Question: Misleading titles!?
I just read 'Of Mice And Men' by Steinbeck, expecting cynically that there would not be a single mouse in the book!. I had no hope of rats, weasels, or even a chinchilla!. To my delight there were rodents enough for anyone, but the fact that I wasn't expecting it did shine a spotlight on a pervasive problem!.
How often are titles deliberately abstract!? What happened to Agatha Christie-style simplicity, where 'The Mysterious Affair At Styles' indicated a mystery novel set in Styles manor, Essex!?
If you think about it: 'Naked Lunch'!. In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz from 'The Simpsons', I can think of two things wrong with that title!.
Can you remember any book that was not what you were expecting from the title!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Well, as far as I can recall there wasn't a single atlas in Atlas Shrugged!. Heck, they had to crash the plane through a force field to make it to paradise!. Don't tell me not to travel with a map!. Oh!. !. !. wait!. !. !. not that kind of atlas!? The god, you say!? Well, he wasn't really in there either, just some guy named John Galt or whatever!.
And then there's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest!. I was expecting some nice bucolic tale and what do I get!? Lunatics!. Running the dang asylum, yet!. I tell you!
Of Human Bondage!? Just more screwed up, prissy, period folk!. I thought that would be a hot one!.
Don't even get me started on The Razors Edge!. Man!.
How about The Grapes of Wrath!? I can see why they're pissed, but they never so much as touched a grape! They just kept talking about those damn orange trees!.
And then there's A Farewell To Arms!. Hey now, the guy lost pretty much everything else there is to want in this world, but as far as I could tell he did still have his arms, so what's that about!?
And then there's Lonesome Dove!. See, I used to raise pigeons and then I lost all but one to ringworm!. I found this nice, big fat book and I thought it would help the two of us work things out together!. What do I get!? Cows, cows, blue shoats and more cows!. Not in any way helpful, let me tell you!.
Oh, and one cold winter day in my far distant youth I picked up Jamaica Inn, hoping for balmy Carribbean breezes!. What do I get!? Blustery British moors!. Why not just call it Wuthering Heights!? Oh wait, that's taken!. And what does it mean 'to wuther'!? Conjugate that!
Oh I could go on and on!. And I just might too!. Give me time!. I'll be back!.
***Edit) As usual, ck1 has a great point about For Whom the Bell Tolls!. My problem with that one is that the next line is "it tolls for thee"!. Since I' m rather self involved, I was really looking forward to having the greatest novelist of the 20th century offer me personal insights into my fate!. What do I get!? Rebel Spaniards!. Well, I've never been to Spain, though I kind of like the music !. !. !.Www@QuestionHome@Com
It is a funny game isn't it!?
The first, and most distressing title that comes to mind is:
There's a Wocket in My Pocket by Dr!. Seuss!. He never actually talks about a wocket at all!
Then you have Invisible Monsters by Palahniuk which deals neither with invisibility or monsters, except in the most abstract of ways!.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque - I mean, come on, of all the ways to describe it, quiet is the most misleading I can think of!.
The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis had nothing to do with informers!. Unless that's slang for disenchanted Californians and vampires!.
I've even done it because it seems like the trendy thing to do!. I wrote a book called Sea Monsters of the Aegian Sea that was actually about a beetle in Nevada!.
I long for the simple days as well!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Lenny killed mice in the book by petting them!. that was his demise, petting soft nice things like fur or silk!. it did have to do with the story!. you just didn't see it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I know exactly what you mean!
I don't mind poetic/metaphorc titles provided they are clearly metaphoric - for instance The Grapes of Wrath, I don't think anyone truly expects grapes in the books!. (then again, I wouldn't have expected mice in Of Mice and Men)
However, books like The Wyvern Mystery by Sheridan LeFanu are disappointing because it was neither a mystery nor did it contain any Wyverns or even any dragon-like creatures!.
Years ago as a teen browsing the "Classics" section of my library I picked up Steppenwolf thinking it was going to be either about a wolf, or somehow wolf related!. Though the book is most likely good, I put it down after a couple chapters when I discovered it was instead about bourgeois society and classes!.
Most annoying, however, are books that are about boring subjects such as economics, yet have poetic titles that seem to promise something exciting!. I cannot think of specific examples at the moment, but I know many times I've seen a book at the store or library that has a title which catches my eye - only to read the back and find out it's a business book!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
There are many books like that!. Sometimes it's terribly disappointing!. You've already received wonderful answers, but I thought I'd bring up two specific types of books that particularly irk me!.
For instance, when I bought the Mechanics of Materials textbook, I had the mistaken impression that it would explain the actual mechanics of materials!. I didn't realize it was, in reality, an ancient tome written in a long-dead language and designed to completely baffle students!. Many textbooks I've read are like this!. There was the English Grammar textbook that had no relation to either English or grammar, the History one that dealt with current events, the Computer Science book that was anything but science and certainly not the computer and many others like that!.
Don't even get me started on the Student Solution Manual!. These wastes of good trees are, apparently, meant as some sort of cosmic joke!.
Though textbooks and solution manuals are my two particular areas of vexation, I could mention that I really thought For Whom the Bell Tolls should have been an exposition on bells; why they are rung, what makes them ring, how the sound is made, does the ringing of particular bells honor some special person and more!. I didn't expect war and death!. Ah, well!.
As usual, good question, SuperMinion!. It was fun!.
***Edit: Great point, Reader! If not about bells, it should at least have been about me!. :)Www@QuestionHome@Com