Paying Homage to other works

Exir · Apr 9, 2008

I know this is a practice very often used in movies, but I see it rarely used in literature.

In my current WIP, a couple of scenes involve a tree with a branch bent low so that someone could sit on it, just like Frances Hodgson Burnett's THE SECRET GARDEN. The branch even breaks later on, just like the novel, though thankfully with nobody dying.

I don't know - is this a legitimate practice?

Birol · Apr 9, 2008

Yes, it is. It's really not as uncommon as you might think. It's just that it's not always as obvious in novels as it is in movies.

Gillhoughly · Apr 9, 2008

Writers are always stealing from each other--I just make sure my inspirations never catch on. It helps if they've been dead a few hundred years.

I did a rewrite of two Shakespeare storylines--and have another in the works. There's not a line of iambic pentameter in sight, but a quick reader knows what I've done.

Preston and Child's highly successful Pendergast series is an updated version of Sherlock Holmes-- but with a fantasy techno-thriller element, lots more violence, and a very high body count!

megan_d · Apr 9, 2008

In my alien invasion WIP the MC's name is Eliot. It's a little nod in E.T's direction.

ebenstone · Apr 9, 2008

My present WIP series is "inspired" by GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm touting it as "ASOIAF meets the OC/90210/Dawson's Creek."

Phaeal · Apr 9, 2008

Hm, let's see. I got Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, and shoggoths. Could a tribute to HPL.

Phaeal · Apr 9, 2008

Gillhoughly said:
I did a rewrite of two Shakespeare storylines--and have another in the works. There's not a line of iambic pentameter in sight, but a quick reader knows what I've done.

Preston and Child's highly successful Pendergast series is an updated version of Sherlock Holmes-- but with a fantasy techno-thriller element, lots more violence, and a very high body count.

S'OK about the Shakespeare rewrites -- he borrowed old stories, too. And lately I've been seeing Jane Austen rewritten all over the place, either as extensions of her novels or her plots copped and put in modern dress. (I'm thinking about a Mansfield Park sequel myself. :e2faint:

)

Pendergast rocks, especially now that he's pretty much adopted Vinnie D'Agosta as his Watson. Who said you couldn't name a character Aloysius? :e2cheer:

Stew21 · Apr 9, 2008

I do it all the time. Most recently, my second novel gives a big obvious wink and nod to Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast".

Toothpaste · Apr 9, 2008

Heck my entire novel is one big homage. Well several smaller homages within the construct of "an homage to children's books".

David I · Apr 9, 2008

Exir said:
I know this is a practice very often used in movies, but I see it rarely used in literature.

In my current WIP, a couple of scenes involve a tree with a branch bent low so that someone could sit on it, just like Frances Hodgson Burnett's THE SECRET GARDEN. The branch even breaks later on, just like the novel, though thankfully with nobody dying.

I don't know - is this a legitimate practice?

Nabokov, Joyce, and all manner of others made endless references to other literary works, sometimes very obvious, sometimes obscure.

Classical composers do this all the time, too.

IMHO, however, a lot of the "homages" in movies are simply imitation that got caught.

Mr. Fix · Apr 9, 2008

Learning from the Classics, steal from the best...

I love dropping in Homages from the Classics. I always find a way to have a character quote from some ancient Greek/Roman Lit ot Biblical/Quran/Bhagavad Gita stuff. And if a good 'moment' arises I'll steal from a recent piece of work I like. I don't consider this lazy, It's just my way of spreading the word of other good works. And I ALWAYS make reference to the original author or source. I thinks it fun.

In my Current WIP I steal from a Partridge Family/David Cassidy song and have my to protagonists talk about its source humorously. ("David Cassidy was a great song writer trapped in a '16 Magazine' job.") :e2paperba

Danger Jane · Apr 9, 2008

Totally legitimate practice. My whole novel is structured based on the structure Virginia Woolf used in To the Lighthouse. That's about all my story has in common with hers, but it's just one of those little easter eggs you leave. I doubt many readers will make that connection, at least on my first book, but maybe by the third or fourth...

Literature is a continuum. Everything we write is an homage to everything we've read. It's AWESOME.

SPMiller · Apr 9, 2008

I had a good old riddle contest in my fantasy WIP ... until I cut it out because I didn't think it fit.

By the way, it's hard to come up with good riddles. I loved that section.

Make sure your homages work. You may love 'em, but if they don't contribute to plot, character, or theme, get rid of them.

Kill your darlings.

Judg · Apr 9, 2008

Allusions are a time-honoured literary practice. In some circles, it is considered a sign of good breeding.

Go for it. It is done in all the arts.

Zoombie · Apr 9, 2008

Yeah...mine is choked full of them. Like, I manage to have not one, but TWO Joss Whedon references in as many sentences.

It was about a robot called the Slayer.

"What does it do, kill vampires?"

"Oh no...first, it'll slit your throat, paint the wall with your blood, make a scupture from your orgasns, hang your face on the wall and then do experements with your sexual organs just for giggles. And if you're very very lucky, it'll do it in exactly that order."

Jackfishwoman · Apr 9, 2008

It is also fun to play around with allusions to great works - mix it up a bit, turn it on its head! Be subversive in your treatment of something that has been done a million times.

Matera the Mad · Apr 10, 2008

In my stone-age fantasy, someone says "I don't meddle in the affairs of shamans."

Shame on yer name if you don't get it. That and one chapter title tiredly echoing T.S. Eliot (and I'm still trying to think of something better there) are all I've allowed myself so far.

Judg · Apr 10, 2008

Are your shamans quick to anger?

ccarver30 · Apr 10, 2008

I have TONS of homage in my novel- they are so subtle that only people that really super know me would see it.

angeliz2k · Apr 10, 2008

LOL...

...there were two musical homages done with my current WIP which have since been largely removed. First, my working title for a time was Queen Killer in the Pink Satin Sash--a twisted kind of reference to Killer Queen by, er, Queen. And then a chapter (and even the book) were going to begin, "Please allow me to introduce myself," a less veiled allusion to Sympathy for the Devil. That got toned down and moved into a less prominent spot, but it's still there.

Phaeal · Apr 10, 2008

Zoombie said:
Yeah...mine is choked full of them. Like, I manage to have not one, but TWO Joss Whedon references in as many sentences.

It was about a robot called the Slayer.

"What does it do, kill vampires?"

"Oh no...first, it'll slit your throat, paint the wall with your blood, make a scupture from your orgasns, hang your face on the wall and then do experements with your sexual organs just for giggles. And if you're very very lucky, it'll do it in exactly that order."

Alas, poor Firefly, we hardly knew ye.

Sarpedon · Apr 10, 2008

Architecture is all about homages, or as we like to call it, 'precedent'.

We have a saying; 'there is no plagiarism in architecture.'

Zoombie · Apr 10, 2008

Judg said:
Are your shamans quick to anger?

Subtle and quick to anger! Can't forget the subtle!

Phaeal said:
Alas, poor Firefly, we hardly knew ye.

shelboselby · Apr 10, 2008

That is part of my favorite things when watching TV or reading books. It makes you feel special, almost more educated than others when you recognize those hidden little homages.

I've seen it done in books before. And my favorite tv show, Lost, does it all the time, including obscure references to old, never-released Beatles album covers. It's actually a cute technique.

Stormhawk · Apr 10, 2008

I once had a scene (now it's sadly deleted because I've changed that character's history) where she runs away from bullies and hides in a book store. Obvious homage to The Neverending Story. Unfortunately, no one else got it. o_o

Mirrorfall is littered with Easter eggs and references, as it's modern and the MC is a geek.

One of my favourites though is when she's taken to the roof by her boss and he asks her to listen to something and she mutters. "If I hear the 1812 Overture, I'm out of here..." ^_^

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