Literary reference in A4

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AuthorTopic: Literary reference in A4
Apprentice
Member # 4853
Profile #0
The wild animal breeder east of Fort Duvno is named Torvald, and his untalkative wife's name is Nora. Clearly, Jeff was thinking of Henrik Ibsen's Doll House, and it made me kind of happy to catch on to it. It's little things like this that make me love the series even more.

Did anyone else catch this, or find any other literary allusions at any point?
Posts: 4 | Registered: Saturday, August 14 2004 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 6216
Profile #1
Hmm, I thought it was a reference to Linus Torvalds (Linux developer).
Posts: 48 | Registered: Saturday, August 13 2005 07:00
Agent
Member # 5814
Profile #2
There's at least two Avernum Trilogy threads which center on the references Jeff has made. I don't have the time to do a search, but they're there.

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quote:
Originally written by Kelandon
Well, I'm at least pretty

Posts: 1115 | Registered: Sunday, May 15 2005 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 6216
Profile #3
A search for Torvald did not find any such discussion (about this character)

Just because something has been discussed in some fashion in the past doesn't mean someone might not want to bring things up again, perhaps in a different perspective.
While some folks here seem to have been living on this forum for years, it is quite possible that others drift in and out as they discover and play these games and then move on.
It's probably tiring for the "regular" contributors here to see the same questions asked or opinions stated if the answers can be found with the search feature, but to "noobs" like me, it's all new.
Reading an old thread is just not as much fun as starting a new discussion - especially since some get annoyed if old ones get bumped up for interest's sake.
(and considering the amount of bashing AV4 gets, reading the older stuff isn't exactly encouraging to those who find the game a whole lot of fun and don't really care one way or another how one moves from one square to the next)
Oops, I think I got on a soapbox there. Gotta go!

[ Friday, March 24, 2006 12:39: Message edited by: Shine123 ]
Posts: 48 | Registered: Saturday, August 13 2005 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #4
He was talking about threads about Avernum Trilogy references to literary and movie characters, etc.

There haven't been any about Avernum 4 or Torvald yet.

And I agree with you - people are too quick to stifle a discussion that may become meaningful.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Agent
Member # 5814
Profile #5
quote:
Originally written by Shine123:

Just because something has been discussed in some fashion in the past doesn't mean someone might not want to bring things up again, perhaps in a different perspective.
quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:

I agree with you - people are too quick to stifle a discussion that may become meaningful.
I wasn't suggesting that discussion be moved to previous threads or that this thread was unnecessary. I was suggesting to those who might be interested that in the Avernum Trilogy section more information might be found.

I am not a bloody vigilante and I'm slightly offended that I was mistaken for one. :P

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quote:
Originally written by Kelandon
Well, I'm at least pretty

Posts: 1115 | Registered: Sunday, May 15 2005 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 4853
Profile #6
Apologies, I did not mean to stir anything up. No one's a vigilante, and I will run a search of existing topics before starting a new thread next time, which is something I admittedly didn't do this time.

As was pointed out, I'm not really a forum regular, but just tend to kind of drift in for a while after every new Spiderweb release. Hopefully this thread shall remain useful and people will share other interesting references that they spot in A4. I know I'd like to read them!
Posts: 4 | Registered: Saturday, August 14 2004 07:00
Councilor
Member # 6600
Profile Homepage #7
One of these days, I really must get around to traveling to Fort Draco. I would actually be able to contribute to these sorts of discussions.

Did you notice any other references, Leon?

Dikiyoba.
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #8
For the record, another such topic was this one.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the other thing I intended to say: any topic can be good, even if it has been discussed before, if the discussion is new and different. Many repeated threads (Mac vs. Windows, Exile vs. Avernum, etc.) have nothing new said in each iteration, so they become rather pointless. This one appears to have new content, which is the factor that makes it good.

[ Friday, March 24, 2006 22:31: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Warrior
Member # 6912
Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:
And I agree with you - people are too quick to stifle a discussion that may become meaningful.[/QB]
I never had the balls to restart the anama thread on avernum trilogy lol

Leon you deffinatly should look up the threads with the references they got some real neat stuff i recomand it for everyone but feel free to start talking about them again!
Posts: 89 | Registered: Wednesday, March 15 2006 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 1420
Profile #10
My favorite A4 reference is Gervais, named for the co-creator/star of the original Brit version of The Office. Hmm, I guess that should be "favoUrite".

[Edit] A literary reference, I guess, only in the sense that Gervais is a "writer".

[ Saturday, March 25, 2006 08:18: Message edited by: Soul of Wit ]
Posts: 37 | Registered: Tuesday, July 2 2002 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
Profile #11
Not a literary reference, but popular culture. Test number 5 near Fort Remote. You are the Weakest Link in the test for unity.

For the record my singleton is not antisocial. He just doesn't need a others sucking up experience and money. If he needs friends he can always summon some up.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3716
Profile #12
My 2 cents: they are not exactly literary references though;

A trainer in Silvar (north east building?) says above his head: "fortune favors the bold", it could be a coincidence, but that's the same phrase they repeated in the movie "Alexander".

I can't help but link "captain Nathan" in Fort Avernum with "captain Nathan Algren" in The Last Samurai.

The innkeeper in Silvar (who asks 30 coins for gossip) is called Bolivar. Simón Bolivar is a hero for some latin american countries who helped get independence from the Spaniards. I think Venezuela and Colombia were especially favored by him. (The country Bolivia owns its name to him). It's actually a surname, though ;-)

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"Inspiration comes from hard work" -Charles Baudelaire.
Posts: 292 | Registered: Sunday, November 23 2003 08:00