Tough Traveling: Gnomic Utterances
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in (and inspired by) The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information.
This week’s tour topic is: Gnomic Utterances
These are traditional and are set at the head of each section. Culled from a mighty collection of wise sayings compiled by a sage some centuries before the Tour begins. The Rule is that no Utterance has anything whatsoever to do with the section it precedes.
In other words… Those quotes that always start the chapter but rarely are connected to the plot.
Mogsy’s Picks:
Oh, hahaha, when I first glimpsed this topic on the master list, I mistakenly thought it said GNOMISH Utterances. Good thing I realized my error before I started tearing my hair out trying to come up with books featuring gnomes that say dumb things. Okay, this definitely makes things easier. I probably could have found a few more examples if I plundered my e-book library too, but it’s just so much more convenient to flip through my physical book pile checking for gnomic utterances at the beginning of each chapter.
Featuring examples from the following books:
The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán – Along with pretty illustrations of dinosaurs at the top of each chapter heading.
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson – Sanderson loves his gnomic utterances…
The Unremembered by Peter Orullian
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Moontide Quartet by David Hair
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin – In which the gnomic utterances are at end of each chapter, not before.
Wendy’s Pick
Yup, I totally thought this was about “GNOMISH utterances,” so I’m glad Mogsy was on the ball. Still, even though she’s not even a gnome, I am still going to pretend ignorance and grace you with the gnomish utterances of Betty from Rat Queens.
The BiblioSanctum 
Good job on your choices, ladies! I promise to start back contributing to next week! Had lots of stuff going on, as you know! But you’re doing awesome on the TTs!
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Good thing, because I might be throwing in the towel this week 😀
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Lol
I love reading gnomic utterances in books
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Gnomic? Or Gnomish? Haha!
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I read it as gnomish and did it accordingly….
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I had World of Warcraft on my list too, and was all prepared to use it…
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Haha, I totally read Gnomish as well :p I’m considering joining you guys in Tough Traveling! Looks fun!
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It’s loads of fun! Definitely come play 🙂
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So THAT is what those little excerpts are called! I was so confused when I read the title because I had no idea what it meant – except for something gnomish, which seemed to be everyone else’s impression, too. *lol*
Oddly enough, the only SFF book I’ve read that had gnomic utterances at the beginning of every chapter was Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Some of the utterances were proverbs and adages; others were actual quotes from published children’s books like Where The Wild Things Are, The Chronicles of Narnia, and several Roald Dahl books.
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I’m reading Starship Troopers right now and it’s got quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Does that count?
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Sounds like Inkheart and Starship Troopers would both count 🙂
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Yep, right there with you in thinking it was GNOMISH. Happy you did think that though, because now I get to see how funny Betty is! 🙂
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Betty forever! Although, I love all the Rat Queens equally.
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Great list! I saw this topic and ran for the hills. Too much research for me. You guys did your usual wonderful job with it though. 🙂
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Yep, I, uh, researched…lol. Okay okay, I confess, it was mostly just me sitting on the floor pulling books off my shelves flipping through them one after another 😀
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Well done! I drew a complete blank this week. I probably have read a book with them in but none were coming to mind.
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Yep, the hard part was remembering where I’ve seen gnomic utterances. It feels like I see them all the time, but when I’m actually trying to come up with titles? *panic*
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I wish I’d done this week’s TT, but for some reason I thought it would be too hard. I love the way you took photos of the actual gnomic phrases! Cool:-)
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Mogsy did a great job with those! She went the extra gnomic mile.
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Yeah, I figured this week I’d let the pictures do the talking 🙂
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I should definitely have had the Dinosaur Lords – it’s so recent!. Sanderson is the perfect choice though. – Gnomish utterances would have been better I think!
Lynn 😀
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Dinosaur Lords was the second one that came to mind after Stormlight Archive, because yep, it was a recent one for me too 🙂
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Ha, I definitely expected to see quotes about gnomes. Ah, I had no idea those passages had a name!
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