Ken Kesey: people are crazy, life is crazy, mental institutions are full of crazy people, but it can be funny too.
Any beat author: We go many places, do many drugs, and have sex with many people of both sexes.
He was the first person I thought of when I saw this thread. It’s not an exaggeration, I swear the good Fr Greeley has written the same book with the same characters 50 times. BTW he is not well after suffering a major head injury because of a fall.
David (and Leigh) Eddings: The fate of the world depends on the successful recovery of a blue jewel, and use of said jewel to kill evil god(s)
LE Modesitt Jr : Craftsman/artisan painstakingly learns their trade, then discovers they have magic powers and paintsakingly learn that too
Jean Auel: Mary Sue orphan foundling brings harmony to disparate tribes and human species while singlehandedly creating agriculture in between the times she’s not getting laid.
Robert B. Parker: Spenser (or male or female Spenser clone) takes on client/citizen in impossible mess and extracts client/citizen from mess while protecting the innocent, possibly slaying or imprisoning the bad guys, and behaving with honor at great personal cost, all while exploring the difficulties and rewards of close friendships and love relationships.
(Note that the formula in no way detracts from my enjoyment.)
bup
August 4, 2010, 4:11pm
89
digs:
P. G. Wodehouse:
What ho, as I am often wont to say, there appears to be the inevitable Young Duffer: a Bean, a Crumpet, a Wooster, a Fink-Nottle, you know the sort, and when I say you know the sort I’m assuming you know the sort that, though he has tasked himself with spreading the good word that all’s right with the world (and there was something else supporting that proposition, some lark on the wing, and I believe there was a snail as well, though what a snail would have to do with the whole mess is more than I can be relied on to explain), this duffer is constantly finding himself Up Against It and when I say It that’s only because that’s really the only word for It, coming as It does from a variety of sources: an unnecessarily competitive clambake organized by an overzealous Dowager Aunt, a completely innocent misunderstanding regarding the juxtaposition of the old Upper Lip and the cheek of a Previous Paramour in the presence of her Newly Betrothed Rugby Halfback and her Chief Constable Father, or perchance one of those what do they call them these days ah, yes, the Jumble Fair complete with minstrels in blackface wherein our youthful zealot must avoid the vengeful Lord Cobblepot or whoever is after him in the completely misplaced belief that our young Odysseus has enough rascality to have pinched an antique cow creamer and I do realize that it doesn’t sound much, put that way, but you may well gather from the lengthy account that it’s practically equivalent to one of those Russian Classics what with all the class conflict and so on but Not To Worry or Raise The Old B.P., the aforementioned rightness of the world is restored by tome’s end through a judicious application of the old oh, what is the word I’m casting about for now, perhaps the old… elbow grease, no, and not bootstraps, I do know that much, well, remember that lark that was on the wing, ah, assuming for a moment that the entire middle two-thirds of the adventure had said bird somewhere besides the wing, perhaps gagged in an opium den in Manchester perhaps, but suddenly, three pages from the end when you’re sure that the old scrivener has dropped the cake in the sink so to speak this time you suddenly catch a glimpse of a wing and say Ho, there seems to be a lark upon it, and there in the grass is that snail on… a thistle, or wherever a snail might be content and all is indeed right with the world and our Young Duffer is again free to spread a modicum of sweetness and light.
This one shouldn’t count, because I’m pretty sure you just copied and pasted the entirety of Jeeves Saves the Day . Or maybe Bertie’s Big Kerfluffle .
Seriously, best of thread.
… and then get saved by a magical negro/retard.
Zsofia
August 4, 2010, 4:15pm
91
Some comedian says that every Amy Tan book is “My husband, he bad man!”
Michael Crichton: Five scientists enter…two leave.
Brian Jaques… did I spell his name right? The Redwall guy. Anyway…
Plucky mouse/hare/badger saves the day from evil stoat/weasel/fox/rat, aided by Martin.
digs
August 4, 2010, 5:13pm
94
bup:
digs:
P. G. Wodehouse:
What ho, as I am often wont to say, there appears to be the inevitable Young Duffer: a Bean, a Crumpet, a Wooster, a Fink-Nottle, you know the sort, and when I say you know the sort I’m assuming you know the sort that, though he has tasked himself with spreading the good word that all’s right with the world (and there was something else supporting that proposition, some lark on the wing, and I believe there was a snail as well, though what a snail would have to do with the whole mess is more than I can be relied on to explain), this duffer is constantly finding himself Up Against It and when I say It that’s only because that’s really the only word for It, coming as It does from a variety of sources: an unnecessarily competitive clambake organized by an overzealous Dowager Aunt, a completely innocent misunderstanding regarding the juxtaposition of the old Upper Lip and the cheek of a Previous Paramour in the presence of her Newly Betrothed Rugby Halfback and her Chief Constable Father, or perchance one of those what do they call them these days ah, yes, the Jumble Fair complete with minstrels in blackface wherein our youthful zealot must avoid the vengeful Lord Cobblepot or whoever is after him in the completely misplaced belief that our young Odysseus has enough rascality to have pinched an antique cow creamer and I do realize that it doesn’t sound much, put that way, but you may well gather from the lengthy account that it’s practically equivalent to one of those Russian Classics what with all the class conflict and so on but Not To Worry or Raise The Old B.P., the aforementioned rightness of the world is restored by tome’s end through a judicious application of the old oh, what is the word I’m casting about for now, perhaps the old… elbow grease, no, and not bootstraps, I do know that much, well, remember that lark that was on the wing, ah, assuming for a moment that the entire middle two-thirds of the adventure had said bird somewhere besides the wing, perhaps gagged in an opium den in Manchester perhaps, but suddenly, three pages from the end when you’re sure that the old scrivener has dropped the cake in the sink so to speak this time you suddenly catch a glimpse of a wing and say Ho, there seems to be a lark upon it, and there in the grass is that snail on… a thistle, or wherever a snail might be content and all is indeed right with the world and our Young Duffer is again free to spread a modicum of sweetness and light.
This one shouldn’t count, because I’m pretty sure you just copied and pasted the entirety of Jeeves Saves the Day . Or maybe Bertie’s Big Kerfluffle .
Seriously, best of thread.
Thank you. I wish I could’ve cut-n-pasted. Instead I ended up staying up way too late channelling my inner Wooster.
Hmmm… would I be deafened by a whooshing sound if I went and looked up Bertie’s Big Kerfluffle ?
Chrisopher Moore: According to Biff, the stupidest angel bites the sequined love nun, who releases the bloodsucking fiends; it was a dirty job (some would say a fluke), but some fool had to appease the lust lizard.
Morbo
August 4, 2010, 5:36pm
96
Hunter S. Thompson: Dude, I’m tripping my balls off!!
Henry O: Once upon a time there was a place where there liv–SURPRISE!!!
Gary Jennings:
Character from an exotic culture and time period narrates life of travelling the land, engaging in depraved sex and witnessing grotesque violence.
Lewis Carroll: It was all a dream, folks.
Brilliant!
Philip K. Dick: Hapless hero hallucinates plot.
Tom Clancy: Dashingly handsome conservative man saves American hegemony despite being undercut repeatedly by pinko liberals at every turn.