History RefugeInAudacity / Literature

*** Sergeant Colon has been forgotten again.

* ''ForgottenRealms'' being ThirtyGambitPileup, it's no big wonder this trope re-emerges. In ''[[ForgottenRealms Silverfall]]'' by Ed Greenwood lady Qilue wanted to drop by on a costume party for little spying. She didn't care to disguise herself with magic, but arrived [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself with her own face]] and in such a [[PimpedOutDress Pimped Out]] [[{{Stripperiffic}} un-]]Dress everyone thought it's a drow ''princess'' costume. Add to this being extremely beautiful ''for a [[EvilIsSexy drow]]'' and the presence so impressive that once a drow seeing Qilue the first time fell on her knees convinced she met an avatar, even though she wasn't into religion at all. When resulting [[HelloNurse erotic nuke]] entered a room inflicting despair upon women and eyeball meltdown upon men, the only one who believed she's a real drow was a high-ranked Harper spy, and even he almost fell for her anyway.

* PGWodehouse's popular character Psmith. Psmith becomes a socialist because he believes in the redistribution of property - his particular ''brand'' of socialism, as he explains, involves his redistributing other's property to himself. When he seeks employment, he offers to provide any service, including assassinating someone's aunt.

** DirkGently fuses it with BavarianFireDrill in ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' when he walks into a police-packed crime scene, then simply orders one cop to disassemble a wastebasket and another to guard the sofa stuck halfway up the stairs (which the cop in question had been ordered to saw up and remove).
** DirkGently tries to employ this trope in ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'', when he steals a cup of coffee off a woman's table in a cafe, believing the act will be so shocking to her that she would let it go without comment. It doesn't work.
** In ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', Arthur Dent ends up sharing a small package of biscuits[[hottip:* :[[SeparatedByACommonLanguage that is, cookies, if you're American]]]] with a complete stranger sitting next to him at a train station. It starts out as this trope, with Arthur indeed being so shocked that he does not comment at the audacity of the man who has just opened his biscuits and eaten one. Instead he escalates it into a battle of wills, each man taking turns eating a biscuit until they're all gone, with nary a word spoken. [[spoiler:After the other man leaves, Arthur finds his own packet of biscuits - they were underneath his newspaper the whole time.]] This actually [[RealLifeWritesThePlot happened to the author.]]To pitch this story to a new level of Refuge in Audacity, Adams related this story to discredited politician and convicted liar Jeffrey Archer, who promptly used it in one of his own books and claimed he'd thought of it first. Adams was inclined to be generous, putting it down to a misunderstanding, although other writers have also complained about Archer allegedly stealing their plot bunnies. ("Allegedly" used as a legal disclaimer here in the ''{{Have I Got News For You}}'' sense.) Satirical magazine ''{{Private Eye}}'' related the tale of Archer sitting on a judging panel for new short fiction by unpublished writers and using it as a chance to steal their best ideas to use himself - then, in the days before his own downfall for fraud and lying on oath, using his lawyers to threaten those who complained at this breach of trust with actions for defaming his character, in daring to allege he'd do such a thing.

* What I think is a great one comes in David Gemmels "Legend" Staring down an impossibly massive horde of Mongel expys who hold his castle under siege, with most of their walls having already fallen, no sign of help on the horizon, only a few hundred troops and their most powerful warrior dead, Rek could have surrendered or fled with honor. In fact, he had already given his troops that option. So, what does he do? Flee? Surrender? Never. In fact, he kits himself out if full battle rattle and invites his officers to DINNER. Inside the enemy camp. Where they happen to be giving Druss a magnificent sendoff worth of a hero. Not only does it WORK, but Rek ends up spending the night talking to their leader Ulrik about their respective visions for the future and their pasts. That takes cast iron balls, clad in even bigger balls made of PURE ADAMANTIUM!

** In the ''[=~Gaunt's Ghosts~=]'' novel ''The Guns of Tanith'', Varl and Kolea literally run headlong into heavy enemy fire to penetrate a fortified position... and succeed.

* While not terribly audacious over all, the second ArtemisFowl book contains a line which [[{{Americanitis}} was removed from US editions]], in which Artemis thinks he'll probably be attracted to [[HotAmazon Holly Short]] when he reaches puberty. Secondary plots of the fifth and sixth books respectively? Artemis going through puberty and learning to cope with attraction, and the beginning of an Artemis/Holly [[WillTheyOrWontThey Will They Or Won't They]]. Neither book would have even made ''sense'' cleaned up like the second.

** Another description in the book is of a religious zealot quoting the entire Bible ''from memory''. It reportedly takes her several days.

* [[AGameofThrones Tyrion Lannister's]] list of "crimes" he admits to while imprisoned at the Eyrie.

* RoaldDahl's ''[[Main/{{Matilda}} Matilda]]'' explicitly states that the [[SadistTeacher monstrous headmistress]] Agatha Trunchbull would not get away with being cruel and abusive anywhere else, but she gets away with using a girl for human hammer throwing, flinging kids out of windows and locking them in a torture device because [[CassandraTruth no parent would believe]] a child trying to tell on her. Dahl knew his stuff - his intended audience (elementary-school kids) were perfectly capable of buying that explanation.

** In ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', Arthur Dent ends up sharing a small package of biscuits[[hottip:* :[[SeparatedByACommonLanguage that is, cookies, if you're American]]]] with a complete stranger sitting next to him at a train station. It starts out as this trope, with Arthur indeed being so shocked that he does not comment at the audacity of the man who has just opened his biscuits and eaten one. Instead he escalates it into a battle of wills, each man taking turns eating a biscuit until they're all gone, with nary a word spoken. [[spoiler:After the other man leaves, Arthur finds his own packet of biscuits - they were underneath his newspaper the whole time.]] This actually [[RealLifeWritesThePlot happened to the author.]]To pitch this story to a new level of Refuge in Audacity, Adams related this story to discredited politician and convicted liar Jeffrey Archer, who promptly used it in one of his own books and claimed he'd thought of it first. Adams was inclined to be generous, putting it down to a misunderstanding, although other writers have also complained about Archer allegedly stealing their plot bunnies. ("Allegedly" used as a legal disclaimer here in the ''{{Have I Got News For You}}' sense.) Satirical magazine ''{{Private Eye}'' related the tasle of Archer sitting on a judging panel for new short fiction by unpublished writers and using it as a chance to steal their best ideas to use himself - then, in the days before his own downfall, using his lawyers to threaten those who complained at this breach of trust with actions for slander and libel in daring to allege he'd do such a thing.

** In ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', Arthur Dent ends up sharing a small package of biscuits[[hottip:* :[[SeparatedByACommonLanguage that is, cookies, if you're American]]]] with a complete stranger sitting next to him at a train station. It starts out as this trope, with Arthur indeed being so shocked that he does not comment at the audacity of the man who has just opened his biscuits and eaten one. Instead he escalates it into a battle of wills, each man taking turns eating a biscuit until they're all gone, with nary a word spoken. [[spoiler:After the other man leaves, Arthur finds his own packet of biscuits - they were underneath his newspaper the whole time.]] This actually [[RealLifeWritesThePlot happened to the author.]]To pitch this story to a new level of Refuge in Audacity, Adams related this story to discredited politician and convicted liar Jeffrey Archer, who promptly used it in one of his own books and claimed he'd thought of it first. Adams was inclined to be generous, putting it down to a misunderstanding, although other writers have also complained about Archer allegedly stealing their plot bunnies. ("Allegedly" used as a legal disclaimer here in the ''{{Have I Got News For You}}' sense.)

** In ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', Arthur Dent ends up sharing a small package of biscuits[[hottip:* :[[SeparatedByACommonLanguage that is, cookies, if you're American]]]] with a complete stranger sitting next to him at a train station. It starts out as this trope, with Arthur indeed being so shocked that he does not comment at the audacity of the man who has just opened his biscuits and eaten one. Instead he escalates it into a battle of wills, each man taking turns eating a biscuit until they're all gone, with nary a word spoken. [[spoiler:After the other man leaves, Arthur finds his own packet of biscuits - they were underneath his newspaper the whole time.]] This actually [[RealLifeWritesThePlot happened to the author.]]

** At one point, during a search, Carrot had been ordered to [[spoiler:leave as soon as Dr. Whiteface, the head of the Fools' Guild, told him to]]. When Whiteface confronted him: ''"If you tell me to leave, I'm going to have to follow the order I was given. Isn't that right, Sergeant? I really don't want to have to follow that order. *leans in closer to Whiteface* If it will make you feel better, I shall probably feel a little ashamed afterward."'' When Dr. Whiteface threatens that he can have a dozen men in there in moments, Carrot tells him that doing so would only make it easier for him to obey his orders. In the process, Carrot manages to astonish Sergeant Colon, who has himself attempted some fairly audacious plans (such as guarding an entire ''bridge'' in case people tried to steal it, and then justifying this): "Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He'd seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with ''no cards''."

** The presence of Dr Hix, a necromancer, at Unseen University, despite the fact that necromancy is outlawed. If he skulked around the premises and tried to hide what he does, he would almost certainly be drummed out. Instead, he is openly there -- they just renamed the position the "Department of Post-Mortem Communications." He has an ''animated skeleton advising him'' As a corollary, Dr Hix is ''contractually obligated'' to provide a modest and acceptable level of dissent and evil. At some point the whole thing is tipped over into RefugeInAudacity territory, much to the astonishment of visitors.

** At one point, during a search, Carrot had been ordered to [[spoiler:leave as soon as Dr. Whiteface, the head of the Fools' Guild, told him to]]. When Whiteface confronted him: ''"If you tell me to leave, I'm going to have to follow the order I was given. Isn't that right, Sergeant? I really don't want to have to follow that order. * leans in closer to Whiteface* If it will make you feel better, I shall probably feel a little ashamed afterward."'' When Dr. Whiteface threatens that he can have a dozen men in there in moments, Carrot tells him that doing so would only make it easier for him to obey his orders. In the process, Carrot manages to astonish Sergeant Colon, who has himself attempted some fairly audacious plans (such as guarding an entire ''bridge'' in case people tried to steal it, and then justifying this): "Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He'd seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with ''no cards''."

* What I think is a great one comes in David Gemmels "Legend" Staring down an impossibly massive horde of Mongel expys who hold his castle under siege, with most of their walls having already fallen, no sign of help on the horizon, only a few hundred troops and their most powerful warrior dead, Rek could have surrendered or fled with honor. In fact, he had already given his troops that option. So, what does he do? Flee? Surrender? Never. In fact, he kits himself out if full battle rattle and invites his officers to DINNER. Inside the enemy camp. Where they happen to be giving Druss a magnificent sendoff worth of a hero. Not only does it WORK, but Rek ends up spending the night talking to their leader Ulrik about their respective visions for the future and their pasts. That takes cast iron balls, clad in even bigger balls made of PURE ADAMANTIUM!

* [[ASongOfFireAndIce Tyrion Lannister's]] list of "crimes" he admits to while imprisoned at the Eyrie.

* In the world of AtlasShrugged every last move of every businessman is followed by BigBrother, so how could one of the most successful businessmen destroy his multinational enterprise? Become the most worthless playboy and invest millions of dollars in a project he admitted knowing was worthless and publicly announcing that he would enjoy watching the farce unroll.

* {{Christopher Moore}}'s ''LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff'', in its entirety. Only in ''Lamb'' does a scene where Jesus offers to heal a little girl's malformed hand so she can make obscene gestures at Pharisees make ''perfect sense''.

* The legendary Catullus 16, which has been cited literally for ''millenia'' afterwards as an example of how crudeness can be poetic. Ironically, he's (''very'' rudely) defending the fact that his poems are so ''[[ValuesDissonance tender]]''.

* ''ForgottenRealms'' being ThirtyXanatosPileup, it's no big wonder this trope re-emerges. In ''[[ForgottenRealms Silverfall]]'' by Ed Greenwood lady Qilue wanted to drop by on a costume party for little spying. She didn't care to disguise herself with magic, but arrived [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself with her own face]] and in such a [[PimpedOutDress Pimped Out]] [[{{Stripperiffic}} un-]]Dress everyone thought it's a drow ''princess'' costume. Add to this being extremely beautiful ''for a [[EvilIsSexy drow]]'' and the presence so impressive that once a drow seeing Qilue the first time fell on her knees convinced she met an avatar, even though she wasn't into religion at all. When resulting [[HelloNurse erotic nuke]] entered a room inflicting despair upon women and eyeball meltdown upon men, the only one who believed she's a real drow was a high-ranked Harper spy, and even he almost fell for her anyway.

* Invoked in ''TomorrowWhenTheWarBegan'', in Ellie's plan to get Lee, who can't walk thanks to a gunshot wound to the leg, out of enemy-occupied Wirrawee. "Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. We're thinking of little, quiet, sneaky things. We could go to the other extreme, rock up in something so indestructable that we didn't give a damn who saw or heard us." They proceed to steal an excavator and escape hiding Lee in the shovel, hitting several cars and killing a few enemy soldiers on the way.