October 11, 2005

Thog's Masterclass Some of the most impressively badly-written lines of SF ever published.

The last one is a killer:

'He lifted her tee-shirt over her head. Her silk panties followed.' -- Peter F. Hamilton, Mindstar Rising
That's gotta hurt!
  • `He absorbed Latin in two hours yesterday! It took me a whole year just to learn the Latin alphabet.' -- Brett Leonard & Gimel Everett, screenplay for The Lawnmower Man Hurrah!
  • "A horror tale of supernatural suburban terror in which a couple is stalked by a mail-order catalog with evil powers!'" Fingerhut!
  • `She knew how to embroider and milk a cow.' Everytime I attempt to embroider a cow, I just end up getting kicked.
  • "Dr Kelter's forehead sprouted italics...". No, those are his eyebrows. Emil Petaja's book looks like it would be worth it for the comedy value alone.
  • I thought the link to the Lyttle Lytton contest that somebody posted in the mefi thread on the same topic as this one was far funnier. The original Lytton contest is pretty hilarious too.
  • It's not possible to discuss any of this without a moment of silence for the master work Eye of Argon.
  • The Ansible is a monthly newsletter in which Thog's Masterclass is one of the features as well as snarky collections of "What Others Think of Us".