A recent favorite: Cowboys and Aliens
It’s cheap and disposable, but dang if it doesn’t get everyone’s attention.
I also like the titles in the fantasy trilogy by Elizabeth Bear:
All the Windwracked Stars
By the Mountain Bound
The Sea thy Mistress
Really lyrical and epic.
I think titles with the annoying “or” in them are self-important and stupid.
Some favorites that I really don’t know the underlying appeal for:
A Streetcar Named Desire
As I Lay Dying
Blood on the Moon
Cool Hand Luke
I, The Jury
Riders on the Storm
I tend to prefer longer titles:
**They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? ** Memorable and mysterious (until you see the film).
You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish
"‘Repent Harlequin,’ Said the Ticktockman. (Harlan Ellison)
James Tiptree, Jr. was great with titles:
“Love is the Plan; The Plan is Death”
“The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats”
“And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side.”
“I’ll Be Waiting for You When the Swimming Pool is Empty”
So was Cordwainer Smith:
“Scanners Live in Vain.”
“The Game of Rat and Dragon”
“Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons”
“The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal”
“Golden the Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh!”
And, finally R. A. Lafferty:
“Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas”
“Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne.”
“Incased in Ancient Rind”
“Euremia’s Dam” (especially clever when you understand what it means).
“Among the Hairy Earthmen”
“Camels and Dromedaries, Clem.”
Criss Angel is a Douchebag is one of my favorite titles. It’s an episode of Supernatural and it is hilarious.
My favorite was for a paper I did (yes, I’m favorite-ing myself) for college. My paper was about how important Thomas Paine was to the American Revolution and the title was “No Paine, No Gain.”
Hardly gets better than “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” by Ellison.
It’s lyrical, intriguing, memorable and …
literal. A title that’s also the shocking last line of the story
I’m not such a big fan of Robert Rankin (despite Terry Pratchett’s approbation), but boy does he have a knack for wacky titles. Some examples:
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse
Raiders of the Lost Car Park
Sex, Drugs, and Sausage Rolls
The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag
Armageddon: The Musical
The Suburban Book of the Dead
Nostadamus Ate my Hamster
The Da-da-de-da-da Code
Isn’t that from a famous poem or something?
Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday
More Cordwainer Smith:
“Think Blue, Count Two”
“The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All”
“Himself in Anachron”
“The Dead Lady of Clown Town”
“Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”
“I’ll take famous titties for $400!”
I don’t know about that, but plenty of excellent titles were originally lines from other works:
“The Winter of our Discontent”
“No Country for Old Men”
“To Sail Beyond the Sunset”
When I first saw the title “The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant” I thought I must rent this DVD. I don’t know why.
But it opened up a whole new world to me - Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
I prefer to rent disk for this sort but I see adverts which indicate one may be able to view Fassbinder on Hulu premium.
I like Christopher Moore’s titles, especially his vampire trilogy:[ul][]Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story[]You Suck: A Love Story[*]Bite Me: A Love Story[/ul]Moore writes humorous “genre” fiction, so these all fit well (and “You suck!” is actually the first line of that novel, if I remember correctly). And who could forget Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal?
Oh yeah. :smack: How could I forget Christopher “Island of the Sequined Love Nun” Moore?
PS. “Fluke: or I Know Why The Winged Whale Sings”
Yes, by Keats.