# Greatm Unsurpassed Work, Clunky Title **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151 "2003-12-01T01:44:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/1 "2003-12-01T01:44:04Z")
This thread will cover great works of literature and music, with titles that can be quite off-putting. It either derails off the toungue track, or refers to something common during a time that passed, or simply head scratching. You can mention the title to the ignorant, and they would laugh. The champion of this is one of the great poems of all time, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, by T.S. Eliot. The initializing of the person’s name comes from the way Thomas Stearns initialized his own name in his works. ‘Prufrock’ is a made up last name, ‘pru’ being a play on terms like ‘prudent’, and frock, a thin body covering. “The Love Song” part is, of course ironic. Please place more on this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/2 "2003-12-01T02:03:12Z")
I nominate this thread title. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/3 "2003-12-01T04:24:07Z")
Ahh! please change it, mods. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/4 "2003-12-01T05:36:04Z")
Cats! ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/5 "2003-12-01T06:38:29Z")
Was is the source of your information about _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_? I think that it is one of the more memorable titles in literature and carefully sculpted. In my opinion, the J. Alfred Prufrock sounds exceedingly impersonal and cold. I can’t imagine anyone with that name burning with passion. But I don’t think the man is cold at all. Maybe numb. But he knows about the call of the sirens. _A Modest Proposal_ didn’t sound like something that would interest me at all – and that was part of the shock of it. It seemed from the title to be so innocuous. That was part of its deviousness: It suckers you in. Of course by the time I began to grasp what his proposal was, my chin was on the ground. Very effective piece. ---
**Author:** ![Hot\_Buttered\_Toast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b38774/32.png) [@Hot\_Buttered\_Toast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hot_Buttered_Toast)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/6 "2003-12-01T06:47:12Z")
I’m not sure about “unsurpassed”, but “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick is extremely clunky. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/7 "2003-12-01T07:31:20Z")
“Repent, Harlequin! Said the Tick-Tock Man” - Harlan Ellison ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/8 "2003-12-01T14:55:55Z")
For truly ugly, awkward titles, look to recent movies. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ---
**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:** [December 1, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatm-unsurpassed-work-clunky-title/216151/9 "2003-12-01T15:39:09Z")
Long titles are not necessarily clunky; Harlan Ellison often used long titles that were perfect: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream The Beast the Shouted Love at the Heart of the World Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54’ N, Longitude 77° 00’ 13" W The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty James Tiptree, Jr. also was good with them: Love is the Plan, the Plan was Death Forever to a Hudson’s Bay Blanket And I Awoke to Find Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side (which is a truly great title for the story) Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight There was also: The Last – This is It, No More – The Last Deal with the Devil Story (don’t recall the author, but the title has stuck with me) Maybe Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, Was a Little Bit Right – Robin Scott Wilson (as Robin Scott) Time Considered as a Helix of Semiprecious Stones – Samuel R. Delany The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas – Ursula K. LeGuin Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang – Kate Wilhelm Twenty-four Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai – Roger Zelazny Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers – Lawrence Watt-Evans Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another – Robert Silverberg