one phrase writers

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I was thinking the other day about writers who have a large and varied oeuvre, but in the public mind it all reduces down to one sentence or phrase. The examples I have are Joseph "The Horror" Conrad and James "Yes I Will Yes Yes" Joyce. What others are there?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Kurt Vonnegut = "So it goes"

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Beckett = "I can't go on; I'll go on"

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Joseph Heller = Catch-22 obv

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Dickens = "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Herman Melville = "Call me Ishmael"

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Arthur Conan Doyle = "Elementary, my dear Watson"

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Doyle is surely the only one thus far to work, really

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"cogito, ergo sum"

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

haha TOM AND JERRY

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:39 (twenty-one years ago)

also nietzche

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:39 (twenty-one years ago)

proust's madeline

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

almost certainly a few children's authors

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 17 June 2004 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"the medium is the message"

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 18 June 2004 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Doyle never actually wrote "Elementary, my dear Watson," I don't think. If I'm right, the phrase was the invention of TV writers of a subsequent generation.

― David Elinsky (David Elinsky), Friday, 18 June 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I think he does say that something is elementary at one point, though.

Tom - it's not so much that the phrase is a summary of the writer's entire oeuvre, as that it is the thing of theirs which has most entered mass discourse. People who have never read a word of Conrad will say "the Horror!" when recounting how they were cornered by the office bore at a company party. And so on.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 18 June 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Lots of people who have never read Austen know (*puts on abnormally high squeaky posh voice*) "It is a truth universally acknowledged...", likewise due to the films, Tolkien gets higher up the Universal Awareness scoreboard with "My preciousss...", "You shall not pass!", etc.

― Cornelius Murphy, Friday, 18 June 2004 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The closest written phrase is from Doyle's The Crooked Man... "Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary!", said he.

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 18 June 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

GWTW: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Saturday, 19 June 2004 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

again, in the film but not the book.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 20 June 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

From Michael Dobbs - "You might think so. I couldn't possibly comment..."

― Cormnelius Murphy, Monday, 21 June 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

something about phonies -- 'they're all phonies' maybe -- for jd salinger.

― j c (j c), Thursday, 24 June 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Wodehouse: "What ho!"

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 25 June 2004 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Shakespeare: To be or not to be

― PeanutDuck (PeanutDuck), Thursday, 1 July 2004 09:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Tennessee Williams: "Stella!" ... b/c of the movie
or to better read readers, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers."

― PeanutDuck (PeanutDuck), Thursday, 1 July 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it might be slightly misleading to say that the ONE phrase from Shakespeare in the public consciousness is 'to be or not to be'.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 July 2004 10:02 (twenty-one years ago)

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