History MisaimedFandom / Literature

* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' is an OlderThanSteam example as there's centuries of different empires, dynasties and religions across East Asia taking different interpretations from it. Countless Imperial Chinese readers viewed it as pro-conformity due to Wukong being brought to heel for his rebelliousness, despite the Jade Emperor being portrayed as an awful and ineffectual ruler. Yet on the other hand viewing the book as entirely Buddhism favoured isn't correct either, as Buddha and Guanyin are also depicted as jerks who manipulate protagonists and put them through the wringer, often unfairly. Really the epic being highly satirical takes no sides with every authority, no matter what belief, being treated as equally flawed in their own ways.

** The idea of Elves as a SuperiorSpecies is a partial version of this. Tolkien was the TropeCodifier for the modern conception of Elves, but throughout the Legendarium Elves are shown to be just as flawed as humans and responsible for many of the problems throughout the First Age.

* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' overlapping with the {{Theatre}} page has a lot this going on.

** A recurring belief among the many fans of the book who support Christine and Erik's relationship is that Erik really represents the exciting life of tempestuous bohemian freedom for her, while Raoul in contrast just wants to chain Christine down to a marriage and make her a submissive wife. In actual fact Erik is the one trying to rob Christine of her freedom and choices as he spends a lot of the novel gaslighting Christine into believing he's a voice from Heaven sent by her father to teach her music and she can't marry anyone if she wants his lessons. Upon revealing his true identity and Christine seeing his NightmareFace, Erik outright declares that she can never leave him now and essentially exploits Christine's compassion so that she takes pity on him. While there is some ambiguity over Christine's feelings for Erik in the original text, especially when Raoul asks if she would love Erik if he had a handsome face -- it's still made clear in the novel that their relationship is entrapment, dominance and pity rather than true love. The lesson Erik learns in the end is that can't control or trap Christine if he actually loves her.

** The world he created was meant to be a {{dystopia}}, and Paul Atreides was ''not'' a role model, but a DarkMessiah and a {{deconstruct|edCharacterArchetype}}ion of TheChosenOne -- and one who eventually realized the error of his ways, at that. This hasn't stopped [[https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/race-consciousness-fascism-and-frank-herberts-dune some alt-right fans]] from hailing him as a heroic {{Ubermensch}} who serves as a great exhibition of their values, a man imbued with genetic superiority who reforges society in his image through brutal conquest. Paul's co-option by the alt-right, which is often ferocious in its hatred of the Islamic religion, is extra ironic given that Herbert based his journey on that of UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad. ''Film/DunePartTwo'' thankfully corrects this by displaying Paul and Fremen's victory in the climax as something unambiguously terrible and sinister with imagery reminiscent of real world terrorist attacks.

** There's a strategy board game based on the books, which successfully takes the event Collins has spent three books showing as horrible, life-destroying, and a sign of just how evil humanity can be, and makes it a fun game for 2-6 players. Some fans are ecstatic. ''Website/CollegeHumor'' parodies this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BK6YeSw-3Q here]].

** A recurring belief among the many fans of the book who support Christine and Erik's relationship is that Erik really represents the exciting life of tempestuous bohemian freedom for her, while Raoul in contrast just wants to chain Christine down to a marriage and make her a submissive wife. In actual fact Erik is the one trying to rob Christine of her freedom and choices as he spends a lot of the novel gaslighting Christine into believing he's a voice from Heaven sent by her father to teach her music and she can't marry anyone if she wants his lessons. Upon getting revealing his true identity and Christine seeing his NightmareFace, Erik outright declares she can never leave him now and essentially exploits Christine's compassion so that she takes pity on him. While there is some ambiguity over Christine's feelings for Erik in the original text, especially when Raoul asks if she would love Erik if he had a handsome face -- it's still made clear in the novel that their relationship is dominance and pity rather than true love. The lesson Erik learns in the end is that can't control or trap Christine if he actually loves her.

* Aside from all the uncertainties surrounding him, Myth/KingArthur can certainly be linked to two specific cultures, namely Breton/Welsh and Norman. Let's sum it up: there are five authors whose writings are considered the literary basis of Myth/ArthurianLegend; [[Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae Geoffrey of Monmouth]] (a Welsh cleric), Wace (a Norman poet), Creator/MarieDeFrance (a French poetess), Robert de Boron (a French(-Norman) poet) and last but not least Creator/ChretienDeTroyes (a French cleric). All of them wrote/compiled stories of Arthur and his court rooted in Breton/Welsh/Gallic legendary settings, stories all written in either Latin or a variation of Ancient French (Picard, Anglo-Norman). In those stories, apart from the fiefs of the knights being located in either Brittany, Wales or Cornwall, the authors made it crystal clear that Arthur and his realm is fighting a neverending war against ''Saxons'' trying to invade the British Isles. The first king to use thoses legends to promote himself? William the Conqueror, in order to legitimize the Norman reign (with Breton help) on Saxon subjects in England. Yet, to this day, you will still find Englishmen/Americans (Anglo-''Saxons'') talking about "our glorious, semi-legendary king Arthur, protector of England". In ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'', Sir Thomas Malory consistently describes Arthur as the "King of England", which must have really thrilled any Welshmen reading the book...

** The world he created was meant to be a {{dystopia}}, and Paul Atreides was ''not'' a role model, but a DarkMessiah and a {{deconstruct|edCharacterArchetype}}ion of TheChosenOne -- and one who eventually realized the error of his ways, at that. This hasn't stopped [[https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/race-consciousness-fascism-and-frank-herberts-dune some alt-right fans]] from hailing him as a heroic {{Ubermensch}} who serves as a great exhibition of their values, a man imbued with genetic superiority who reforges society in his image through brutal conquest. Paul's co-option by the alt-right, which is often ferocious in its hatred of the Islamic religion, is extra ironic given that Herbert based his journey on that of UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad. ''Film/DunePartTwo'' thankfully corrects this by displaying Paul and Fremen’s victory in the climax as something unambiguously terrible and sinister with imagery straight reminiscent of real world terrorist attacks.

** A recurring belief among the many fans of the book who support Christine and Erik’s relationship is that Erik really represents the exciting life of tempestuous bohemian freedom for her, while Raoul in contrast just wants to chain Christine down down to a marriage and be a submissive wife. In actual fact Erik is the one trying to rob Christine of her freedom and choices as he spends a lot of the novel gaslighting Christine into believing he’s a voice from Heaven sent by her father to teach her music and she can’t marry anyone if she wants his lessons. Upon getting revealing his true identity and Christine seeing his NightmareFace, Erik outright declares she can never leave him now and essentially exploits Christine‘s compassion so that she takes pity on him. While there is some ambiguity over Christine’s feelings for Erik in the original text, especially when Raoul asks if she would love Erik if he had a handsome face — it’s still made clear in the novel that their relationship is dominance and pity rather than true love. The lesson Erik learns in the end is that can’t control or trap Christine if he actually loves her.

** The world he created was meant to be a {{dystopia}}, and Paul Atreides was ''not'' a role model, but a DarkMessiah and a {{deconstruct|edCharacterArchetype}}ion of TheChosenOne -- and one who eventually realized the error of his ways, at that. This hasn't stopped [[https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/race-consciousness-fascism-and-frank-herberts-dune some alt-right fans]] from hailing him as a heroic {{Ubermensch}} who serves as a great exhibition of their values, a man imbued with genetic superiority who reforges society in his image through brutal conquest. Paul's co-option by the alt-right, which is often ferocious in its hatred of the Islamic religion, is extra ironic given that Herbert based his journey on that of UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad.

* ''Literature/Fahrenheit451'': This novel is often used by people who try to say that books are the superior form of media and that everything else is stupid and shallow. However, that's not what the novel was trying to say at all. In fact, there's one scene where Faber says that books as a medium aren't the important part, it's the content that matters. It just so happens that in their society books tend to have the most meaningful content. He is trying to say that it's the content that should be deeper and more meaningful. People frequently ignore that though to argue the supremacy of books as a medium.

** There are many jokes surrounding the idea on how the titular character in ''Theatre/Hamlet'' may have romantic feelings for his own mother, despite the play depicting how disgusted the protagonist is of her mother marrying his uncle— comparing it to incest.

* ''[[http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/funtheyhad.html The Fun They Had]]'' by Creator/IsaacAsimov was intended to be ironic; he hated school as a child because the classes were paced for less able students and he did not get along with his teachers. Many people, though, miss the intended irony ([[NostalgiaFilter having forgotten just how bad school can be]]) and take the story's concluding sentence at face value. It's even appeared in elementary school readers, presumably to get kids to appreciate school...

* Joey Comeau's [[http://www.lockpickbook.net/ Lockpick Pornography]] gets a lot of readers rooting for the narrator, which has caused Comeau to reply, "Aw but I hate what he does." This might to some extent be a case of a character being mistaken for an AuthorAvatar, since both Comeau and his protagonist are openly queer and fond of sexy trouble.

** The co-opting of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' by American Conservatives and the Tea Party would be another example of Misaimed Fandom. While her work was favorable of [[SelfMadeMan self-made millionaires]], it also negatively depicted [=CEO=]s who made money relying on favorable government deals. Furthermore, she was also a militant atheist who saw organized religion as a tool to get people to act against their own self-interest in service of collectivist ideals, and between that and her pro-choice view on abortion, she hated the Religious Right. Not that it stopped pundits like Sean Hannity from making a cameo in the movie adaptation.

* "The White Man's Burden" by Creator/RudyardKipling is a case of MisaimedFandom ''and'' Misaimed Hatedom. This point-missing is aggravated by the prints forgetting its "dedication" line. That's like forgetting to supply dynamite with a detonator, because this was "An Address to the United States" published on the heels of the Philippine War. If you don't see the trouble yet, read Creator/MarkTwain's articles about it. Or imagine that [[Literature/CatchTwentyTwo Joseph Heller]] with his reputation lived to 2006, and dropped in a big conference with "UsefulNotes/{{DRM}} and laws" in the middle of its order paper... to read his new poem with "Sony Rootkit" in the dedication and "I think Microsoft is pretty cool" in the text. Some could take it seriously, more as vicious irony, some like, some not -- but ''no'' chance this would ''not'' [[FlameBait provoke an untold riot then and there]]. The author of ''Stalky'' and ''Pig'' should have known what he did was {{troll}}eriffic. But [[SerialEscalation just in case it wasn't enough]], he also did publicly "bequeath" UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire's role to the people looking for contrasts with it and still remembering UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper Karl Popper]] is frequently quoted by leftists, with his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance paradox of tolerance]] being cited as a reason to censor ideas they disagree with. However, Popper strongly warned against the outright suppression of so-called "intolerant" policies if their proponents were not actively rejecting the concept of debate or calling for violence. His full quote treats suppression as [[GodzillaThreshold not to be used unless absolutely necessary.]]