshing at them, then the dragon went round the curve of the Mirror and vanished—but not before she saw the dark-clad rider perched between the delicate powerful wings. More of the dragons whipped past, all of them ridden, all of them spouting gouts of fire at something Serroi couldn’t see. They were intensely serious about what they were doing, those riders and the beasts they rode, but Serroi couldn’t make out what it was they fought.}}

* ''[[Don Quixote]]'': Hundreds upon hundreds of them, although many would be unrecognizable to the modern reader because of [[Weird Al Effect]].

** Chapter I part I mentions [[Aristotle]], philosopher widely regarded as the greatest abstract thinker of Occidental Civilization. Even he has no chance to make sense of the purple prose that plagued [[Chivalric Romance|Chivalry Books]]. Also in the Chapter III part II, Don Quixote's opinion about history and poetry reflects the theory exposed in Aristotle's ''[[Poetics]]''.

* In the very first chapter of ''McClendon's Syndrome'' by Robert Frezza, there are bars called [[The Lord of the Rings|the Prancing Pony]] and [[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon|Callahan's]].

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene|The Golden Age]]'', ''The Phoenix Exultant'', and ''The Golden Transcedence'', Heinlein's "An armed society is a polite society" is inverted into "An unarmed society is a rude society", and Harrier Sophotect's appearance is clearly modeled on [[Sherlock Holmes]]. Characters pose as figures from [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]], [[Commedia Dell'Arte]], and [[John Milton]]'s ''Comus'' -- though enough explaination is given in story for them to be understood.

** In Daphne's [[Show Within a Show|dream universe]], a major character is a prince named Shining. While apparently she didn't intend it as a [[Shout-Out]], her husband, the protagonist, is named Phaethon -- which means "Shining."

** The [[Virgin New Adventures]] [[Sherlock Holmes]] crossover ''All-Consuming Fire'', as well as multiple Holmesian references, features an appearance by ''[[The Lost World (novel)|The Lost World]]'''s Lord John Roxon, and references to Professor Challenger, [[Fu Manchu]], and [[Kim Newman]]'s Diogenes agent Charles Beauregard. It's also one of several New Adventures to have references to [[The Cthulhu Mythos]].

* The climax of Robert Frezza's novel ''The VMR Theory'' contains a string of [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]]. Among them:

** A flock of [[Dragonriders of Pern|genetically engineered dragons who enjoy going ''between'']]--though in this case, "between" refers to their delight in gliding between upright objects, slalom-style, and accidentally unseating their riders due to their poor spatial-reasoning skills.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Chronicles of Chaos|Fugitives of Chaos]]'', when Quentin shows Amelia a book, Amelia says, "[[The Lord of the Rings|I can not read the faerie letters]]."

* In John Barnes's ''[[One for the Morning Glory]]'', a ballad's main character turns out to be not a woodcutter but a butterfly who couldn't manage to dream of [[Zhuangzi|a Chinese philosopher]].

* Surprisingly for such a [[Grimdark]] setting and situation, the 40k ''Horus Heresy'' books are not immune. ''Nemesis'' has a [[Kill'Em All|psychotic assassin]] who seems to feel emotions for guns (other than murderous hatred and contempt, that is, he feels that for everyone). When confronted with a cache of shiny weapons, his only response after taking his pick is "[[Firefly|...I'll be in my bunk.]]".

* ''[[Beastly]]'' (a modern-day retelling of "[[Beauty and The Beast]]") has shout outs to lots of stories inspired by the fairytale, like ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' and ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''.

* [[The Spymaster|Simon Illyan]] from [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]] got his name from [[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.|Illya Kuryakin]].

* ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Cryoburn]]'' has two: Miles thinks to himself "Imperial Auditor Vorkosigan; Threat or Menace" (in Spider-Man, J.J.J.'s paper, ''The Daily Bugle'' often ran headlines "Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?"). And Armsman Roic quips to a local "Don't worry, I have a license to stun." The local responds "I thought that has a license to kill?" Both, of course refer to ''[[James Bond]]'''s 00 "License to Kill".

* "Macavity, the Mystery Cat" in [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats|Old Possums Book of Practical Cats]]'' is an extended [[Shout-Out]] to [[Sherlock Holmes|Professor Moriarty]].

* [[Unda Vosari]] has a [[Unda Vosari/Shout Out|short page]] of [[Shout-Out|shout outs]] to various other works.

* In ''[[Peter Pan]]'' Captain Hook says he's "the only man whom Barbecue feared, and Flint himself feared Barbecue". Flint and Barbecue (better known as Long John Silver) are the leaders of the pirates in ''[[Treasure Island]]''.

* In Richard Peck's novel ''Secrets at Sea'', one character mentions an ancestor in passing named Katinka Van Tassel, which is the name of the young woman Ichabod Crane loves in ''[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]'' by Washington Irving.

* There's a nice shout out to ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' in the opening chapter of Benedict Jacka's ''Fated''. "I've even heard of some guy in Chicago who advertises in the phone book under 'Wizard', though that's probably an urban legend."

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Glory Road (novel)|Glory Road]]''. The Never-Born creature Oscar fights a duel with has a huge nose, is a superb swordsman, likes to sing poetry while fighting, and claims to have written a book, traveled to the Moon and had a house fall on him. Although he never tells Oscar Gordon his name, he's clearly based on the [[Real Life]] person Cyrano de Bergerac.

* [[George R. R. Martin|George R R Martin]]'s ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' includes "House Jordayne of the Tor", after a [[The Wheel of Time|certain other series of fantasy novels published by Tor Books]]. A character also references an "Archmaester Rigney" who believes that "Time is a Wheel". Robert Jordan's given name was James Rigney.

** Duck compares the situation he's in to that of ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''.

** When Cover leaves the cheeseless depot to find more cheese, Duck jokingly [[Survivor|votes him off the island]].

 

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