What Major Misconceptions Did You Have About Creative Works?

[Penfeather]

@Wakinyan

Until I read him, I would never have guessed that Dostoyevsky was funny.

Nor Huysmans neither; there’s a hilarious passage in A Rebours about Des Esseintes, the epicene aesthete protagonist, deciding that his turtle is too drab and needs gilding and inlaying with rare gems in order to set off the carpet: there follows paages of lavishly sensual description of the types of jewels, at the end of which he ever-so-off-handedly mentions that the turtle died.

[elfkin477]

I assumed that All Quiet on the Western Front was about battling native Americans out in the US west during the 1800s, maybe about Custer or something similar. Oops, turns out that “western front” actually means something specific.

[Koxinga]

@Robot_Arm

“The pretty one is the clone.”
<simultaneously>“I am not.”

Hard to believe I remember that.

[Penfeather]

@Dale_Sams

I remember a couple of lines. Now see if you remember any jokes from “Quark” or “When Things Were Rotten”.

When Things Were Rotten was a great show; I can still sing the theme song:

They laughed, they loved, they fought, they drank,
They jumped a lot of fences,
They robbed the rich, gave to the poor
Except what they kept for expenses

[Maserschmidt]

@Penfeather

When Things Were Rotten was a great show; I can still sing the theme song:

They laughed, they loved, they fought, they drank,
They jumped a lot of fences,
They robbed the rich, gave to the poor
Except what they kept for expenses

Misty Rowe. Wait, there was other stuff?

[Fair_Rarity]

I thought Dr. Strangelove was just a satire, but I had no idea it would go beyond that into hilarity. I knew it would be humorous, maybe snarky and wry, but not laugh out loud funny.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

Before I ever saw “Birth of a Nation,” I thought it might have something to do with the American Revolution.

[Annie-Xmas]

I always thought Catch-22 was a real thing. I was astonished to find out Joseph Heller made it up for the book.

[Animastryfe]

@njtt

Yes, Holmes’ cocaine use is very explicit in The Sign of the Four, but I think there is very little (if anything) about it in any of the other stories. There may be a handful of other places where it is briefly mentioned, but you could read most of the Holmes canon and never get any sort of impression that he was a drug user at all. IIRC it is also The Sign of the Four that prominently features the Baker Street irregulars, who rarely, if ever, get mentioned anywhere else. The Holmes stories are, of course, full of inconsistencies like this, especially about the characters and histories of Holmes and Watson themselves.

Like the significance of Moriarty, Holmes’ cocaine use is something that has frequently been made much more prominent in non-canonical works by later writers, and theatrical (and radio, movie, and TV) portrayals, but plays only a very small role in Conan Doyle’s original works.

Watson stated in The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter that he had weaned Holmes off of cocaine and morphine, although possibly not permanently.

[WhyNot]

Not a specific work, but a band: As an 80’s kid, there were a bunch of “old” bands that I categorized as “heavy metal” in my brain. Many of them I’d never even knowingly listened to, but you could just tell by their love of leather and their names, hard and dark and violent sounding: Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Jethro Tull…
…Jethro Tull…
Um, not quite. :smack:

[Jophiel]

I assumed for years, based on the title, that Glengarry Glen Ross was about… I dunno, assumed identities or secret lives or something. I think my mind heard it as “Glen Garry, Glen Ross” and it didn’t help that all the component words are names. It wasn’t until I saw the Always Be Closing scene (or perhaps a parody thereof) that I went and watched the film.

I was going to the movies with a girl once who thought I was a bit strange for suggesting Wag the Dog. She assumed it was a children’s movie. About a dog. Named “Wag”.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@Jophiel

I assumed for years, based on the title, that Glengarry Glen Ross was about… I dunno, assumed identities or secret lives or something. I think my mind heard it as “Glen Garry, Glen Ross”

“Glen Garry left the room before Glen Ross burst in to disarm the gunman? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Glen and Glen in the same place at the same time!”

[Kiyoshi]

@Jophiel

I was going to the movies with a girl once who thought I was a bit strange for suggesting Wag the Dog. She assumed it was a children’s movie. About a dog. Named “Wag”.

::heads to IMDB::

I learned something new today.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@WhyNot

Not a specific work, but a band: As an 80’s kid, there were a bunch of “old” bands that I categorized as “heavy metal” in my brain. Many of them I’d never even knowingly listened to, but you could just tell by their love of leather and their names, hard and dark and violent sounding: Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Jethro Tull…
…Jethro Tull…
Um, not quite. :smack:

Last night’s Simpsons: the text that Bart was writing on the chalkboard during the opening:
JUDAS PRIEST IS NOT “DEATH METAL”

[Jophiel]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

“Glen Garry left the room before Glen Ross burst in to disarm the gunman? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Glen and Glen in the same place at the same time!”

Well, sure… it sounds stupid when YOU say it…

[Nuveena]

@WhyNot

Not a specific work, but a band: As an 80’s kid, there were a bunch of “old” bands that I categorized as “heavy metal” in my brain. Many of them I’d never even knowingly listened to, but you could just tell by their love of leather and their names, hard and dark and violent sounding: Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Jethro Tull…
…Jethro Tull…
Um, not quite. :smack:

In your defense, Grammy voters thought the same thing in 1989.

[typoink]

@Jophiel

I assumed for years, based on the title, that Glengarry Glen Ross was about… I dunno, assumed identities or secret lives or something.

Well, I KNEW it was about real estate salesmen in a general sense, but the title always made me think it was a mannered melodrama about the sale of a country estate.

[jovan]

@Nuveena

In your defense, Grammy voters thought the same thing in 1989.

And the band took out an advertisement to defend the choice because “the flute is a heavy, metal instrument.”

[WhyNot]

@Nuveena

In your defense, Grammy voters thought the same thing in 1989.

Really?

@jovan

And the band took out an advertisement to defend the choice because “the flute is a heavy, metal instrument.”

REALLY?!

Oddly, that does make me feel better. Not about thinking Jethro Tull was Metal when I was a kid, but for continuing to think they were Metal well into my thirties…my late thirties… :o

[furryman]

@RealityChuck

You might get the same misconception about Irene Adler.

I did think that Death of a Salesman would be nothing but heavy, depressing drama. I was surprised that, though that is the ultimate theme, there are many light moments in the play. Similarly, a lot of Waiting for Godot is pure comedy.

I know I read Death of a Salesman in school and thinking it was one of the most depressing things I ever read.
Up until now I thought nothing at all happened in Waiting for Godot. Is that why it’s funny?