Quote of the Day
Posted on December 20, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
Yes, I have been made aware that a quote of mine had made it on a Quote of the Day service today; you can stop sending me e-mail about it. Thank you, however. I too think it’s pretty cool.
The quote was this one:
My marriage had its ups and downs like anyone’s, but when it came down to it, I knew it was solid. I miss that sort of security, and that sort of connection with someone.
Apparently at least a couple didn’t know it was a quote from a character in “Old Man’s War,” not me talking a general sense, so when it got to the part about the marriage being discussed in the past tense, there was some concern. Be advised that I am in fact still married and as far as I know, everything is groovy. I’ll double check with the wife to be sure.
There are those who would say that it is you talking.
But it’s not me talking about me, which is the thing.
I always enjoyed (read it twice now) your character’s thoughts on marriage in Old Man’s War. Grown-up thoughts, very real.
Thank you, nicola.
So, what was Krissy’s verdict?
She agrees we are still married. So that’s a relief.
My pleasure. I really liked that book.
I actually just saw that and got worried for a moment- “Hang on, pretty sure Scalzi is married, unless he’s been lying to everyone on his blog for quite a while…” so I came here to find out and right away I see you explain! Congrats on meeting the lofty standards of the quote-of-the-day editors, I guess. But now I’m wondering how many other of the quotes I see there are also taken completely out of context.
Scalzi @ 6 –
Be that as it may, it must have been disconcerting to find a series of emails in your box strongly concerned about the imploding of your marriage.
[head around corner]
“hey, uh, we’re still married right?”
“last I checked, yes.”
“oh. Well, sweet.”
[runs back to the internets machine]
“wait, why did you need to know this?”
One or today’s quotes.
“Fig Newton: The force required to accelerate a fig 39.37 inches per sec. ” J. Hart
I find this highly amusing. Does that make me nerdish?
Oh, yes.
In spite of his…interesting political & religious views, the late Mr. Hart could still occasionally hit one out of the park:
Airball: What a Cockney cat coughs up.
sounds like an excellent example of how. context. matters.
that is a great quote though, but i am a big fan of the dialog you write so i might be biased.
Heather@ 8:
I can’t speak to that specific source of quotes, but I’ve noticed that it’s a fairly common thing in quote collections for authors to be quoted as saying something that was actually said by one of their characters.
So let’s discuss which of the things said by Heinlein characters were things Heinlein himself believed, shall we? [evil laugh]
Nah, just kidding.
Out of curiosity…
the QoTD page now sources the quote to OMW.
http://www.quotationspage.com/qotd/2009-12-20.html
Not having read your post yesterday, I don’t know whether they changed it due to likely the conversation on this website, or whether it was always like this, and some readers weren’t noticing.
I saw the entry just a few hours ago and it didn’t have the OMW attribution, so I’d say someone must have contacted them about it (or else someone associated with them is a Whatever reader).
I was as confused as the rest when I saw the quote, and am glad to see it corrected.
hey! i just bought your book because i came across that quote on my iGoogle page a few days before and it made me curious. so i guess you can thank the QotD guys. ;)
I actually really liked this quote before it ever landed on Quote of the Day. I just got married this past October. As the wedding planning was ramping up, I started getting nervous about the complete and total commitment that marriage means. There was nothing wrong in the relationship, mind, I was just freaking out about the finality of it all and starting to question my own maturity. I did a lot of self-reflection and thinking about my relationship with my fiancee (now my wife), and was able to get over my hangups. Around this time I had started reading Old Man’s War. When John talked about his marriage, he touched on a lot of the things I had just re-affirmed that I wanted. It was incredibly refreshing, and yet totally surreal when he’s saying things that ring very true to me while stomping on tiny aliens.
Kevin S, if you thought you were nervous about the finality of marriage, just wait until you have a Blessed Event. When it was just me and her, I could say “If I screw up or something happens to me, she can make it on her own.” When we added one small helpless person, plus new mother who wasn’t in shape to run right back out to the office, “It Just Didn’t Work Out” was utterly no longer an option.