Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Allusions and Cultural References

When authors give shout outs to other great works, people, and events, it's usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literary and Philosophical References

  • Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (referenced throughout)
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (referenced throughout)
  • Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (5.12)
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald (7.60)
  • Elie Wiesel (7.80)
  • Susan Sontag (7.87)
  • Ovid, The Metamorphosis (10.1)

Historical References

  • The bombing of Dresden (referenced throughout)
  • September 11, 2001 (referenced throughout)
  • Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, "The Flight of the Bumblebee" (1.6)
  • The unsolved Chandra Levy murder case (1.26)
  • Alexander Graham Bell (1.33, 5.57)
  • The Mona Lisa (5.1)
  • Thomas Edison (5.57)
  • Benjamin Franklin (5.57)
  • Henry Ford (5.57)
  • Eli Whitney (5.57)
  • George Washington Carver (5.57)
  • Nikola Tesla (5.57)
  • The Wright Brothers (5.57)
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer (5.57)
  • Kofi Annan (5.60)
  • Former French President Jacques Chirac (5.60)
  • E.O. Wilson (5.60)
  • Bill Gates (5.60)
  • Vladimir Putin (5.60)
  • Pablo Picasso (7.49)
  • Winston Churchill (7.60, 7.64)
  • Walter Cronkite (7.64)
  • The Bay of Pigs (7.64)
  • Kent State (7.64)
  • Ayatollah Khomeini (7.64)
  • Leon Trotsky (7.64)
  • The Berlin Wall (7.64)
  • Frank Lloyd Wright (7.64)
  • The Spanish Civil War (7.64)
  • Henry Kissinger (7.70)
  • Che Guevara (7.72)
  • Mahatma Gandhi (7.75)
  • Ariel Sharon (7.84)
  • Yasir Arafat (7.86)
  • Pope John Paul II (7.91)
  • Mohamed Atta (7.95)
  • Claude Debussy, Sunken Cathedral (7.105)
  • Joseph Stalin (7.112)
  • The Great Depression (13.93)
  • Antonin Scalia (15.4)

Pop Culture References

  • The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" (1.1)
  • The Beatles "I Am the Walrus" (1.36, 15.88, 17.155)
  • Ringo Starr (3.17)
  • Siegfried and Roy (5.60)
  • Weird Al Yankovic (5.60)
  • Gone with the Wind (7.64)
  • Grace Kelly (7.64)
  • Hula hoops (7.64)
  • The Beatles, "Something in the Way She Moves" (7.65)
  • Jeff Bezos (7.73)
  • Arthur Ashe (7.78)
  • Tom Cruise (7.79)
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger (7.81)
  • Martha Stewart (7.82)
  • Mick Jagger (7.85)
  • Wolfgang Puck (7.88)
  • Marilyn Monroe (7.94)
  • The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby" (7.108)
  • Emma Watson (9.33)
  • Harry Potter (9.33)
  • The Beatles, "Hey Jude" (9.107)
  • An Affair to Remember (13.97)
  • Sleepless in Seattle (13.97)
  • Donald Trump (17.12)
  • Barbie (17.13)