Based on the overwhelming number of literary quotes i can't begin
to identify that seem very popular in the Agora conference, i'd like
to start a mysterious SF quote item (where i stand some chance of being
able to identify the quotes).

Rules are: enter and guess at as many quotes as you like, as often as
you like.

Here's my favorite quote in all of science fictiondom.  I've a hunch it'll
be recognized in about 10 minutes flat, but i like it so much that i'm going
to enter it anyway.  Nyah!

        She bought a ticket to an all-Titanide production of _Romeo and
        Juliet_, then found herself giggling so much she had to leave.
        A more apt title might have been _The Montagues and the Capulets
        Join the Cavalry_.  It was also apparent that the script had been
        tampered with.  Robin doubted the bard would have minded having
        Titanides play the roles but thought she would have resented having
        Romeo turned into a man by peckish revisionists.

89 responses total.

        From the third book in John Varley's "Titan" trilogy; "Demon" (an
excellent series from start to end!).

        Not an exact quote, but close, I hope:

        #2: "Have a drink because you pity yourself, and the drink pities you
        and
has a drink, and then two drinks get together and that calls for drinks
all around."

  There's something like that in one of the Hitchhiker's books, but
that's far enough off that aI can't tell whether it's the quote you're
thinking of or just something with the same general idea..

Re 1: John - nope!  But you're very very close.

        What?  Is it in "Wizard" then?
        I guess it's been a while since I've read those books.

Ding ding ding!!!  Point for John!

Next quote, please...

Anybody seen a sparkling paragraph worth posting here?

In re "sparkling paragraphs", the classic line is the following:
"The king was pregnant."  The author says that that line was a major
motivator for writing the story.

Left hand of Darkness?

Yep, "The king was pregnant." is in "The Left Hand of Darkness".

Here's one for you. It's a fragment of a piece of poetry that I liked. It
appears by itself at the beginning of an SF novel near the dedication. 
Name the Novel, the work the poem is from, and the author of the poem.
"And still the weaver plies his loom,
 whose warp and weft are retched man.
 Weaving the unpattern'd dark design,
 So dark we doubt it owns a plan."

The last two are easy - _The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner_ and
Coleridge.  No idea on which SF novel, though.

Bzzzzzzzt, wrong.
I'm interested why you think they were easy.
Maybe *my* source is wrong.

Hmm, I probably am wrong, but the meter sounds just like the _Rime_.
Oh well.

I'm glad you changed your last name you son of a bitch!

Avatar in "Wizards"

bap earns $200 and control of the board.

here is a tuffy

the one consolation, I thought, was that they couldn't very well attack us from
 the air while it went on.    Doubtless they'd yank the cloudcover away when
they were ready to strafe us, but our broomsticks could scramble as fast as
their carpets could arrive.  Meanwhile, we slogged ahead, a whole division of
us with auxillaries-the 45th, the Lihtening Busters, pride of the United States
Army, tuned intoa a wet misery of men and dragons hunting  through the Oregon
hills for the invaders.
     I made a slow way through the camp.  Water ran off tents and into slit
trenches.  Our sentries were, of course, wearing Tarnkappen, but i could see
their footprints form in the mud and hear the boots squelch and the tired
monotonous cursing.
     I passed the Air Force strip;they were bivouaced with us, to give
support as needed.  A couple of guards stood on duty outside the knockdown
hanger, not bothering with invisibility.  There blue uniforms were as mucked a
and bedraggled as my OD's, but hey had shaved, and their insignia-the winged
broomstick and anti-Evil Eye beads-were polished.  They saluted me, and i 
returned the gesture idly.  Esprit de Corps, wild blue yonder, nuts.
     Beyond was the armor.  The boys had erected portable shelters for
their beasts, so i only saw steam rising out of the cracks and caught the
rank reptile smell.  Dragons hate rain, and their drivers were having a hell
of a time controling them.

Dosen't ring a bell, but sounds like something I want to read
(once we find out whrere it came from)

Odin, May I take one huge step foward?

Parts of this novel were published as short stories from 1957 thru 1969 in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction with titles like "Operation
Afreet".  The novel was copywrited in 1971.

PECHTUL

Uh no?

Uh no what?  I do not see to what thou art reffering.

Mayhap he referreth to "PECHTFUL" ??

Aye, I seeth verily.

Here's one:
        "A human being should be able to change  a diaper, plan an invasion,
        butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
        accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
        give orders, cooperate, act alone,
solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook
a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallently.  Specialization is for
insects." From the same book:"
         (Because I want YOU, you unappetizing ape.  You're the best soldier in
        the squad.) `Because I need you.  Will you volunteer?' `I ain't no
        volunteerCrporal; I was drafted.'"

Sounds like something Heinlein would write.  "Starship Troopers" maybe?
(Maybe not, as that book was about a non-draft military...)

It's definately Heinlein, just which book? Time enough for love?

I know I've read that.  I hate to admit I even agree with it.

        #26 is from "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlein

see, dammit, I hate when I agree with Heinlein.

poor kami.  it happens to the best of us.

Poor Kami.  But after all, even Heinlien was sometimes right, though never 
perfect.

And as people seem to be choosing quotes from their favorite books,
here's mine:

"I have been in one great battle, I have fought unexpectedly at night,
alone, but I have never--I have never before seen death come at me so
certainly as at your hearth.  It was the color of night, and I could
not breathe because it was airless, and I knew--I knew if I could find
a name, put a name to it, it could not harm me."

And another, as I'm not at all certain I could identify this from one.

        She let his voice run over her in a pleasant stream, soothing,
comforting; she sat back, watching him, smiling, half listening  His
face, bones forming, firming beneath it, lit and changed as he spoke,
laughing, sobering, smiling again a clear curious smile with a hint of
secrecy behind it.

Nor this, but if I put in text with plot points...

gee, I like this.  I think I've read it, but a long time ago. Female
author?

Glad you like it; I did try to choose paragraphs which would inspire
people to read the book (not hard, not hard at all, with this book).

Yeah, definately female author.

I'm thinking it reminds me of LeGuin, in one of the Earthsea novels, at least
as far as content.  On the other hand, the style doesn't quite seem to match
my recollection.

Nope, it's not Le Guin, though I saw both authors on the sae Panel at 
Readercon this year, on the "From Elfland to PochPoucipsie panel.
Was a very cool panel, also including Esther Freisner and Ellen Kushner.

Hmm; how long should I wait before posting answers?
Here's another one, same author, different book.

I actually resort to meantioning a character's name in this one, though:(

        "The pig-woman dropped her pipe. She rose in a swift, blurred
movement that startled Raederle.  The vagueness dropped from her face like a
mask, revealing a strength and sorrow worn into it by a knowledge of far
more than Raith's pigs.  She drew a breath and shouted, 'What?' 
        "The shout cracked like lightning out of the placid sky.  Raederle,
flinging her arms futilely over her ears, heard above her own cry the
shrill, terrified cries of rearing horses, and the breathless, gasping
voices of men struggling to control them.  Then came a sound as unexpected
and terrible as the pig-womman's shout: the agonized, outraged protest of
the entire pig heard of Hel."

Oops, I had LeGuin mixed with Patricia McKillip.  Sometimes their styles are
similar.  I ought to go back and reread The Riddlemaster of Hed.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss