Science Fiction Trivia

[Disembodied]

Okay then … three titles of SF novels or short stories, from three different authors, which are in some way hifalutin' literary allusions. A short explanation of the allusion is also required.

As an illustration (which unfortunately removes it from the pool of possible answers): Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly - references "For now we see through a glass, darkly", from the Bible, Corinthians 1:13.

[Cody]

Good question!

And All the Stars a Stage, by James Blish, referencing Shakespeare's monologue from As You Like It.
The Legacy of Heorot, by Barnes, Niven and Pournelle, referencing the mead hall in Beowulf.
Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks, referencing T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

Are they hifalutin' enough? I knew the titles had allusions (of grandeur), but had to check two of the references in case I'd misremembered.
The Legacy of Heorot might be a tad dodgy though. The editor's decision is final, of course.

[Disembodied]

Cody take the Gipper! All very definitely of sufficiently hifalutin' standard. Legacy of Heorot was why I put in the "three different authors" proviso: there's a sequel called The Dragons of Heorot, and Niven & Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye is another Biblical allusion, too … plus there's Banks's other Waste Land title, Consider Phlebas.

[Cody]

There are a few out there. My first thought was Something Wicked This Way Comes (from Macbeth), but that ain't sci-fi, any more than its author is a sci-fi writer. Go Rachel Bloom! <chortles> Now for the hard part, thinking up a new question - back later.


Meanwhile, here's a question I cannot recall the answer to: in which Banks novel does he reference The Weaver's Answer (by Family)?

[Disembodied]

Meanwhile, here's a question I cannot recall the answer to: in which Banks novel does he reference The Weaver's Answer (by Family)?

There's a passage in The Bridge:

If there is a design to my own existence it escapes me. What was that old Family song? The Weaver's Answer. Yeah, well; where's mine, Jimmy?

[Cody]

Thankee! Been nagging at me for ages, has that. I no longer have Banks' novels on the bookshelf, you see. A strange tale, is The Bridge.

[Disembodied]

A strange tale, is The Bridge.

It is! It's inspired by an odder one, though: Alasdair Gray's Lanark. An interesting article about the two books here (although typical of the Grauniad to illustrate it with a photo of the wrong bridge ).

[Cody]

I've not read Lanark - sounds interesting.


<sighs> My question-fu is weak - again. Anyway, I'm after the title of a novel:

Two men, McCabe and Johnson, are shipwrecked on a tropical island, and proceed to take over. They establish a new religion which they then outlaw.

[Malacandra]

My Google-fu is a match for your question-fu, but I know that if I answer I will then have to think of a question myself.

[Cody]

<nods> After 7.5 years of this thread, setting another question can be hard.

Clue the first: eventually to this tropical island come the children of a world-famous scientist. They bring with them samples of their late father's final invention, something that has the capability to kill all life on Earth.

[Norby]

I googled to Cat's Cradle (because I have a question ).

[Cody]

A pretty good reason, is that. Aye, it is Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, wherein can be found ice-nine - nasty stuff!

<hands slipper to Norby>


Apparently, there are many known solid crystalline phases of water - Ice I to Ice XVI

[Norby]

Fortunately the danger of Ice-nine is fictional.

Ok, then name the first capital starship and its sci-fi tv series where the main difference between the interior of similar big ships is the lighting of the bridge and the back-lighting of the tactical map.

[Norby]

First visual clue about the ship:

[Malacandra]

Okay, that's clue enough. The series is Stargate SG-1 and the ship is the Daedalus, also the name of the class of ship, amirite?