Mindfire
Istar
Continuing my recent trend of presenting open-ended questions, at what point does a shout out/reference/allusion to another work or piece of culture become a distraction from your own work, break immersion, or come off as pretentious? I figure this will probably be more of a sliding scale than a hard and fast rule. It's pretty well established that mythological allusions are acceptable, if not somewhat expected. No one would bat an eye if my story includes a dragon called Tiamat, a sea serpent named Jormungandr, or even if I include as backstory a thinly-veiled retelling of the conflict between Ra and Apep. That's not what I mean here. I'm talking about references to things created within, let's say the last century or so. Suppose on their way to the quest objective the heroes pass by a blond elf traveling with a fairy companion who won't shut up? If they are never named and the main characters don't interact with them, would you appreciate the reference and keep reading, or would you find it intrusive? Suppose the references is (marginally) more subtle? E.g., a character sees the villain's undead horde for the first time and responds, "It is an army raised for a single purpose. To destroy the world of men." I sometimes feel tempted to include little things like that (though I try to be as subtle as possible) because it makes me feel clever and more connected to the reader. If the reader appreciates the in-joke, it means they enjoyed something that I also enjoyed. It's like telling the reader, "Hey. I get you. We're not so different." But I also see the other side. The reader could find in-jokes annoying, distracting, or even alienating if handled poorly. But where's the line to be drawn? What do you guys think?