# A literary/cinema game **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670 "2003-02-21T23:48:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/1 "2003-02-21T23:48:00Z")
From “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T. S. Eliot: Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to [eat a peach](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0090993)? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. [I have heard the mermaids singing](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093239), each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown [Till human voices wake us](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0240980), and we drown. That’s three movie titles in ten lines of poetry. And that’s the game: Find movie titles in snippets taken form poems, song lyrics, or prose - but the the title of the poem, song, or prose doesn’t count. (I mean, otherwise we’d have to include every book adaptation.) Of course, the more in one snippet, the merrier. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/2 "2003-02-21T23:56:20Z")
[Out of Africa](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0219_030219_outofafrica.html) A pretty obvious one from Hamlet:\* But that the dread of something after death, [The undiscovered country](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0102975) , from whose bourne No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.\* ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/3 "2003-02-22T00:07:28Z")
For books, there’s this: Andrew Marvell To his Coy Mistress HAD we but **World enough, and Time** , (novel by Robert Penn Warren; also a couple of sf short stories) This coyness Lady were no crime. … And you should if you please refuse Till the **Conversion of the Jews** (Novel by Philip Roth) My vegetable Love should grow **Vaster then Empires, and more slow** (Story by Ursula LeGuin) … And your quaint Honour turn to dust; And into ashes all my Lust. The Grave’s **a fine and private place** , (novel by Ellery Queen) But none I think do there embrace. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/4 "2003-02-22T00:13:38Z")
[To be, or not to be](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0035446): that is [the question](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0075118): Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The [slings and arrows](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0286124) of [outrageous fortune](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0093690) Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end [them](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0047573)? ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/5 "2003-02-22T00:24:41Z")
[To die, to sleep](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0105605); To sleep, [perchance to dream](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0121634): ay, there’s the rub; For in that [sleep of death](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0077567) [what dreams may come](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120889) When we have shuffled off [this mortal coil](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll), must give us pause… ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/6 "2003-02-22T00:38:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TGWATY \* > But that the dread of something after death, > [The undiscovered country](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0102975) , from whose bourne > No traveler returns, puzzles the will, > And makes us rather bear those ills we have, > Than fly to others that we know not of. \*\* It’s not a movie title, but it’s surely no great surprise that someone has used [No Traveller Returns](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0912388056/qid%3D1045874128/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-9605512-5006212) as a book title. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/7 "2003-02-22T00:38:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > And your quaint Honour turn to dust; > And into ashes all my Lust. > The Grave’s **a fine and private place** , (novel by Ellery Queen) > But none I think do there embrace. Not a bad choice at all, but there’s [a far better novel](http://home.tiac.net/~cri/1997/finepriv.html) of the same name by Peter S. Beagle. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-literary-cinema-game/156670/8 "2003-02-22T00:43:25Z")
More thoughts…on ones almost the same "[I must be cruel only to be kind](http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palace/2009/CruelKind.html) " –Shakespeare, Hamlet “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took [the one less traveled](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743243153/qid=1045874483/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-9988621-8394346?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by…” –Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” Shakespeare is a lode of literature titles, as is the Bible. More posted when I think of them (it’s Friday night, and I’m ready to sleep…)