TWWF Literature

[Rick Healey]

Back during the ARG I kept thinking of this but I don't think I ever mentioned it... But we had Peter Pan and a law setting and a law-related trope... so naturally, I thought of the Captain Hook trial musical from Arrested Development, which we only get to see a few seconds of, or else that itself might have worked as a decent refic.

(There are multiple clips in that video, but the first one has as much of the musical as is ever seen in the show.)

I thought of that scene, too. There were a few more Arrested Development moments here and there I thought of. "Well, that was a freebie" came up a few times.

[The Wild West Pyro]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is much darker than what one would expect, but it's a fun read. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is fun and full of humor and prose and interesting puzzles. Treasure Island-pirates ALWAYS give me HORRIBLE BAD LUCK. Gulliver's Travels- It's a bit hard for me to understand at the moment, I'll read it when I'm older. Murder on the Orient Express-WONDERFUL! The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- BEST BOOK OF THE ENTIRE CANON IN MY OPINION.

[narrativedilettante]

Okay so it's not strictly speaking literature, but I was just going through some of the post-mortem, and because now I'm not bouncing around asking questions, commenting and trying to keep up with everything being posted all at once, I had time to read more carefully, and I decided to look up Time Cube, which was mentioned as something Rick read to get into the mindset of writing for Fictional Threat.

I had never encountered Time Cube before.

It is terrible/wonderful in its terribleness.

I can't even tell what this guy is trying to say. Compared to Time Cube, Fictional Threat was actually sensible and coherent. (After all, that particular craziness was actually connected to some stuff that was actually going on.) I admire anyone who has the patience to read through all of it. In addition to being crazy and incoherent, it is WAY, WAY LONGER than is sensible.

[Rick Healey]

Time Cube is a particular flavor of special. I think the other puppetmasters were actually afraid of what I'd churn out when I told them that I was reading it for inspiration. I held back on length because of two reasons. One, we didn't want people going insane for just one or two hints. Two, it is seriously difficult to come up with that much ranting.

For that matter, given modern stylesheets and other useful accouterments for web development, it's actually a pain to code as well. It was much easier to create Time Cube in 1997, when you didn't have to turn off a ton of things to make different styles happen. About the only thing that we could have done to make Fictional Threat worse and more of a pain to code would have been to use blink tags. Actually, I was tempted to request them, but I held back for a few reasons. One, not all browsers display them. Two, first Fast Eddie would have killed me. Then Dana and Tom would have killed me. Then the other puppetmasters would have killed me. Then the entire player base would have killed me. This would have been an awful amount of death, and I didn't think my wife would appreciate it.

[Victin]

What are blink tags?

[The Wild West Pyro]

I looked at Time Cube. WHAT. THE. FIRETRUCK.

MODERN PHYSICS IS WRONG? ARE YOU CRAZY?
THE IDEA OF FAMILY IS POISONING CHILDREN? GO SEE A DOCTOR!
RELIGION IS EVIL, ESPECIALLY CHRISTIANITY? OH. MY. GOD. GO TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL NOW! AND MAY GOD PUNISH YOU WHILE YOU'RE IN THERE.

[IslaKariese]

Y'all are making me wanna look up this infamous Time Cube...

[Victin]

Y'all are making me wanna look up this infamous Time Cube...

Me too... But I don't want to!

[IslaKariese]

...Why do you have the Guy as your avatar...?

[Victin]

...Why do you have the Guy as your avatar...?

I don't know, I decided to change it. Also someone was using it as a char in a TVTropes RP the other day, so I went looking for a Guy avatar a few minutes ago. I found this Kid .gif and changed my avvie. Also... There was something else, what was it?

[Endless Sea]

Back on the subject of TimeCube, apparently the writer of this particular piece of literature was taking inspiration from its writing style. After seeing a few excerpts from the original courtesy of TVTropes, I can confirm there is certainly a resemblance, to an extent. (The difference being the story in the link is supposed to be the insane ravings of a madman, while TimeCube actually is. :P)

[The Wild West Pyro]

I've read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I must say, I enjoyed Through the Looking Glass a bit more, because it was less childlike and more Darker and Edgier.

[Tom]

I am a HUGE fan of the 1993 Gulliver's Travels starring Ted Danson, who is not even attempting an English accent.

The frame story is a great way of tying together the various random places he goes. Gulliver ends up in an insane asylum upon returning to England, and his family must prove he is sane in order to get him out again. Swift's original was a satire of the English society in which he lives; that society doesn't exist anymore, so a satire of it isn't really potent to modern audiences. The frame story shifted it from a satire into a drama. It becomes a tale about a man losing, and then slowly regaining, his humanity.

It also features some of the best transitions from framing story to framed story I've ever seen outside of the Adventures of Baron von Munchausen.

I used to be able to find it on YouTube, but the files seem to have evaporated. I guess that's what torrent is for. If you can find it, it's fantastic.

P.S. I might or might not be working on a film script about Emperor Norton, based on the tone of Baron von Munchausen and this Gulliver film.

[Rick Healey]

Emperor Justin Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico? That man is a saint.

I mean a saint in Dischordianism, of course. That said, anyone surprised that I'm a fan of his?

[The Wild West Pyro]

Emperor Justin Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico? That man is a saint.

I mean a saint in Dischordianism, of course. That said, anyone surprised that I'm a fan of his?

That man is the Real Life PERSONIFICATION of Crazy Awesome. God bless his soul.