Usage
In Australia, a minor literary scandal erupted in 1997 when it emerged that award-winning author Helen Darville plagiarised this list for her regular column in Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper, which led to her being fired.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden, noted author and lecturer, uses an expanded version of the list in her lectures on writing science fiction. She recommends selecting five random clichés from the list, and using them, or their reverse ("Say you've drawn A-34, 'I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.' You can have a character turn into a snake and find it doesn't help, or do it and find it very useful indeed") as the basis for a plot.
From 2001–2002, the alt.eo Alt.* hierarchy newsgroup was dedicated to discussing and adding to the list.
In 2007, issue #6 of Marvel Comics' Heroes for Hire featured a Doombot which had been reprogrammed with the contents of the list.
If I Were An Evil Overlord, a 2007 short story anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davis, explicitly references the various lists as source material.
PS238, issue 33 (published in 2008), includes a mention of the EOL in the main story, plus an appendix with fifty major points from the list.
In the S.M. Stirling novel The Protector's War, excerpts from the list are printed in the back of the book of plans distributed to the Protector's subordinate nobles.
Jim Butcher refers to the list a number of times in his contemporary fantasy series, The Dresden Files.
TV Tropes has a copy of the list (including a copyright notice) along with several additions. They also have a copy of the original list compiled by Jack Butler.
In May 2012, students from Lehigh University of Pennsylvania published a blog post that examined how much it would cost to follow all of the instructions on the list. The students concluded that while some money would be saved, overall it would require $14,268,632.
Read more about this topic: Evil Overlord List
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)