Literature references that whooshed you as a child

[JohnT]

Not very literary, but for years I would ocassionally ruminate about the maddening brain teaser that was the following joke:

“If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?”
“Pilgrims!”

WTF X 10.

I was 11, sitting in a KFC in Bellaire Plaza in Daytona Beach when I finally got it.

… oh. :smack:

[Raguleader]

@Lissa

Today, few people outside of a classroom setting read Shakespeare. They may have seen a play or a movie once or twice, but that’s not usually enough to be able to quote it like people quote Pulp Fiction.

Hmm… I wonder if people used to quote Shakespeare or Homer or whoever like people quote Monty Python and Quintin Tarentino nowadays?

[Raguleader]

Oh, and not quite having to do with literature, but I didn’t realize just exactly how much stuff was going on in Hunt For Red October (which I must have watched 8000 times as a kid) until I was in my teens, and realized little things like how the Russian attack sub commander really really liked the main Russian captain, even if the main guy didn’t have much nice to say about him in return.

[Rodgers01]

@Raguleader

Oh, and not quite having to do with literature, but I didn’t realize just exactly how much stuff was going on in Hunt For Red October (which I must have watched 8000 times as a kid) until I was in my teens, and realized little things like how the Russian attack sub commander really really liked the main Russian captain, even if the main guy didn’t have much nice to say about him in return.

I’ve only seen it once, so I don’t remember it all that clearly, but what are you talking about here?

[Wile_E]

@Raguleader

Hmm… I wonder if people used to quote Shakespeare or Homer or whoever like people quote Monty Python and Quintin Tarentino nowadays?

People still quote Homer a lot these days.

Homer Simpson.

[Raguleader]

@Rodgers01

I’ve only seen it once, so I don’t remember it all that clearly, but what are you talking about here?

You know the Russian Alfa sub sent to sink Red October after Captain Ramius (Sean Connery) decided to defect? The captain of the sub, Tupolev, was a student of Captain Ramius’s at some point previous (Ramius is said to have trained much of the Soviet sub fleet’s captains). When he is given his orders to sink Red October. Tupolev remarks bitterly that they’re on their way to kill a friend.

Earlier in the movie, while he is having tea with his political officer and reviewing their orders for the mission (testing out the sub’s stealth engines with the Soviet Fleet trying to find them), the political officer mentions the involvement of Tupolev’s ship, and remarks that Captain Tupolev has a special place in his heart for Ramius, and Ramius replies that Tupolev doesn’t have room for anyone in his heart except himself, suggesting that the admiration doesn’t go both ways.

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

Not exactly high falootin-ness here, but the Far Side comics by Gary Larson used to have me scratching my head sometimes at the subject matter. I’d have to ask dad or look it up on my own to be able to get the joke sometimes.