# Literary Works Instantly Identifiable By A Single Image **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2007, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595 "2007-02-25T08:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/21 "2007-02-25T18:10:40Z")
A young girl sitting at the train station, her hair in two braids and dressed a little shabbily with a battered carpetbag next to her. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/22 "2007-02-25T18:28:48Z")
[QUOTE=JoeSki] A large blob of a man sitting by a lake off a dirt road with a short well defined man on a beautiful day. [/QUOTE] Christ, I hate to admit it, but I’m getting nothing from this. What work does it depict? Preparing to kick myself after I hear the answer… Sir Rhosis Is it Lenny and George? I’d draw them in an open field or a barn, though. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/23 "2007-02-25T18:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Christ, I hate to admit it, but I’m getting nothing from this. What work does it depict? Preparing to kick myself after I hear the answer… Sir Rhosis Is it Lenny and George? I’d draw them in an open field or a barn, though. [/QUOTE] I think at the end of the book they are by a lake. My memory could be off though. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/24 "2007-02-25T18:42:23Z")
^^^Could be right. Been years since I read OMAM, and seemed to remember that (just in case someone hasn’t read it) George shot and killed Lenny as they sat in a barn. Am I even remembering correctly that the intelligent one was named George? Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/25 "2007-02-25T18:45:22Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] It’s a stone torso in the desert. [/QUOTE] :gasps: _The **missing torso** of Ozymandias_! Quite a find, huh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/26 "2007-02-25T18:49:26Z")
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso] The missing torso of Ozymandias. Quite a find, huh? 🙂 [/QUOTE] You bet. And one of Napoleon’s soldiers shot his nose off, too. Bummer. ---
**Author:** ![ArdentAgentApples](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@ArdentAgentApples](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArdentAgentApples)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/27 "2007-02-25T19:06:24Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] The hologram of a small bald man in a wheelchair. [/QUOTE] Professor Xavier? 😉 (I’m kidding!) ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/28 "2007-02-25T19:41:37Z")
A small, raggedly dressed boy holding up an empty bowl Two men, one tall and thin on horseback, the other fat and riding a donkey A woman flying through the sky suspended by an open umbrella ---
**Author:** ![aclubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@aclubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aclubs)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/29 "2007-02-25T20:06:25Z")
Biblical literature is particularly loaded with such images: A naked man and woman in a lush garden, with an apple and a snake. A body of water being separated into two, with a large mass of people walking in the middle. A golden calf. A burning bush. Two stone tablets. A battle between a little guy with nothing but a sling and a huge guy with lots of armor. A guy looking out his window at a woman taking a bath. A man and a king looking at strange writing on a wall. A man, woman, and baby in a barn. A guy walking on water in a storm. And, of course, three dudes being crucified. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/30 "2007-02-25T20:17:02Z")
An old man with long grey hair and a beard in a grey robe, armed with a sword and a staff. He stands on a stone bridge, facing a flaming demonic being. A man with fangs in formal clothing holding a woman in old style English clothing who has two bleeding marks on her neck. A man with pointed ears, black skin, white hair, and red eyes holding a scimitar in either hand, with a black panther next to him. A man on a white horse with blue eyes, facing a pass filled with a huge army all in black armor. A bowman aiming a black arrow at a vast red dragon flying far overhead. A furred snake with the head of a cat. A young man with a huge sword covered in blue flames, facing a man in black robes and a steel mask, wielding a black sword. A small, pretty woman with black hair, flanked by a handsome man, and another man who is handsome on one side, and terribly scarred on the other. A young red headed man with a winged snake. A man with a knife falling out of an opening in his arm into his hand. A man with the head of a jackal facing the huge black shadow of a horse. He holds a silver bridle in one hand. A long haired man armed with sword and rifle, riding what looks like a velociraptor, surrounded by larger aliens with four arms who are riding the same sort of creatures. A man in blue and black armor standing before a smallish bridge, wielding a M-16 in either hand. An army of skeletal riders is approaching.\* - If comic books count ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/31 "2007-02-25T23:20:09Z")
A door knocker that assumes the appearance of a man’s face. A woman knitting in Paris. A bishop in a church confronted by four men with swords. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/32 "2007-02-25T23:33:16Z")
A huge tripod firing a death ray. A huge cannon firing a spaceship toward the moon. A white man in a loincloth standing in a treetop, or swinging on a vine. A man in sunglasses unwrapping the top of his completely bandaged head to reveal…_nothing_ underneath! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/33 "2007-02-25T23:45:51Z")
An old man in a decrepit boat with a huge marlin strapped to the side. A shark ascending vertically, with gaping maw, toward an unsuspecting female swimmer. A wooden puppet with a very long nose. ---
**Author:** ![threnodyangelfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@threnodyangelfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threnodyangelfire)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/34 "2007-02-25T23:53:50Z")
A woman walking a small dog along the sea-front. ---
**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 26, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/35 "2007-02-26T00:19:40Z")
A bowman aiming an arrow at a boy with an apple on his head. A tropical island, where everything is frozen, including a man lying on his back and thumbing his nose. A Soviet prisoner. A giant iron submarine. A giant cannon at Cape Canaveral. Giant towering devices moving along on snakelike legs and sending out rays of heat. A boot stamping on a human face – for ever ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/36 "2007-02-26T00:54:50Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Is it Lenny and George? I’d draw them in an open field or a barn, though. [/QUOTE] Yup, and I do recall them chilling out by a lake (or river?) at the beggining of the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/37 "2007-02-26T00:57:54Z")
A young man with goat legs wearing a scarf and carrying some packages under his arm, standing in a snowy forest. A large billboard with a pair of spectacled eyes overlooking a valley of ash. A spider and a pig. A demon sitting at a typewriter. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/38 "2007-02-26T13:38:27Z")
A silouette of a woman with her arm raised to her shoulder, fist and teeth clenched. A guy on a gurney in a straightjacket wearing a hockey mask (that is one weird sentence). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/39 "2007-02-26T14:45:41Z")
A girl in a gingham dress, accompanied by a lion, a scarecrow, and a tin woodsman. (Or just a single flying monkey would do in a pinch.) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/40 "2007-02-26T14:54:53Z")
A large black bird sitting on a pallid bust of Pallas. The statuette of a black bird. A pigtailed girl on a bed with small dog in a house that’s sailing through the air above Kansas. A somewhat raggedy boy whitewashing a fence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595.md?page=3)