History HilariousInHindsight / Literature

* This troper remembers reading a translation of [[Literature:Beowulf {{Beowulf}}]] that referred to [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail 'great tracts of land']].

* This troper remembers reading a translation of {{Beowulf}} that referred to [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail 'great tracts of land']].

* This troper remembers reading a translation of [[LiteratureBeowulf]] that referred to [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail 'great tracts of land']].

* This troper remembers reading a translation of [[{{Beowulf}}]] that referred to [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail 'great tracts of land']].

** But the idea that something is more important than money is anti-Rand.
*** Hardly. The point of the passage is to illustrate her idea that money is an important and good thing, since it enables people to trade with each other and enjoy the fruits of their labour, not that "money is important than family". Rearden's family are a bunch of [[JerkAss JerkAsses]] who ruthlessly exploit his workaholic nature and then call ''him'' greedy; the price tags are put on the Thanksgiving items to show that they couldn't enjoy their lifestyle without his labour. There are plenty of instances in AtlasShrugged of heroic characters forgoing fleeting monetary gains in favour of some higher principle -- for instance, [[spoiler:Francisco D'Anconia squanders his family fortune in order to go live in a village completely cut off from the outside economy, where even the highest philosopher must perform manual labour to survive.]]

** In the fourth book, Cedric earns the DetractorNickname of "Useless Pretty-Boy Diggory". Considering who plays him in the movie (and said actor's [[Literature/{{Twilight}} further roles]])...

* TheIronDream is a Norman Spinrad book, essentially taking the racial ravings of Adolf Hitler [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace To Space!]]]], taking them to the logical conclusion by having this Hitler be obsessed with the purity of the human genome rather than the human race. Thirty five years later, we learn that [[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100506-science-neanderthals-humans-mated-interbred-dna-gene/ the only "pure" humans on the planet are those whose ancestors stayed in Africa, while all others mated with neanderthals.]]

* [[Literature/{Twilight} Jacob Black]] has an older sister named Rebecca. [[RebeccaBlack Think about that for a second...]]

** In his non-Honor book ''The Excalibur Alternative'', the end involves [[spoiler: an English-based space empire leading an attack on a much larger federation... Which is exactly what's happening in the current Honor books. To make things funnier, the looming enemy in the Honor books is the Solarian League. One of the Space English's '''allies''' in ''Excalibur'' is the '''Solarian Union'''.]]

* ''{{Neuromancer}}'' came out over a decade before the ''MetalGear'' series became popular. Reading it today, the inclusion of a [[MetalGearSolid genetically enhanced super ninja]] named [[HideoKojima "Hideo"]] is pretty funny.

* ''CatsCradle'' brings us an element called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-9 ice-nine]]. Or should I say, [[{{Touhou}} ice]]-[[MemeticMutation (9)]]; in fact, the recent ''Touhou'' game has a mechanic that operates on a very similar concept ([[BulletHell bullets]] coming into contact with frozen bullets will themselves become frozen).
** I think that's a ShoutOut, not a coincidence.

* In the first ''{{Discworld}}'' book, the heroes are surprised by a [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll]] that appeared suddenly in their path, having been whisked away from its home in the mountains some thousands of miles away, in order to appear as a random encounter in the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' game of the Gods. While it was in reference to random TabletopRPG encounters, the way it was described - a sound, the world looking 'strange' and a monster suddenly popping up - mirror exactly the random battles in most console [=RPGs=]. This was in 1983, three years before ''DragonQuest'' or ''FinalFantasy'', although ''{{Ultima}} III'' was from 1983.

* In ''GoodOmens'': "She wanted a change. Something with openings. She quite fancied herself as a newspaper journalist." Let's just say that whatever the state of the newspaper industry was in 1990, well, {{it got worse}}.

* In the HonorHarrington book ''The Honor of the Queen'', one enemy officer is criticized for trying to rely on weight of fire rather than proper timing to overwhelm Honor's defenses, which looks odd in light of the {{Macross Missile Massacre}}s of later books.

* In the PrincessBride, the old Archdeacon, as part of Buttercup and Humperdinck's marriage ceremony says, "Mawidge is a [[{{Inception}} dweam wiffin a dweam]]. (He was old and deaf and had a speech impediment.)

* In the SweetValleyHigh book ''Sweet Valley Saga'' Alice (the twins' mother) was engaged to Hank Patman (Bruce's father). When ''Sweet Valley Confidential'' comes out, guess who get together? [[spoiler: Bruce and Elizabeth, that's who.]]

* In ''AWrinkleInTime'', Meg Murry's father's mathematically-based nickname for her has a ''slightly'' different meaning to those who read the book after, say, 1984: "[[Transformers Megatron]]".

*** Hardly. The point of the passage is to illustrate her idea that money is an important and good thing, since it enables people to trade with each other and enjoy the fruits of their labour, not that "money is important than family". Rearden's family are a bunch of JerkAsses who ruthlessly exploit his workaholic nature and then call ''him'' greedy; the price tags are put on the Thanksgiving items to show that they couldn't enjoy their lifestyle without his labour. There are plenty of instances in AtlasShrugged of heroic characters forgoing fleeting monetary gains in favour of some higher principle -- for instance, [[spoiler:Francisco D'Anconia squanders his family fortune in order to go live in a village completely cut off from the outside economy, where even the highest philosopher must perform manual labour to survive.]]

** Discworld/WitchesAbroad predates ThePrincessAndTheFrog, and is partially set in a combination of a DisneyPrincess city and TheBigEasy([[ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans During Fat Lunchtime]], no less) and with a frog prince. Also, Greebo [[DoctorWho always wanted to be ginger]].

** One of ''Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen'' says he's "bigger on the inside" in a straightforward ''DoctorWho'' reference. Then, later on in the book, Tiffany comes across [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E8SilenceInTheLibrary unnatural shadows that]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead move around without any light source]]...

*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Moore_/_South_Talpatti Real life steals the plot]]!

** In ''Discworld/{{Thief of Time}}'' there's a gentleman's club with a Rule 34. Rule 34 is that women cannot enter the club except at a certain time and date, therefore any women they see outside of that narrow window of time [[WeirdnessCensor must be figments of their imagination]]. The narration then notes that in Susan's case, with her strict schoolteacher outfit and black high heels, this [[FetishFuel could easily be the case]].

*** Witches Abroad also has a lot of odd similarities with Shrek 2, including the prince who's only revealed to be a frog at the end, and the villain being a fairy godmother.