Editing Talk:2162: Literary Opinions

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let's see WS Burroughs = Tarzan, E.R. Burroughs = Naked Lunch. 
CS Lewis Carol
Bruce Stirlling / SM Stirling

Is it just me, or was this comic released earlier than usual? Released just after midnight, EDT.  [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 08:30, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

:It's just you.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.100|162.158.214.100]] 10:33, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

::Yes, it's unusally early. It happened before, but most of the time the new comics arrived in the late afternoon (central european time). This one was already up when I turned on my computer ~8am. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:54, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Is there any value in adding info about the authors mentioned? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:17, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

: I wanted to add "Elements of Style" to show T.H., er, E.B. (whichever ;-) was more than just a "children's book author". Probably not worth it.[[User:Afbach|Afbach]] ([[User talk:Afbach|talk]])

I don't think this relates to the "Fregoli Delusion"(sp) - they think the same person is using more than one name. [[User:Afbach|Afbach]] ([[User talk:Afbach|talk]])
: Yeah, this feels more like pseudonyms than Frengoli to me.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.22|172.68.206.22]] 18:42, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Shouldn't we discuss authors with multiple pseudonyms? Like JK Rowling and Robert Galbraith, or Nora Roberts and JD Robb, etc... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.144|172.68.143.144]] 16:44, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Glad I'm not the only one who confuses former US vice president Gore Vidal with Vidal Sassoon the war poet. [[User:ColinHogben|ColinHogben]] ([[User talk:ColinHogben|talk]]) 16:49, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
: That's where I heard that name before! [[User:Afbach|Afbach]] ([[User talk:Afbach|talk]])

Why would Megan pick those 4 authors to be the same person?  What do they or their works have in common?  It would be nice to cover that.  (Not knowing anything about any of them, any theory I might advance would be about as valid as one of Megan's.)
Bit of a long-shot, but I wonder if the link has anything to do with Randall's book tour competition.  (He invites people to Write the best story using nothing but book covers.)[https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/]  Any good story/sentence made up with works by those 4 authors? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.55|162.158.107.55]] 22:13, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
: Did a search on all those author names together.  Seems Wallace, Thompson, and Burroughs wrote books that have been tagged as dealing with drugs.  (Hardly a unique characteristic, but might suggest some common thead.)
: Literature map - searching for Hunter S Thompson, lists the other 3 in fairly close proximity.  (i.e., people who indicated reading one of these are likely to have read works by others of these authors.  For whatever reason.)  
: Anybody writing here actually read these authors? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.144|162.158.106.144]] 18:01, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

These authors have all been identified as "favorite author for young, mostly white males who wants to be cool and also exude toxic masculinity and won't stop talking about them to be seen as smart/edgy with their books about graphic content and drug abuse". While they are in fact popular with those readers and that kinda sucks, they don't deserve to be criticized without reading them (and, in my opinion, see that those readers skip completly the point on generational malaise these authors make). Cueball dubitative reaction and proposition to see what are the differences inside the books, plus the phrase about "a book club for the books you refuse to read", seems to be a rejection of the fact that some people are amalgaming this toxic readership with the books/authors themselves, and in reaction refuse to read them and see them as having the same content or ideology (they don't).
 
How about the theory that Mary Pearson, Andre Norton, Andrew North, Allen Weston, and M. D. Herter are the same person. ;-) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.144|162.158.106.144]] 22:31, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Should trivia link it to [[923: Strunk and White]] which also mentions E.B. white.? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:32, 13 June 2019 (UTC)
: Done! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 11:54, 13 June 2019 (UTC)
::Thanks :) I had to note this down somewhere to not forget it, when the though struck me, but didn't have time for a proper edit... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:17, 13 June 2019 (UTC)
:::I got your back, Jack...er, Lupo! ;-) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 12:42, 13 June 2019 (UTC)
:::I also back-linked from that comic to this one in a Trivia entry as well. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 12:43, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

I think this has to be viewed from one step back, i.e., it is not necessarily about books or writers, but rather a take on people who form and voice opinions without proper knowledge of the facts, even if the facts are very easily researchable.
This happens A LOT in forum postings, e.g., when there is an article about some scientific dicovery on a popular news site, and then people start discussing (and fighting) about that discovery in the forums for this article. These discussions are more often than not based purely on speculation, without anyone bothering to check the original publication on which the article was based, or even without any specialist knowledge about the subject matter at hand. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.19|162.158.89.19]] 09:54, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

E.B. and T.H. are distinguishable as one wrote a children's book ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") and the other wrote James Bond novels.  Oh wait, that was Ian Fleming.  James Bond was the author of "Birds of the West Indies."  I think the explanation of various audiences and subject matter does not disambiguate authors.  See "Ambrose, Gardner and Doyle" by Raymond Smullyan.
[[http://www.linkedin.com/in/Comet Comet]] 06:00, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Similar ideas to comics 1970 and the title text on 1277. Should definitely be mentioned in the explanation. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 04:06, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

How about AA Milne and EA Milne.   CR, Virginia