I didn’t see this thread in the salons (at least dating back the first 5 pages of topics), so I’m starting one–apologies if there’s overlap.
Fallen London is an obsessively, gloriously literary work. What are your favorite references in Fallen London?
Mine (so far):
• Attending to the Needs of a Singular Plant is straight-up Little Shop of Horrors
• Playing chess with the Boatman = Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal
• Plagued by a Popular Song and what it does to a type of thing you own may be my all-time favorite so far.
I’m sure there are dozens more I’d love that I didn’t catch.
I suspect that Alexis and co. are familiar with Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves, but have no in-game text to back this up (yet).
Well, it isn’t a literary reference, but "It’s a fair collar, and no mistake, but society is to blame" is a slightly-modified line from Monty Python, and that made me chuckle when I read it.
The Revolutionaries seem based on the anarchists from G.K. Chesteron’s "The Man Who Was Thursday." In that work they are named after days of the week, whereas here they are months of the year.
The five sections of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land are "The Burial of the Dead," "A Game of Chess," "The Fire Sermon," "Death by Water," and "What the Thunder Said"–which nicely covers five of the six standard dream qualities, as well as making the whole thing seem much more depressing.
(This makes me wonder: Is April the cruellest Month? I’ve never played the right ambition to know, though I wouldn’t put it past the writers.)
Two more important literary allusions, while we’re at it:
"All shall be well, etc." is from the Showings of Julian of Norwich. (It also, incidentally, was quoted in Eliot’s Little Gidding, which may have influenced its appearance here.)
The Cumaean Canal is an adaptation of Book VI of the Aeneid, which has been nicely reinforced by a different Sibylline legend in the most recently ES.
I always get a bit sad when I see the "DONE BECAUSE WE ARE TOO MENNY" Surprise Package result - it’s a reference to Jude the Obscure, and a pretty heartbreaking part at that.
The Final Curtain had a load of fun nods to pieces of drama too, although I don’t recall them off the top of my head.
These are all great! I just marked this as "Accepted answer" and it turned a horrible shade of green, so I’m…going to avoid that in the future. But I love all of them.
[quote=Plynkes]Well, it isn’t a literary reference, but "It’s a fair collar, and no mistake, but society is to blame" is a slightly-modified line from Monty Python, and that made me chuckle when I read it.
The Revolutionaries seem based on the anarchists from G.K. Chesteron’s "The Man Who Was Thursday." In that work they are named after days of the week, whereas here they are months of the year.[/quote]
My favourite aspect of "The Man Who Was Thursday" is the fact that it turns out that the central council of the anarchists is actually being run by undercover secret policemen who have infiltrated the organisation. I sometimes wonder if our own Calendar Council is the same, and that the whole business isn’t just some bizarre joke of the Masters?
My interactions with them have been fleeting, and I have a terrible time remembering all the FL lore anyway, so I have no evidence for this idea, it’s just idle fancy on my part.
@Siankan: I can’t get over the TS Eliot. Marvelous.
@Dov: Totally should’ve listed Batman… @Plynkes: And the first Monty Python ref, though I have yet to encounter the Dead Parrot.
@Rasvarmo: I suspect it is. But where’s Watson? (I also am 99% sure–though I don’t know if Alexis has confirmed it–that FL may be inspired by Neil Gaiman’s wonderful and disturbing stab at a Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Emerald.”
@Bitty: I just got the Jack Vance card, and with it an object I will never sell.
@Barse: Ooh, that’s a deep cut. Good catch.
@phryne: Oh wow. I look forward to the swans! (It looks like I personally can fix the way the green looks, but I’d prefer to fix it for everyone…sigh…)
I don’t think there’s any real doubt on this one, though as you point out, he’s Watsonless down here.
Regarding the Gaiman story, I can’t say anything authoritative about Alexis’s possible inspirations, but I can say that there was a mention once of the Square of Lofty Words predating the decision to set the game in Victorian London; you could say, I suppose, that the Echo Bazaar predated the Fifth City. (It’s only appropriate.) This means that Shadows over Baker Street, weirdly appropriate as it may be, is highly unlikely as an original source.
Also, while I can’t say the writers don’t occasionally trade on Lovecraftian expectations, I think they play with and cheat them more than they’re fulfilled. There are indeed strange cosmic beings and abundant opportunities for madness abounding in Fallen London, but they are very different from what one might expect from poking around a certain New England university. No tentacles, for one thing (though I admit there is one who wears yellow, in a sense).
[quote=Siankan]The five sections of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land are "The Burial of the Dead," "A Game of Chess," "The Fire Sermon," "Death by Water," and "What the Thunder Said"–which nicely covers five of the six standard dream qualities, as well as making the whole thing seem much more depressing.[/quote] Another interesting detail about The Waste Land connection is that one potential interpretation is that it is a version of the old legend of the Fisher King, which, of course, is referenced by the name of our favourite urchin gang.
Speaking of Neil Gaiman, I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Neverwhere, or maybe someone has and I’ve just missed it.
Good reminder. Whether mediated by Eliot or not, the Fisher Kings are certainly a pretty bald reference, so chalk one up for the Matter of Britain (well say Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, though you can’t really say, "yes, definitely this version!"). Now as you mention it, there are other Arthurian references tickling my brain, but I can’t remember what they were or where they were found. Anyone have a better memory than I do right now?