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I, Noun

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So you're going through the bookstore reading titles, browsing for something to read. You see lots of random things, incoherent titles, boring titles, one-word titles that could mean anything or nothing. What to read? And then you see it. A book that sounds like it will focus on one subject just because of the title. A book that purports to speak from authority, just because of the title. It is a book that reads "I, Noun" possibly with an obscenely long subtitle.

This is a subtrope of The Joy of X. Related to Enter Eponymous but not to iProduct.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    I, Anime & Manga 
  • Patalliro!: From the second season, the title of the anime adaptation is Boku Patalliro! (I, Patalliro!).

    I, Audio Plays 

    I, Comic Books 

    I, Fan Works 

    I, Live-Action Film 

    I, Literature 
  • Isaac Asimov:
  • The first book of The Golden Hamster Saga is called I, Freddy.
  • I Alien by Michael Reaves, with illustrations by comics artist Terry Austin.
  • The "acto-biography" of Nigel Planer's pretentious luvvie character Nicholas Craig has the intentionally clunky title I, an Actor: Another Great Actor Exposes Himself.
  • I, Ba'al, a short story set in the Stargate-verse.
  • I, Claudius, possibly the Ur-Example. Justified in that it's not only the title but the start of the supposed memoir itself, which Claudius begins by reciting his formal names and how they are less telling than the derisive nicknames by which his family knew him.
  • "I Cthulhu or, What's A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9' S, Longitude 126° 43' W)?," by Neil Gaiman.
  • I, Jedi, the only Star Wars Legends novel to be written entirely in the first person.
  • I, Lucifer by Glenn Duncan.
  • I, Lucifer by Peter O'Donnell.
  • I, Monster: Serial Killers in Their Own Chilling Words by Tom Philbin
  • I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan the "autobiography" of Alan Partridge.
  • I, Pencil, an influential 1958 essay about how markets produce things (like pencils) that no single person is capable of making.
  • I, Q, a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel featuring Q (and riffing off the intelligence test of the same name).
  • "I, Robot", a Short Story by Eando Binder, from the perspective of the robot Adam Link.
  • Cory Doctorow has short stories called both "I, Robot" and "I, Rowboat".
  • I, Strahd by P. Elrod, memoirs of titular vampire, set in Ravenloft.
  • I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter
  • I, the Jury a noir by Mickey Spillane featuring Mike Hammer. Also became a movie.
  • I Trissy, a short YA novel by Norma Fox Mazer about an 11-year-old girl dealing with her parents' divorce.
  • I, TyrantAD&D2 sourcebook about beholders (a pun on "eye tyrant").
  • I Vampire: The Confessions of a Vampire — His Life, His Loves, His Strangest Desires ... by Michael Romkey - You get the feeling they just couldn't bring themselves to use such an undescriptive title and trust it to stand on its own merits.
  • I Weapon, a 70s sci-fi novel about the breeding of the ultimate living weapon from several human subspecies to fight an alien threat.
  • The Septimus Heap series has a book within a book called the “I, Marcellus”.
  • Week Ending: Cabinet Leaks had a parody autobiography of Carol Thatcher called I, Carol. And every time she refers to herself in the first person it's "I, Carol," to the editor's despair.

    I, Live-Action TV 

    I, Music 
  • I Robot is the title of an Alan Parsons Project album, partly inspired by the Asimov collection.
  • "Moi... Lolita" (I, Lolita) by Alizée.
  • The band I Monster.
  • "I, Hedonist" is both a song by Panopticon and the band Hedonist.
  • "I Zimbra" by Talking Heads looks like an example at first glance, but given that the title and lyrics are pulled from a totally nonsensical Dadaist poem, it's doubtful whether that was the intention.
  • "I, Zombie" is the title of a White Zombie song.

    I, Tabletop Games 

    I, Theatre 
  • Musical about Roy Keane's controversial departure from the Republic of Ireland football team before the 2002 World Cup: I Keano

    I, Video Games 
  • I, Robot, an arcade game released in the 80s.
  • Plants vs. Zombies has the minigame mode "I, Zombie", which flips the script on the main gameplay by having you deploy zombies to tear through plant defenses.

    I, Web Original 

    I, Western Animation 


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