Fiction books referenced by other fiction books

r3nu4l

Thread title doesn't make sense :rolleyes:

So I was reading Fury by GM Ford last night and the main protagonist has a boat called "FoamFollower" or something similar. Anyway another character asks where he got the name for the boat and he tells her it's from a character in the "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: The Unbeliever" by Stephen Donaldson.

I've seen this kind of tribute in the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins where one of the characters constantly refers to the genius of Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe.

For me, I like it but it kind of bings me out of the world I have been immersed in while reading and back to reality with a bang. Strange.

So what tributes have you noticed?
Does it make your mind jerk back to reality a bit?
Do yo ulike it or hate it?

John

Stephen King references his own books in the Dark Tower series.

He even turns up as a character later in the series.

dudara

I'm reading John Brosnan's "Mothership" and it just referenced "The Lord of the Rings"

BossArky

Paulo Coelho is always referencing himself and his books... sometimes to ill effect as the story falls flat.

simu

It can be really jarring if the author is just doing it to get intellectual cred. However, at other times, can be illuminating or a handy way of finding out about some cool other book.

John

Have any of you read Jorge Luis Borges? He used to make up dozens of fake books (and go into loads of detail about them) and reference them in his fictions. It's very annoying when you go looking for them lol

Dades

How about the Da Vinci Code... oh I forgot that other one wasn't fiction.

Anouilh

Poets, rather than fiction writers, seem to reference other writers. T.S. Eliot comes to mind.

In the hands of a poor writer, cross referencing can become really boring. Academics searching for references in "The Great Gatsby" must be some of the most tiresome people on the Planet.

Anouilh

John2 wrote:

Have any of you read Jorge Luis Borges? He used to make up dozens of fake books (and go into loads of detail about them) and reference them in his fictions. It's very annoying when you go looking for them lol

I'm a great fan of Borges in a superficial sort of way. I'm not well read enough to recognise his references. His obsession with libraries is contageous. A fabulous, intricate mind... but he always seemed to be on another planet.

Tree

or the princess bride, supposed to be an abridged version

Eoin

John2 wrote:

Stephen King references his own books in the Dark Tower series.

King does it very well - seeing as most his books are set in Maine, he casually references another book, but not in way that doesn't make sense if you haven't read the other book.

It happens a lot (unavoidably) for a series of books, but it has on occasion ruined a book for me. For instance, I read one of Michael Connnelly's books out of sequence by mistake, and the book I had missed was pretty much ruined for me.

In fact, in the sequel to "Blood Work", Connelly referred to the film that was made out of the first film, but because they had changed the plot so much in the film, he had to refer to this fact as well in the film in order for it to make sense. Terrible, terrible adaptation by the way.

This isn't really the same at all, but I remember Clive Cussler writing himself into one his novels; I don't think I have ever read such self-serving pretentious crap.