12-book meme
Mar. 27th, 2012 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herumtreiberI snagged this meme from my good friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
intimisky.
Here's what it's about:
a. Below there are twelve fragments of books I've read and have at hand in my library.
b. If you want to play, what's the title of each book and its author? If it's a series, what's the name and in which specific book is the fragment?
c. You cannot google character names or sentences, but if you do happen to recall the title but not the author, google away!
d. In a later post I'll publish the results (meanwhile, the comments will be screened)
.01
Arthur materialized, and did so with all the customary staggering about and clasping at his throat, heart and various limbs which he still indulged himself in whenever he made any of these hateful and painful materializations that he was determined not to let himself get used to.
He looked around for the others.
They weren't there.
He looked around for the others again.
They still weren't there.
He closed his eyes.
He opened them
He looked around for the others.
They obstinately persisted in their absence.
.02
"You have seen the future, Paul," Jessica said. "Will you say what you've seen?"
"Not the future," he said. "I've seen the Now." He forced himself to a sitting position, waved Chani aside as she moved to help him. "The Space above Arrakis is filled with the ships of the Guild."
Jessica trembled at the certainty in his voice.
"The Padishah Emperor himself is there," Paul said. He looked at the rock ceiling of his cell. "With his favorite Truthsayer and five legions of Sardaukar. The old Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is there with Thufir Hawat beside him and seven ships jammed with every conscript he could muster. Every Great House has its raiders above us . . . waiting."
.03
As far as Trout knew, this word meant higher in a dead language. It was also a thing a fictitious mountain climber in a famous poem kept yelling as he disappeared into a blizzard up above. And it was also the trade name for wood shavings which were used to protect fragile objects inside packages.
“Why would anybody name a fire extinguisher Excelsior?” Trout asked the driver.
.04
The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.
One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.
Man’s last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.
Man said, “AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?”
AC said, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”
.05
In 1206 the citizens of Amiens, Picardy’s proud and prosperous capital, already a commune for a hundred years, acquired a piece of John the Baptist’s head. As a fitting shrine for the relic, they determined to build the largest church in France, “higher than all the saints, higher than all the kings.” By 1220, resources having been gathered, the noble vault of the cathedral was steadily rising. Within the same decade Enguerrand III built, alongside his donjon, a grandiose and magnificent chapel, larger than the Sainte Chapelle that St. Louis was to build in Paris a few years later. Vaulted and gilded and rich in carving and color, it glowed with stained-glass windows so beautiful that the greatest collector of the next century, Jean, Duc de Berry, tried to buy them for 12,000 gold ecus.
.06
I would never describe my cousins as bullies; they were good-natured, rambunctious roughnecks and daredevils who genuinely wanted me to have fun - but fun in the north country was not what I was used to in my life with the women at Front Street, Gravesend. I did not wrestle with my grandmother or box with Lydia, not even when she had both her legs. I did play croquet with my mother, but croquet is not a contact sport.
.07
Desgraciadamente, aquella mañana del miércoles 14 de abril del año del Señor 1204, es decir, seismilsetecientosdoce desde el principio del mundo, como se usaba calcular en Bizancio, hacía dos días que los bárbaros se habían apoderado definitivamente de Constantinopla. El ejército bizantino, tan rutilante de armaduras y de escudos y de yelmos cuando desfilaba, y la guardia imperial de los mercenarios ingleses y daneses, armados con sus terribles segures, que todavía el viernes habían resistido batiéndose con arrojo, cedieron el lunes, cuando los enemigos, por fin, habían violado las murallas.
.08
"I guess I have," Trashcan Man said with a weak smile. He was already willing to lay down his life for Lloyd Henreid. Gathering up all of his courage, he pointed at the stone which lay in the hollow of Lloyd's throat. "That-"
"Yeah, us guys who are sort of in charge all wear 'em."
.09
It was a rude realization. It made Akki feel more like a client than he ever had in the mixed, egalitarian colony of Calafia.
The discovery did help in one way, though. It gave him a primitive satisfaction in his act of mutiny. Legalistically, he was committing a serious crime, abandoning the ship to make contact with Gillian Baskin against specific orders from the acting captain.
But now Akki felt he knew the truth; he was a member of a crew of imitation spacemen. There was no way, short of Creideiki miraculously recovering, that they were going to get out of this mess without intervention by their patrons.
.10
Llegué a la casa de los abuelos a las once de la noche; ya estaban durmiendo. Me dejaban siempre la comida en el horno, pero esta vez, además del plato de apanado con arroz y huevo frito - mi invariable menú - había un mensaje escrito con letra temblona: "Llamó tu tío Lucho. Que dejaste plantada a Julita, que tenían que ir al cine. Que eres un salvaje, que la llames para disculparte: el Abuelo".
Pensé que olvidarse de los boletines y de una cita con una dama por el escriba boliviano era demasiado. Me acosté incómodo y malhumorado por mi involuntaria malacrianza.
.11
Burton's steak was very tender, although he would have preferred it rare. On the other hand, Frigate complained because it was not cooked enough.
"Evidently, these grails do not contain menus tailored for the individual owner," Frigate said. "Which may be why we men also get lipstick and the women got pipes. It's a mass production."
"Two miracles in one day," Burton said. "That is, if they are such. I prefer a rational explanation and intend to get it. I don't think anyone can, as yet, tell me how we were resurrected. But perhaps you twentieth-centurians have a reasonable theory for the seemingly magical appearance of these articles in a previously empty container?"
.12
Pasan las nubes
Y el cielo queda limpio
De toda culpa
El río avanza
Con los cisnes estáticos
Y vanidosos
intimisky.Here's what it's about:
a. Below there are twelve fragments of books I've read and have at hand in my library.
b. If you want to play, what's the title of each book and its author? If it's a series, what's the name and in which specific book is the fragment?
c. You cannot google character names or sentences, but if you do happen to recall the title but not the author, google away!
d. In a later post I'll publish the results (meanwhile, the comments will be screened)
.01
Arthur materialized, and did so with all the customary staggering about and clasping at his throat, heart and various limbs which he still indulged himself in whenever he made any of these hateful and painful materializations that he was determined not to let himself get used to.
He looked around for the others.
They weren't there.
He looked around for the others again.
They still weren't there.
He closed his eyes.
He opened them
He looked around for the others.
They obstinately persisted in their absence.
.02
"You have seen the future, Paul," Jessica said. "Will you say what you've seen?"
"Not the future," he said. "I've seen the Now." He forced himself to a sitting position, waved Chani aside as she moved to help him. "The Space above Arrakis is filled with the ships of the Guild."
Jessica trembled at the certainty in his voice.
"The Padishah Emperor himself is there," Paul said. He looked at the rock ceiling of his cell. "With his favorite Truthsayer and five legions of Sardaukar. The old Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is there with Thufir Hawat beside him and seven ships jammed with every conscript he could muster. Every Great House has its raiders above us . . . waiting."
.03
As far as Trout knew, this word meant higher in a dead language. It was also a thing a fictitious mountain climber in a famous poem kept yelling as he disappeared into a blizzard up above. And it was also the trade name for wood shavings which were used to protect fragile objects inside packages.
“Why would anybody name a fire extinguisher Excelsior?” Trout asked the driver.
.04
The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.
One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.
Man’s last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.
Man said, “AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?”
AC said, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”
.05
In 1206 the citizens of Amiens, Picardy’s proud and prosperous capital, already a commune for a hundred years, acquired a piece of John the Baptist’s head. As a fitting shrine for the relic, they determined to build the largest church in France, “higher than all the saints, higher than all the kings.” By 1220, resources having been gathered, the noble vault of the cathedral was steadily rising. Within the same decade Enguerrand III built, alongside his donjon, a grandiose and magnificent chapel, larger than the Sainte Chapelle that St. Louis was to build in Paris a few years later. Vaulted and gilded and rich in carving and color, it glowed with stained-glass windows so beautiful that the greatest collector of the next century, Jean, Duc de Berry, tried to buy them for 12,000 gold ecus.
.06
I would never describe my cousins as bullies; they were good-natured, rambunctious roughnecks and daredevils who genuinely wanted me to have fun - but fun in the north country was not what I was used to in my life with the women at Front Street, Gravesend. I did not wrestle with my grandmother or box with Lydia, not even when she had both her legs. I did play croquet with my mother, but croquet is not a contact sport.
.07
Desgraciadamente, aquella mañana del miércoles 14 de abril del año del Señor 1204, es decir, seismilsetecientosdoce desde el principio del mundo, como se usaba calcular en Bizancio, hacía dos días que los bárbaros se habían apoderado definitivamente de Constantinopla. El ejército bizantino, tan rutilante de armaduras y de escudos y de yelmos cuando desfilaba, y la guardia imperial de los mercenarios ingleses y daneses, armados con sus terribles segures, que todavía el viernes habían resistido batiéndose con arrojo, cedieron el lunes, cuando los enemigos, por fin, habían violado las murallas.
.08
"I guess I have," Trashcan Man said with a weak smile. He was already willing to lay down his life for Lloyd Henreid. Gathering up all of his courage, he pointed at the stone which lay in the hollow of Lloyd's throat. "That-"
"Yeah, us guys who are sort of in charge all wear 'em."
.09
It was a rude realization. It made Akki feel more like a client than he ever had in the mixed, egalitarian colony of Calafia.
The discovery did help in one way, though. It gave him a primitive satisfaction in his act of mutiny. Legalistically, he was committing a serious crime, abandoning the ship to make contact with Gillian Baskin against specific orders from the acting captain.
But now Akki felt he knew the truth; he was a member of a crew of imitation spacemen. There was no way, short of Creideiki miraculously recovering, that they were going to get out of this mess without intervention by their patrons.
.10
Llegué a la casa de los abuelos a las once de la noche; ya estaban durmiendo. Me dejaban siempre la comida en el horno, pero esta vez, además del plato de apanado con arroz y huevo frito - mi invariable menú - había un mensaje escrito con letra temblona: "Llamó tu tío Lucho. Que dejaste plantada a Julita, que tenían que ir al cine. Que eres un salvaje, que la llames para disculparte: el Abuelo".
Pensé que olvidarse de los boletines y de una cita con una dama por el escriba boliviano era demasiado. Me acosté incómodo y malhumorado por mi involuntaria malacrianza.
.11
Burton's steak was very tender, although he would have preferred it rare. On the other hand, Frigate complained because it was not cooked enough.
"Evidently, these grails do not contain menus tailored for the individual owner," Frigate said. "Which may be why we men also get lipstick and the women got pipes. It's a mass production."
"Two miracles in one day," Burton said. "That is, if they are such. I prefer a rational explanation and intend to get it. I don't think anyone can, as yet, tell me how we were resurrected. But perhaps you twentieth-centurians have a reasonable theory for the seemingly magical appearance of these articles in a previously empty container?"
.12
Pasan las nubes
Y el cielo queda limpio
De toda culpa
El río avanza
Con los cisnes estáticos
Y vanidosos
no subject
Date: 2012-03-27 06:04 pm (UTC)1. Something by Douglas Adams, though I'm guessing not the first book of the Hitchhiker's Guide series -- Arthur sounds too well-travelled. Perhaps The Restaurant at the End of the Universe?
3. Breakfast of Champions, most likely, as it's the Vonnegut book I remember being most focussed on Kilgore Trout.
8. The Stand, Stephen King. Thank goodness there's one I feel confident about!
A couple more sound familiar, but only vaguely, which means that I only read those books once (or perhaps heard others talk about them?).
no subject
Date: 2012-03-27 07:23 pm (UTC)2. Yay! It's the Breakfast of Champions, and Kilgore Trout does his stuff!
3. Yes! The Stand by Stephen King.
Congratulations!
Half of them are science-fiction, so you might have read them or heard about them.
Thank you for playing!!