Most Obscure Reference you've ever used...

In my most recent chapter, I referenced Mozart. Which piece? This one! And I really want people to really notice my usage of it.

Other than that, I've referenced actual history and planes that existed in a story set in World War 2. From Pearl Harbor to Bodenplatte, I tried to be semi-historically accurate than just "and he banged Nazi chicks."

 

I have a running thread of 'White Wedding' by Billy Idol in mine and no one seems to have noticed, so I guess it's kind of obscure

 

A joke I wrote into a story once. A play on the line from the movie a few good men.

"I named my penis the truth. Every woman says they want the truth but not every woman can handle the truth once you give it to them."

 

My protagonist's horse in https://chyoa.com/chapter/An-abandoned-coach.793518 is named Meg after the horse which loses its tail in the poem Tam O'Shanter (Robert Burns)

 

I make too many references to ancient and modern history. Usually, when I mention ancient history, it has something to do with the Romans or Latin. When I reference modern history, I usually refer to World War II or the Soviet Union.

 

IDK, I drop a lot of references, and some of them are pretty obscure.

Just recently, the Fay PoV chapters in Lusty Magical Academy's Boarbristle Academy have touched the Tibetan Buddhist rite of Chōd, the Egyptian afterlife servant dolls called ushabti (or shabtim, plural), and Boarbristle Academy generally takes bits and pieces out of revivalist wicca and ceremonial magic.

Marvin Kaye's The Incredible Umbrella makes it into Alexander Halladay's storyline in Boarbristle Academy as his father's substitute for a flying broom, though you could take it as Mary Poppins if you would. (I had bet René Magritte had a flying-with-umbrella painting, but this ended up being a near miss, probably me remembering Golconda where it's raining men in bowler hats, as well as Magritte's umbrella, with its blue-skies-and-puffy-clouds canopy on the holder's side, under the black fabric top).

Like @brevdravis, I'm not above a little Discordianism here and there, but I haven't yet had a chance to work in "Sink" or "Gourdfest" or "The Law of Fives".

"sinuous Geissler tubes" in the first chapter of steampunk (steam-gloom?) Lucy's Portion refers to an early version of neon fluorescent tubes whose name I heard in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The Women's Pleasure Circles hosted by Joyce Bernstein in When the Cat's Away (content: swinging, incest, male bi) are a lift from Betty Dodson's workshops (real life pleasure activist) but Joyce is an author/activist/educator while Betty is an author/activist/fine artist, and they're physically and temperamentally very different.

 

The Maple Leafs - that's a Joni Mitchell reference, right? "Raised on Robbery". "...a little money riding on the Maple Leafs, when along comes a lady in lacy sleeves..."

 

Newspeak! You can't get it wrong!

 

Newspeak? - Thats double ungood! Wasn't there a government department for pornography? We could get a grant to produce this stuff.

 

The "Devil's Throne" Edward goes to for a meeting with his family/fellow cult members was based off a real site in France (that also appears in 1999 banger Gabriel Knight 3). I changed it to a throne in the story though, cause going to see your grandpa on his Armchair makes you expect he's gonna be supping a can of beer and bitching at the TV.

 

I was also replaying AC Origins when I did the cult meeting part, so the cult and their animal aliases are based off the Order of the Ancients in that game.

More specifically, Roland being a sharkman who has to go by The Shark for his code name is inspired by the fact the Egyptian Ancients called the fat guy who liked hanging around the baths The Hippo.

 

Might be a challenge - who can slip the most references to a given obscure topic into a CHYOA chapter without making it obvious to the readers of that chapter. Something like pieces of we didnt start the fire lyrics, or names of south sea islands or characters in James Bond movies? (with A different obscure reference topic is the challenge each week?) Anyone up for a game of it?

 

Not a bad idea, I'm honestly thinking about expanding my knowledge of the history of East Asia to make more references. I'm not that well-versed in East Asian history yet.

 

My character recently wore a dress she had last worn to "Mairi's wedding" (which is the name of a traditional Scottish dance & folk song)

 

A lot of my obscure references are actually accidental and sometimes I only notice them after the fact.

 

Most obscure? Probably a gag I wrote into a collab piece, referencing the Spartan order in the Metro: 20XX series. So not that obscure... <.<
Or A Question/Answering pairing from a line in King Lear.

 

The first (and last) time Moviebob will ever be compared to Henry David Thoreau.

 

My Harem Hotel branch is set in a bizarro (but probably not far from reality) version of Las Vegas, so I gave the characters local references as surnames. While most of them are not particularly obscure, one refers to Harry Mohney, a local strip club and pornography magnate who runs the Erotic Heritage Museum in the city.

 

Umm ... this is part of the script to the musical Assassins, isn't it?

 

Yeah, so it's also a reference to that, which is kind of appropriate, given what the story is about, but the part in particular is quoting Thoreau.

Also, more people should listen to Assassins, it's so good.