Literature / Fridge

A reminder of the rules of Fridge Brilliance:

This is a personal moment for the viewer, but follows the same rules as normal pages, meaning no first person or natter. If you start off with "This Troper", really, you have no excuse. We're going to hit you on the head.

This revelation can come from anywhere, even from this very page.

Also, this page is of a generally positive nature, and a Fridge Brilliance does not have to be Word of God. In fact, it usually isn't, and the viewer might be putting more thought into it than the creator ever did. This is not a place for personal commentary on another's remark or arguing without adding a Fridge Brilliance comment of your own.

Warning: This page has a high Holy Shit Quotient — however, it refers less to Moments of Awesome and more to the idea of, "Holy Shit, You're Right." You're welcome.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

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In Mid-Flinx by Alan Dean Foster, there is a scene where one of the invaders comes across a cluster of beautiful flowers with a magnificent scent. She touches them and when nothing instantly tries to kill her, she decides that they're safe and weaves them into her hair. The narration then says something like 'There was beauty here as well as death'. One might think at first that 'here' refers to the planet. Then it hits them: it also refers to the flowers, which turn out to be deadly. Awesome double meaning.
John Ringo. The Villain Protagonist of the Paladin of Shadows series, a would-be kiddy diddler who hunts and kills actual rapists and pedophiles. Origin of "OH JOHN RINGO NO". Author Appeal in describing the protagonist's arousal at seeing young women - girls, really, brutally victimized and forced into prostitution? OR, utterly brutal no-holds-barred Deconstruction of Draco in Leather Pants? (Possibly even a Take That! at fans thereof.)
- Word of God has it that the series is meant as a deconstruction of numerous tropes in men's adventure fiction (including those mentioned above) and a Take That! at the fans thereof. Ringo supports a charity that helps rehabilitate girls/women forced into prostitution.
The Angel's Game the 'warrior saviour' that David is writing about in his book is supposed to be his father, who, despite being by all accounts a terrible father and responsible for all of David's issues, represents a Christ-like figure - his initials are JC, he died at the age of thirty-three, and he was killed in error for the sins of another man. Cue all of David's actions in the second half of the book suddenly making a lot more sense.
H. P. Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness One point in Akeley's last letter, The Outer Ones are briefly referred to in first person instead of third person: the specific phrase is "Telepathy is their usual means of discourse, though we have rudimentary vocal organs..." This seems like something that could be an editing mistake, and apparently certain editions of the story have it as the seemingly more correct "they have rudimentary vocal organs"... But earlier in the story, the narrator points out a more blatant mistake in another of Akeley's letters, where Akeley seemingly misspells his own last name, so it's likely the switch in pronouns was deliberate foreshadowing of the ending, which the narrator himself missed.
In Demian by Hermann Hesse, the character Pistorius talks about how his father wanted him to become a priest, but he did not want to. This is all well and good, perfectly fine with the themes of the book, but it has so much more meaning when you realize that Hesse and his father had the exact same situation, that his father wanted him to become a priest against Hesse's own wishes.
Fade To Blue Everything about Kenny- his being attractive, popular, able to get any girl he wants and spending lots of time with Aaron Agar- is pretty much Sophie's ideal guy- which makes a hell of a lot of sense once you find out that he is Sophie- he's a virtual life that she lived.]] Given the chance to be anyone, doesn't it make sense that when choosing to be a guy, she'd make him into the ideal guy, everything she isn't?
In the graphic novel Level Up, the main protagonist is a Chinese-American college student named Dennis Ouyang who would rather play video games than study to get through college. Dennis's dead father sends four chibi angels to help Dennis with his gastroenterology studies (don't ask). There are four of them because they're the ghosts of Dennis's dad's four broken promises and because the Chinese words for "four" and "death" are pronounced identically! Also ties in nicely with the Pac-Man motif, for bonus points. ;)
- Additionally: Dennis's father and grandfather died of liver cancer. What profession do the angels persuade (read: force) Dennis to study? Gastroenterology, which among other things involves studying the liver.
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe ends with the House of Usher collapsing. This occurs for no readily apparent reason. But upon reading it a second time for a different class, there's a discovery. Amidst the dense, plodding prose, clues are given as to why it happened. The narrator notices that all the stones that make up the building are permeated with lichens. One of the mad Roderick Usher's strange beliefs is that plants are sentient. They destroyed the house by deliberately compromising the stonework that supported it.
The reason the monster from Frankenstein is also called Frankenstein is because he's technically Victor's son.
Upon reading the Dr. Seuss book "Ten Apples On Top" ^plot and wondered why the irate bear with the mop felt obligated to try an beat the three critters, as he/she didn't have much reason, ^additionally Then it occured, if someone was that bear, they'd probably be mad too if they had just discovered that a lion, a dog, and a tiger had just wrecked their kitchen and hijacked their apples.
In the end of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight says "I declare you purged, as polished and as pure/as the day you were born, without blemish or blame." The characters are clearly Christian, as they celebrate Christmas and Easter. So that means that they believe everyone is born with Original Sin, the sin of temptation. Which means that if he was restored to the status as when he was born, Gawain still carries the mark of the temptation that got him in trouble in the first place! This explains his continued feelings of immense guilt and his usage of the girdle as a sash and perpetual reminder of his sin.
In Dream Park, the LARPing players don't bother to "behead" the bodies of their slain party members, even after some of those killed earlier in the South Seas Treasure Game are reanimated by the villains and sent to attack them. This seems like an oversight, until you look back at the rules for how the International Fantasy Gaming Society is awarding points for the Game, as those who are "killed out" suffer a loss of half their points, but are also rebated half of that loss (total of 75% points received) if they return as a zombie. That means that preventing a party member from rising from the grave as an undead would be bad sportsmanship, as it'd deprive a fellow-Gamer of the chance to regain those points!
In P.G. Wodehouse's Mike and Psmith, Psmith mentions his school reports from Eton, complaining, "There's a libel action in every sentence." Later in the series, he goes to Cambridge to study law, and Word of God is that he eventually becomes a lawyer.
The reason why the title character in the Roald Dahl book Matilda has telekinetic powers is because she read so much as a child. She was a bright kid to start with but reading made her even cleverer: it gave her brain power, and, of course, what is telekinesis if not literal brainpower? — evansT
In Of Mice and Men it was established that Lennie likes to touch/break soft objects. One of the things he broke: A hand that was in a glove full of vaseline! That was brilliant foreshadowing!
Finnegans Wake: Being already aware of the pun in the title ("Finn again is awake") referring to the giant of Irish mythology returning from his death at the novel's beginning, with some interpretations being to defend Ireland from ... something. What wasn't thought of was this: the lack of apostrophe, which thinking that was just a stylistic device conveying the stream of consciousness storytelling of HCE's dreams, can be taken to indicate multiple Finnegans who are all waking up. One of the big thematic concerns of the book is the recurrence and reliving of myth in the everyday lives of ordinary people — who by the novel's end (the morning as HCE's dream ends) are all waking up.
In H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time", Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee refers to the "atomic-engined vehicles" that the Yithians drive as "cars." The Great Race was established as a "fascistic socialis[t]" civilization, which, for the purposes of the story, meant that the government was very small and limited civilians' voting privileges, but all wealth and resources were distributed evenly, as evidenced by the "abundant leisure time" and apparent lack of poverty. That a collectivist society would rely on automobiles as the default mode of transportation seems odd. Designing cities for automobiles instead of persons is horrible civil engineering, and it simply doesn't make sense that the Yithian government would do that rather than develop some form of public transit. However, it's entirely possible that instead of each citizen driving in its own separate vehicle, the Yithians probably carpool frequently. For all the reader knows, the "atomic-engined vehicles" could be comparable to Fred Schneider's "Chrysler that seats about twenty," and the Yithians could have only two or three cars per neighborhood. Sharing rides on a regular basis would enrich the civilians' social lives, which would serve as an intangible source of fulfillment and encourage further civic engagement. —Slothbeetle
- Shared or privately-owned, cars also make sense for the Yithians because their conical bodies don't have any legs, but glide along on a wide "foot" like snails do. They probably can't move very fast without a vehicle, so would need cars for emergencies or long-distance trips.
Gödel, Escher, Bach It can appear that the cover was just a clever way of showing the book's initials (the subtitle is "an Eternal Golden Braid"). However it's visual metaphor for the book itself, that math (Gödel), art (Escher) and music (Bach) can act as shadows of the same difficult-to-express ideas. Since the book consists largely of presenting concepts (e.g., recursion) in the forms of math (recursive functions), art (Escher's "Drawing Hands") and music (certain fugues), the cover perfectly describes the contents.
Why was the mother unable to let go and stop singing to her son throughout Robert Munsch's Love You Forever? Remember that Robert himself had two stillborn children, and how he stated that he would sing the song to his dead babies? Doesn't it seem like the mother in the story represents the author himself after his losses and his apparent thoughts as the child grows up, as well as his wishes? Of how it seems he'd want his kids to sing the song back to him when he's old and sick, and maybe his own kids singing to their children?
In The Spirit Thief, Josef's ability to hold himself together with nothing but Heroic Willpower seems like it's abusing the trope to the point of being ridiculous, even with extra boost from his sword - until one considers the supernatural abilities of Tesset and Den. Despite both being Badass Normal, by mastering their own spirits (which humans, like everything in this world, do have), both men can perform feats of strength and toughness that should be biologically and physically impossible. As Tesset explains to Nico, the way people learn it is basically by hearing "it's possible, try and figure it out" and then figuring it out. It's not too-far-fetched that a Master Swordsman like Josef could unwittingly make use of a primitive version of the same techniques.
"The Wild Swans" is the only tale of Andersen's that seems to be adapted from a pre-existing tale ("The Six Swans"), as opposed to an original story of his own. He must have really liked that fairy tale... well, of course he would — it's about a girl who can't speak, just like his little mermaid!
On the HarperCollins cover of Dale Brown's Warrior Class there is an image of a B-1B Lancer , but the tail control surfaces appear translucent. Later on in the book it is stated that Dreamland's modified Bones, the EB-1C Vampires, lack a horizontal stabiliser and have a much shorter vertical stabiliser because of the special technology they use to make the skin of the Vampire able to change and affect its flight characteristics without needing conventional flight control surfaces. Then it clicked into place that the translucency wasn't accidental!
- One can be disappointed by the end of Executive Intent, where we are merely told that Pat's forces are kicking ass and taking names rather than being allowed to "see", so to speak, the action. However one then might have realised that it was an evolution of the Mook Horror Show: By describing their actions from afar, reporting the devastation they bring on the Russians rather than showing, it turns them into alien, implacable forces of nature, not something still mortal, destructible. This allows for the impression of power without an overbearing in-your-face Invincible Hero impression.
There was a time when there was an initial confusion by the times in The Cthulhu Mythos when the humans would win against the Old Ones. Then upon realizing something - cosmic horror isn't about alien gods, it's about the cosmos. The Old Ones are mighty, but even they are ultimately insignificant in the grandest of grand scopes. Why wouldn't the humans be able to score a few victories? The Old Ones aren't all-powerful, either.

Again, you're welcome.

Fridge / Literature

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