# Titles From Literature

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-from-literature/331655>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 18, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-from-literature/331655 "2005-11-18T16:04:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-from-literature/331655/41 "2005-11-29T02:45:16Z")

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“Devices and Desires” by P. D. James comes from the Anglican (and Episcopal) Book of Common Prayer: “We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own heart.”

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**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-from-literature/331655/42 "2005-11-29T14:45:26Z")

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“Seven Times Never Kill Man” (George R R Martin) is from The Jungle Book by Kipling

“Her Smoke Rose up Forever” (Tiptree) is from the Book of Revelations

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-from-literature/331655/43 "2005-11-29T15:00:20Z")

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One of the more surprising cases I’ve found is Cordwainer Smith’s classic Science Fiction stories “Scanners Live in Vain” apparently cops its title via some creative elaboration from an Anglican church hymn line “Scan His Love in Vain”. I get this from the NESFA Press book “A Cordwainer Smith Concordance”, which also tells me that the character “Casher O’Neill” derives from the name of a building in Cairo (!), the _Qas’r al Nil_.

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**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-from-literature/331655/44 "2005-11-29T15:14:37Z")

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Philip K Dick’s _A Scanner Darkly_ is taken from Corinthians, substituting ‘mirror’.

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