2162: Literary Opinions

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Literary Opinions

Title text: If I really focus, I can distinguish between John Steinbeck and John Updike, or between Gore Vidal and Vidal Sassoon, but not both at once.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Hunter S Thompson was high while writing it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Megan is telling Cueball about a literary opinion she has: She believes that William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Foster Wallace are different names for the same person. She then says that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (by Hunter S. Thompson) and Fight Club (by Chuck Palahniuk) are the same book with different covers. This could be as possible, as some books have different covers and titles in different regions. They are not the same book, though. Hunter S. Thompson was born in 1937 in Louisville, KY, and died in 2005. Chuck Palahniuk, on the other hand, was born in 1962 in Pasco, WA, and is still alive.

However, when Cueball says that he has both books and asks Megan if she wants to check, she says she does not, and continues by trying to tell Cueball another one of her opinions. This prompts Cueball to interrupt her, telling her that she should start a book club for discussing books she refuses to read. This implies that all her opinions are baseless, as she hasn't read any of the books she has opinions on.

Megan finishes telling him her opinion, which is that E.B. White and T.H. White are the same person. This is apparently an opinion that Cueball can agree with, as he tells her that he believes it. This is likely a joke that the two names are hard to distinguish due to the having the same last name with only initials instead of a first name. In reality, the books they authored are very different, with E.B. White writing children's books (Charlotte's Web, etc.) and T.H. White writing books about King Arthur (The Sword and the Stone, et al).

The title text continues with this, with Randall saying that he can distinguish between John Steinbeck and John Updike, as well as between Gore Vidal and Vidal Sassoon, but he can't do so simultaneously. Again this is likely due to the similarities in their names. Additionally, this could be a nod to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

To believe that different people are actually a same person is known as the Fregoli delusion; the person is usually believed to change appearance.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[Megan is walking with a finger raised toward Cueball, who is seated in a chair with a book.]

Megan: Literary opinion:

Megan: I firmly believe that William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Foster Wallace are different names for the same person.

Cueball: ...I see.

[Megan puts down her hand.]

Megan: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fight Club? Same book with different covers, I bet.

Cueball: I have both. Want to open them and check?

Megan: I do not.

[Cueball turns back to his book.]

Megan: Moving on: my next opinion--

Cueball: You should start a book club for discussing the books you refuse to read.

Megan: --is that E.B. White and T.H. White are the same person.

Cueball: Ok, that I believe.

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Discussion

let's see WS Burroughs = Tarzan, E.R. Burroughs = Naked Lunch. CS Lewis Carol Bruce Stirlling / SM Stirling

Is it just me, or was this comic released earlier than usual? Released just after midnight, EDT. Herobrine (talk) 08:30, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

It's just you.162.158.214.100 10:33, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it's unusally early. It happened before, but most of the time the new comics arrived in the late afternoon (central european time). This one was already up when I turned on my computer ~8am. --Lupo (talk) 11:54, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

As a night-owl in Randall's own time zone, who used to often catch up on Tuesday and Thursday nights (i.e. Before Wednesday and Friday comics, respectively), I can tell you that yes, the comic is released at midnight EST/EDT sometimes. Not that rarely, but not that commonly either. NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:50, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Is there any value in adding info about the authors mentioned? Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 13:17, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

I wanted to add "Elements of Style" to show T.H., er, E.B. (whichever ;-) was more than just a "children's book author". Probably not worth it.Afbach (talk)

I don't think this relates to the "Fregoli Delusion"(sp) - they think the same person is using more than one name. Afbach (talk)

Yeah, this feels more like pseudonyms than Frengoli to me.172.68.206.22 18:42, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

IDK, is it different, really? Even if you accept a writing pseudonym as being different than actually using different names, this could be seen as their writer side is using multiple names. :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:50, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Shouldn't we discuss authors with multiple pseudonyms? Like JK Rowling and Robert Galbraith, or Nora Roberts and JD Robb, etc... 172.68.143.144 16:44, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Glad I'm not the only one who confuses former US vice president Gore Vidal with Vidal Sassoon the war poet. ColinHogben (talk) 16:49, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

That's where I heard that name before! Afbach (talk)

Why would Megan pick those 4 authors to be the same person? What do they or their works have in common? It would be nice to cover that. (Not knowing anything about any of them, any theory I might advance would be about as valid as one of Megan's.) Bit of a long-shot, but I wonder if the link has anything to do with Randall's book tour competition. (He invites people to Write the best story using nothing but book covers.)[1] Any good story/sentence made up with works by those 4 authors? 162.158.107.55 22:13, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Did a search on all those author names together. Seems Wallace, Thompson, and Burroughs wrote books that have been tagged as dealing with drugs. (Hardly a unique characteristic, but might suggest some common thead.)

Literature map - searching for Hunter S Thompson, lists the other 3 in fairly close proximity. (i.e., people who indicated reading one of these are likely to have read works by others of these authors. For whatever reason.)

Anybody writing here actually read these authors? 162.158.106.144 18:01, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

These authors have all been identified as "favorite author for young, mostly white males who wants to be cool and also exude toxic masculinity and won't stop talking about them to be seen as smart/edgy with their books about graphic content and drug abuse". While they are in fact popular with those readers and that kinda sucks, they don't deserve to be criticized without reading them (and, in my opinion, see that those readers skip completly the point on generational malaise these authors make). Cueball dubitative reaction and proposition to see what are the differences inside the books, plus the phrase about "a book club for the books you refuse to read", seems to be a rejection of the fact that some people are amalgaming this toxic readership with the books/authors themselves, and in reaction refuse to read them and see them as having the same content or ideology (they don't).

How about the theory that Mary Pearson, Andre Norton, Andrew North, Allen Weston, and M. D. Herter are the same person. ;-) 162.158.106.144 22:31, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Should trivia link it to 923: Strunk and White which also mentions E.B. white.? --Lupo (talk) 08:32, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

Done! Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 11:54, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks :) I had to note this down somewhere to not forget it, when the though struck me, but didn't have time for a proper edit... --Lupo (talk) 12:17, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

I got your back, Jack...er, Lupo! ;-) Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 12:42, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

I also back-linked from that comic to this one in a Trivia entry as well. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 12:43, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

I think this has to be viewed from one step back, i.e., it is not necessarily about books or writers, but rather a take on people who form and voice opinions without proper knowledge of the facts, even if the facts are very easily researchable. This happens A LOT in forum postings, e.g., when there is an article about some scientific dicovery on a popular news site, and then people start discussing (and fighting) about that discovery in the forums for this article. These discussions are more often than not based purely on speculation, without anyone bothering to check the original publication on which the article was based, or even without any specialist knowledge about the subject matter at hand. --162.158.89.19 09:54, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

E.B. and T.H. are distinguishable as one wrote a children's book ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") and the other wrote James Bond novels. Oh wait, that was Ian Fleming. James Bond was the author of "Birds of the West Indies." I think the explanation of various audiences and subject matter does not disambiguate authors. See "Ambrose, Gardner and Doyle" by Raymond Smullyan. [Comet] 06:00, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Similar ideas to comics 1970 and the title text on 1277. Should definitely be mentioned in the explanation. Probably not Douglas Hofstadter (talk) 04:06, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

How about AA Milne and EA Milne. CR, Virginia