Literary Allusion Title: Difference between revisions

 

Despite the name, the quote need not come from literature ''per se''. The most common non-literary sources for titles are probably songs (see also [[Titled After the Song]]) and political speeches. Many of these quotes will be [[Stock Quotes]]. A subtrope of [[Shout-Out]].

 

== [[The Bible]] ==

* ''[[The Sandman]]''

** ''More than Rubies'', multi-issue arc (Proverbs 31:10)

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|Uncanny X-Men]]'' #100, "Greater Love Hath No X-Man" (from John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this...")

 

* ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'' by Ingmar Bergman. The first line in the movie is even someone quoting the Bible passage where the phrase is mentioned. (Revelation 8:1)

* ''Through a Glass Darkly'' (Såsom i en Spegel - 1961) Bergman (1 Corinthians 13:12)

* ''Joyful Noise'' (Psalms 66:1, 81:1, 95:1, 95:2, 98:4, 98:6, and 100:1)

 

* Stephen Vincent Benét

** ''By the Waters of Babylon'' (Psalm 137)

** ''The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth'' (Job 41:14 + 19)

 

* ''[[Babylon 5]]''

** ''In The Beginning'' (movie made from the pilot) (Genesis 1:1 or John 1:1)

** "Take This Sabbath Day" (Deuteronomy 5:12)

 

* White Stripes album "Get Behind Me Satan" (Matthew 16:23)

* The Fiery Furnaces get their name from Daniel 3:6.

* In an interesting example, the band [[Avenged Sevenfold]] actually takes their ''name'' from Genesis 4:15, and ''[[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]]'' that with the song "Chapter 4."

 

* ''Balm in Gilead'' (Jeremiah 8:22)

* ''The Little Foxes'' (Song of Solomon 2:15)

* ''The Voice of the Turtle'' (Song of Solomon 2:12)

 

* ''[[Starcraft]]''

** Zerg mission 8: Eye for an Eye (Exodus 21:24)

** More of a Literary Allusion Name, but the character Legion is named after a part of Mark 5:9 ("My name is Legion: for we are many.").

 

* ''[[The Meek]]'' (Matthew 5:5)

* ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]'' (Isaiah 48:22 or Isaiah 57:21)

 

* [[Whateley Universe]]: the origin novel for Phase has five chapters, titled: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

 

* "Sins of the Father", episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|The New Batman Adventures]]'' (Exodus 20:5 or Deuteronomy 5:9)

* "She of Little Faith", episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' ("O ye of little faith," repeated phrase in Matthew)

 

== Shakespeare ==

* ''[[The Sandman]]''

** "Sound and Fury" (''[[Macbeth]]'' V.i)

** The above two are directly related to the plays mentioned, even including text from them.

 

* ''A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy'', directed by [[Woody Allen]]

* ''[[North by Northwest]]'', directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]] (''[[Hamlet]]'' II.ii)

* ''[[What Dreams May Come]]'', 1998 (''[[Hamlet]]'', III.i)

* ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]'' ("The Undiscovered Country" from ''[[Hamlet]]'', III.i)

 

* Stephen Ambrose

** ''Band of Brothers'', [[WW 2]] history book and subsequent TV miniseries (''[[Henry V]]'', IV.iii)

** ''[[This Rough Magic]]'', novel (''[[The Tempest]]'' V.i)

* Seanan McGuire. All the novels in her [[October Daye]] series have titles taken from Shakespeare's plays. So far these include:

** ''An Artificial Night'' (''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' I.i)

** ''Late Eclipses'' (''[[King Lear]]'' I.ii)

* Kate Wilhelm

** ''[[Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang]]'', novel (Sonnet 73)

** "Time Out Of Joint", novel (Hamlet, I.v)

* "The Fault in our Stars", novel by John Green (Julius Ceasar)

 

* ''[[Andromeda]]''

** "All Great Neptune's Ocean" (''[[Macbeth]]'' II.ii)

** "All That Glitters" (''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' II.vii)

* ''[[ER]]''

** "Fortune's Fools" (''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' III.i)

** "Such Sweet Sorrow" (''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' II.ii)

** "The Birnam Wood" (''[[Macbeth]]'' IV.i)

 

* ''[[Kiss Me Kate]]'', Broadway musical (''The Taming of the Shrew'', II.i)

* ''[[Passing Strange]]'', Broadway musical (''[[Othello]]'' I.iii)

* ''[[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead]]'', play by [[Tom Stoppard]] (''[[Hamlet]]'' V.ii)

* ''The Goat or Who Is Sylvia'', play by Edward Albee (''The [[Two Gentlemen of Verona]]'' IV.ii)

 

* "This Vortal Coil", ''Half-Life'' 2 Episode 2 (play on "this mortal coil" from ''[[Hamlet]]'' III.i)

* ''[[Star Trek]]: [[Judgment Rites]]'''s last two episodes are titled "Though this be Madness" and "Yet There's Method In It" (''[[Hamlet]]'' II.ii)

 

* ''[[Broken Saints]]'' Chapter 15, entitled "[[The Tempest|Tempest]]"

 

* ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''

** "Much Abu About Something" (''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'')

** "Perchance to Dream" (''[[Hamlet]]'' III.i)

* ''[[Gargoyles]]''

** "Enter Macbeth" (''[[Macbeth]]'', various acts and scenes)

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''

** ''Much Apu About Nothing'' (''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'')

** "Sound and Fury" (''[[Macbeth]]'' V.i)

 

* ''Doctor Who'' audio dramas

** "The Chimes of Midnight" (''[[Henry IV]] Part 2'', III.ii)

* ''... Nothing Like the Sun'', double album by Sting (Sonnet 130)

* "The Dogs of War", song by Pink Floyd (''[[Julius Caesar (theatre)|Julius Caesar]]'' III.i)

 

== Lord Acton ==

 

== John Quincy Adams ==

 

 

 

== [[Aristotle]] ==

 

 

== Neil Armstrong ==

* "One Giant Leap", episode of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' (sentence said upon landing on the moon)

* "One Small Step" and "One Giant Leap", episodes of ''[[Eureka]]''

 

== Isaac Asimov ==

 

 

 

== Otto von Bismarck ==

 

 

 

* "Tiger! Tiger!", a ''[[The Jungle Book (novel)|Jungle Book]]'' story by [[Rudyard Kipling]] ("The Tyger", poem)

* ''Tiger! Tiger!'', original title of ''[[The Stars My Destination]]'' by Alfred Bester

* ''Tyger Tyger'', book by Kersten Hamilton

* ''Burning Bright'', novel by [[John Steinbeck]] ("The Tyger", poem)

* "Little Girl Lost", an episode of ''[[Castle]]'' (title of poem)

* "Little Girl Lost", episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''

 

 

* "Ashes to Ashes", song by David Bowie (Burial Rites 1 and 2)

** And the ''[[Ashes to Ashes|Life On Mars]]'' [[Ashes to Ashes|spinoff]] named after it.

* "Dust to Dust", ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode (Burial Rites 1 and 2)

* "Dust to Dust", ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' episode

** According to Singer's commentary, the movie is directly named after an article from ''Time'' magazine. The article, of course, quoted ''[[Casablanca]]''

* "The Usual Suspects", episode of ''Supernatural''

* "A Beautiful Friendship", ''[[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]]'' short story (about the first contact between humans and treecats), later expanded to a novel for the start of a [[Young Adult]] [[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]] line.

 

== John Fogerty ==

* "Bad Moon Rising", ''[[The Sandman]]'' issue (title of song)

 

 

== W. S. Gilbert ==

* "The Slave of Duty", ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode (subtitle of ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'')

 

 

== Thomas Gray ==

* ''Far From the Madding Crowd'', novel by Thomas Hardy ("Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", poem)

 

 

 

== Juvenal ==

* ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', comic book by [[Alan Moore]] and Dave Gibbons (referencing the same quote as the ''Star Trek'' episode)

** And "Who Watches the Watchmen?" by ([[Coheed and Cambria]] Prize Fighter Inferno)--a side project of Coheed and Cambria's frontman Claudio Sanchez--which most likely references ''[[Watchmen]]''

== C. S. Lewis ==

* "The Bug, the Witch, and the Robot", ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' arc (play on ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', novel)

* "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe", ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode

* "The Lyin', the Watch, and the Wardrobe", ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' episode

* ''Sixpence None the Richer'', American pop/rock band(title taken from ''Mere Christianity'')

* ''The Problem of Susan'', a short story by [[Neil Gaiman]] ("The Problem of Pain", essay)

 

== Abraham Lincoln ==

 

== Courtney Love ==

 

 

 

== George Orwell ==

* ''1Q84'', novel by [[Haruki Murakami]]; the letter Q and the Japanese number 9 are homophones (''1984'', novel)

* ''Room 101'', BBC chat show (''1984'', novel)

 

== Trey Parker and Matt Stone ==

 

 

 

== Robert Service ==

 

 

 

== Alfred, Lord Tennyson ==

 

 

 

== Mark Twain ==

 

 

 

== The Wizard of Oz ==

 

 

[[Category:Title Tropes]]

[[Category:Literary Allusion Title]]

[[Category:Nightmare Fuel]]

[[Category:Shout-Outs Index]]