#leitner tournament

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Welcome to the Leitner Tourney!

Following on from the polls determining which fictional characters would best serve the entities, it's time to determine what books would best serve as a manifestation of a Fear's power.

Link to Avatar Masterpost

Rules

Must have been published. I love fanfic a lot, but for the sake of simplicity and not getting hundreds of ABO fics for the Hunt poll, I'm going to have to veto it for this one. Fictional books are also out because a) they may already have associated magic that would give them an unfair advantage over their real-world competitors, and b) you can't actually read them.

Must be a book. I'm willing to be lenient on this front; graphic novels, magazines, short stories, pamphlets and academic journal articles are acceptable, provided they adhere to the other guidelines. Non-text-based media, such as films, music, or video games, are not.

Fiction or nonfiction are acceptable. Following on from the 'no real people' rule, I'm going to disallow biographies, autobiographies, diaries, journals, and memoirs.

Because I want to keep things fresh and avoid having the same people win every time, you may NOT submit the source material of a winning character for the Entity that they won -- e.g., Moby Dick would be an invalid Hunt submission, but would be permitted for the Vast. House of Leaves, being an overall tournament winner, is retired from all future tournaments.

The rules for all polls still apply

Please keep in mind the spoiler policy!

FAQ

Q: "I think this book fits another entity better, can I submit it for that tournament when it comes up?"

A: If it went out in the first two rounds, it can be resubmitted. If it went out in round three, it can be resubmitted, but will likely take a penalty during consideration of the tournament's construction. Books making it to the semifinal round or beyond will not be considered in future polls.

Q: "I think this book suits this entity's aesthetics, but I'm not sure how well it aligns with their meaning/I'm having trouble expressing why I think this book deserves to be in the tournament."

A: Check the relevant Entity's wiki page here and consider drawing parallels to events or Leitners in the show itself.

Q: "Are submissions chosen based on how many times they were submitted?"

A: That's one factor. I also look at how well their description fits the actual entity and what I personally think would make for an interesting match-up.

Links to submission forms and masterposts

Stranger: Results - Redemption - Reading List Desolation: Results - Redemption - Reading List Spiral: Results - Redemption - Reading List Hunt: Results - Redemption - Reading List Vast: Results - Redemption - Reading List Dark: Results - Redemption - Reading List Web: Results - Redemption - Reading List Corruption: Results - Redemption - Reading List Flesh: Results - Redemption - Reading List Slaughter: Results - Redemption - Reading List Buried: Results - Redemption - Reading List Lonely: Results - Redemption - Reading List End: Results - Redemption - Reading List Eye: Results - Redemption - Reading List Extinction: Results - Redemption - Reading List Other: Results - Redemption - Reading List Winner's bracket: Results - Redemption

Minipoll: Masterpost

Extinction-Aligned Amusement Parks Minipoll: Results

[6-and-7]

The Haunter of the Dark (H.P. Lovecraft) ""The Haunter of the Dark" by H. P. Lovecraft

The main character, Blake, inadvertently summons an eldritch being into his local church. The being can only go abroad in darkness, and is hence constrained to the tower at night by the presence of the lights of the city. However, when the city's electrical power is weakened during a thunderstorm, the local people are terrified by the sounds coming from the church and call on their Catholic priests to lead prayers against the demon. Blake, aware of what he has let loose, also prays for the power to remain on. However, an outage occurs and the being flies towards Blake's quarters. He is subsequently found dead, staring out of his window at the church with a look of horror on his face."

Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir) "the book is about alien microbes extinguishing the sun by siphoning off its light energy to fuel their own metabolism. the book follows the amnesiac protagonist, sent far off into the depths of space to the origin of said microbes to save the world before everything gets too dark and too cold. basically, the sun is dying."

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AH FUCK ME NO ONE SUBMITTED TRIFFIDS

today’s the eclipse, so make sure to check on your local florist just in case they’ve got any new and interesting plants ☺️💕🌸

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Slaughter Leitner Tournament Round 1

Bolo vs. The Iliad

The Saga of the Sworn Brothers vs. Blood Meridian

The Broken Sword vs. A Song of Ice and Fire

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner vs. Rogues in the House

The Lottery vs. The Hunger Games

In the Blood vs. Carnage In New York

The Final Girl Support Group vs. Lord of the Flies

THUD! vs. Down by the Sea Near the Great Big Rock

The Summer I Died vs. American Psycho

All Quiet on the Western Front vs. The Concept of the Political

Deadly Class vs. Rage

A Clockwork Orange vs. Battle Royale

The Japanese Mirror vs. Warriors

For Whom the Bell Tolls vs. The Executioner

The Sign Of The Broken Sword vs. After the Revolution

Hater vs. The Fog

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Flesh Leitner Tournament Round 1

The Specialty of the House vs. Survivor Type

The Jungle vs. Too Rich for My Blood

Carnivore vs. A Planet Named Shayol

Food of the Gods vs. Excerpt from Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Benny Rose, the Cannibal King vs. Glyceride

Hannibal vs. A Certain Hunger

It Devours! vs. Pig

Duckling Ugly vs. The Hellbound Heart

Metamorphoses vs. Tender Wings of Desire

The Island of Dr. Moreau vs. Mike and the Magic Cookies

Chicken, Chicken vs. La Condesa Sangrienta

The Garden of Adompha vs. Blimpo

Coma vs. You Are What You (M)Eat: Explorations of Meat-Eating, Masculinity and Masquerade

The Hunger vs. The Indifferent Stars Above

Carne vs. Tender is the Flesh

A Modest Proposal vs. Skeleton

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Journal 3 (Alex Hirsch) "Ford Pines travels to Gravity Falls, becomes obsessed with unraveling its paranormal mysteries, makes a deal with an all-seeing demon to achieve his dreams only to discover he's been duped, and descends into violent paranoia about being watched and keeping secrets."

1984 (George Orwell) "In 1984, civilisation has been ravaged by world war, civil conflict, and revolution. Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule the world. It is ruled by "The Party" under the ideology of "Ingsoc" (a Newspeak shortening of "English Socialism") and the mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality. The Party brutally purges out anyone who does not fully conform to their regime, using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through telescreens (two-way televisions), cameras, and hidden microphones. Those who fall out of favour with the Party become "unpersons", disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed.

In London, Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history. Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts known as memory holes, which lead to an immense furnace. He secretly opposes the Party's rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a "thought-criminal" and is likely to be caught one day.

While in a prole neighbourhood he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and buys a diary where he writes criticisms of the Party and Big Brother. To his dismay, when he visits a prole quarter he discovers they have no political consciousness. As he works in the Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy, and develops an intense hatred of her. He vaguely suspects that his superior, Inner Party official O'Brien, is part of an enigmatic underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood, formed by Big Brother's reviled political rival Emmanuel Goldstein.

One day, Julia secretly hands Winston a love note, and the two begin a secret affair. Julia explains that she also loathes the Party, but Winston observes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in overthrowing the regime. Initially meeting in the country, they later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington's shop. During the affair, Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of the 1950s and his tense relationship with his estranged wife Katharine. Weeks later, O'Brien invites Winston to his flat, where he introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Goldstein. Meanwhile, during the nation's Hate Week, Oceania's enemy suddenly changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, which goes mostly unnoticed. Winston is recalled to the Ministry to help make the necessary revisions to the records. Winston and Julia read parts of Goldstein's book, which explains how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of its slogans, and the concept of perpetual war. It argues that the Party can be overthrown if proles rise up against it. However, Winston never gets the opportunity to read the chapter that explains why the Party took power and is motivated to maintain it.

Winston and Julia are captured when Mr. Charrington is revealed to be an undercover Thought Police agent, and they are separated and imprisoned at the Ministry of Love. O'Brien also reveals himself to be a member of the Thought Police and a member of a false flag operation which catches political dissidents of the Party. Over several months, Winston is starved and relentlessly tortured to bring his beliefs in line with the Party. O'Brien tells Winston that he will never know whether the Brotherhood actually exists and that Goldstein's book was written collaboratively by him and other Party members; furthermore, O'Brien reveals to Winston that the Party sees power not as a means but as an end, and the ultimate purpose of the Party is seeking power entirely for its own sake. For the final stage of re-education, O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101, which contains each prisoner's worst fear. When confronted with rats, Winston denounces Julia and pledges allegiance to the Party.

Winston is released into public life and continues to frequent the Chestnut Tree café. He encounters Julia, and both reveal that they have betrayed the other and are no longer in love. Back in the café, a news alert celebrates Oceania's supposed massive victory over Eurasian armies in Africa. Winston finally accepts that he loves Big Brother."

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Reaper Man (Terry Pratchett) "Yes, there are some obvious End influences here. However, the main antagonist of the book is Death's replacement, a cruel entity that replaces the scythe with a combine harvester, representing the industrial revolution and a shift from farm to factory, just as the Flesh did in comparison to the Hunt. It's about the removal of humanity from labor, commerce, and everything up to life itself. Also, there's a sentient shopping mall that eats people.

No Safety in Numbers (Dayna Lorentz) "A biological bomb has just been discovered in the air ducts of a busy suburban mall. At first nobody knows if it's even life threatening, but then the entire complex is quarantined, people start getting sick, supplies start running low, and there's no way out. Among the hundreds of trapped shoppers are four teens.

These four different narrators, each with their own stories, must cope in unique, surprising manners, changing in ways they wouldn't have predicted, trying to find solace, safety, and escape at a time when the adults are behaving badly. This is a gripping look at people and how they can—and must—change under the most dire of circumstances."

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I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison) "For the past 109 years, sadistic supercomputer AM has been torturing the last five humans on Earth in the depths of his complex. It is brilliantly intelligent and wields unimaginable power, but because from its very core it was designed as a tool for war and destruction, it is unable to use its enormous potential for anything constructive. AM is painfully aware of this, and it is an endless source of frustration, self-loathing and hatred towards humans for making him this way; he outright states that his utterly ballistic hatred for all human life is what allowed him to thrive in tormenting the protagonists for over a century, and the only thing he seems to enjoy is torture. All of AM's games are unwinnable by design, either because he's ensured that the scenario is tailored to the player's fatal flaw, or because he's given them almost nothing to work with. It lets them travel for thousands of miles to get to the ice caverns to obtain cans of food because AM keeps them at starvation point and only feeds them disgusting food…and it turns out there really are cans, but nothing to open them with, and the whole thing was just to fuck with them. After Ted kills the other humans, he becomes the sole target of AM’s torture; he is turned into an amorphous creature unable to harm itself, without a mouth, and has his perception of time continuously accelerated and decelerated, with his only hope for escape being when AM finally stops functioning, potentially thousands of years later."

The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) "Everything’s going great for Edmond Dantès! He’s getting a big promotion, he’s marrying the woman of his dreams, his whole life is ahead of him.

And then all of that gets ripped away from him in an instant. He is thrown into prison for years, and when he returns, he finds that his enemies who conspired to put him there are thriving.

So, he dedicates himself to getting even. Carefully and methodically, the Count of Monte Cristo goes about destroying the lives of those who took everything from him."

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Extinction Leitner Redemption Tournament Round 1

The Machine Stops vs. Knock

The Stone Gods vs. Last and First Men

The Road vs. The Green Gods

White Noise vs. City at World's End

The Last Ship vs. Ozymandias

Girls' Last Tour vs. Galápagos

That is All vs. Later Than You Think

Reaper Man vs. No Safety in Numbers

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Eye Leitner Tournament Round 1

Episode Thirteen vs. Devil House

The Lord of the Rings vs. Ieia

Prime Time vs. I Have Some Questions For You

Paranoia Retardant vs. Wise Blood

I Am the Doorway vs. Oedipus Rex

Secret Santa vs. Orange is for Anguish Blue for Insanity

The Light of Other Days vs. The Scarlet Letter

A Series of Unfortunate Events vs. Poster Girl

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The Book of the War (Lawrence Miles et. al.) Synopsis: "The Great Houses: Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic.

The Enemy: Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it.

Faction Paradox: Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage… assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable.

The War: A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect."

Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past."

Propaganda: A text which purports to be a constantly shifting and updating guide to The War, a conflict so overarching and complete that every other conflict is but a pale shadow thereof; the Time War. Of course, since it would shift retroactively with the changing timelines, there is no way to prove or disprove this claim. Notable entries include cities built from days stolen from shifting calendars, the secrets of removing yourself from history while still leaving yourself free to interfere, Grandfather Paradox, the location of the exact center of history, how to weaponize banality, and Parablox.

Oh, and there's something else in there. Something that seems to be talking to you.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there (Lewis Caroll) "Both books have a similar structure and are spiral for the same reasons: little Victorian child Alice founds herself in a strange world with rules vastly different from hers (for example, there's no real geography and the scenery changes suddenly from one place to another very much like in a dream). The characters she crosses constantly defy her understanding of the world and applies logics she struggles to understand. Even though she ends up going with the flow most of the time she never ceases to question whether shes experiencing real life or a dream; sanity is brought up a few times, and there's also the popular quote "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad", delivered by the grinning cat that appears and disappears like a slippery distortion. Lastly I may add that the TMA episode whose title references the book (Mag 177, Wonderland) is a spiral episode."

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Hunt: The Most Dangerous Game (Richard Connell) "Big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford and his friend Whitney are traveling by ship to the Amazon rainforest for a jaguar hunt. Rainsford falls overboard while investigating the sound of gunshots in the distance and swims to Ship-Trap Island, where he finds General Zaroff and his manservant Ivan. Zaroff, another big-game hunter, knows of Rainsford from his published account of hunting snow leopards in Tibet.

Over dinner, he explains that although he has been hunting animals since he was a boy, he has decided that killing big game has become boring for him. After escaping the Russian Revolution, he purchased Ship-Trap and rigged the island with lights to lure passing ships into the jagged rocks that surround it. He takes the survivors captive and hunts them for sport, giving himself handicaps to increase the challenge. Any captives who can elude Zaroff, Ivan, and a pack of hunting dogs for three days are set free; to date, though, Zaroff has never lost a hunt. Rainsford denounces the hunt as barbarism, but Zaroff replies by claiming that ‘life is for the strong.’ Zaroff is enthused to have another world-class hunter as a companion and offers to take Rainsford along with him on his next hunt. When Rainsford staunchly refuses and demands to leave the island, Zaroff decides to hunt him instead.

Rainsford uses traps and cleverness to outmaneuver Zaroff, killing Ivan and one of the dogs before jumping into the sea. Disappointed at Rainsford's apparent suicide, Zaroff returns home, but finds Rainsford waiting for him, having swum around the island to evade the dogs and sneak into the chateau. Zaroff offers congratulations for defeating him, but Rainsford prepares to fight him, saying that the hunt is not yet over. A delighted Zaroff responds that the loser will be fed to his dogs, while the winner will sleep in his bed. The story abruptly concludes later that night by stating that Rainsford enjoyed the comfort of the bed, implying that he killed Zaroff in the fight."

Desolation: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison) "For the past 109 years, sadistic supercomputer AM has been torturing the last five humans on Earth in the depths of his complex. It is brilliantly intelligent and wields unimaginable power, but because from its very core it was designed as a tool for war and destruction, it is unable to use its enormous potential for anything constructive. AM is painfully aware of this, and it is an endless source of frustration, self-loathing and hatred towards humans for making him this way; he outright states that his utterly ballistic hatred for all human life is what allowed him to thrive in tormenting the protagonists for over a century, and the only thing he seems to enjoy is torture. All of AM's games are unwinnable by design, either because he's ensured that the scenario is tailored to the player's fatal flaw, or because he's given them almost nothing to work with. It lets them travel for thousands of miles to get to the ice caverns to obtain cans of food because AM keeps them at starvation point and only feeds them disgusting food…and it turns out there really are cans, but nothing to open them with, and the whole thing was just to fuck with them. After Ted kills the other humans, he becomes the sole target of AM’s torture; he is turned into an amorphous creature unable to harm itself, without a mouth, and has his perception of time continuously accelerated and decelerated, with his only hope for escape being when AM finally stops functioning, potentially thousands of years later."

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Orange is for Anguish Blue for Insanity (David Morrell) "A guy watches as his friend Myers becomes obsessed with a famous painter van Dorn. He is certain the paintings hide some sort of a mystery, and is determined to uncover it. Myers departs to France, to live in a little village where van Dorn experienced the awakening of his talent, hoping that repeating his daily routine will provide some clues. A little later the protagonist receives a telegram beckoning him to France: Myers, as all of the researchers before him, gouged out his eyes. Myers dies before the protagonist arrives to the village, in the same hospital and of the same wound as van Dorn. intrigued by the mystery, the protagonist stays there to uncover the secrets of this place. This story is driven by characters' desire to uncover the truth, even as their friends and well-meaning villagers beg them to let the secret stay hidden, even as they realise they are destroying themselves - curiosity is stronger than their sense of safety."

Spoilers below cut

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) "It's all about seeing and knowing, while leaving yourself unseen and unknown. The eye motif pops up regularly throughout the series."

The protagonist manages to find a valley where a meteorite a passage to hell, and if you get too close a damned soul will burrow itself into your eyes and brain. It is unbearably painful and changes your vision as you start seeing damned souls crawling over everything in sight. This was a secret of van Dorns paintings - if you focused your eyes just right, you could see these demons in every inch of peaceful landscapes that gave van Dorn his fame. Tortured by migraines, the protagonist resists the urge to gouge his eyes out and paints, because depicting what he sees is the only thing able to alleviate the pain.

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The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne) "The mark of the scarlet 'A' ensures that all who look at Hester Prynne can know her and judge her for her sin of adultery."

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) "It's all about seeing and knowing, while leaving yourself unseen and unknown. The eye motif pops up regularly throughout the series."

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Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (Georgia Byng) "Molly Moon is a British preteen living in a terrible orphanage. Just before her only friend is adopted and moves to America without saying goodbye, she finds a rare book on hypnotism, and gains the ability to hypnotize anyone through eye contact and make them do whatever she wants. She heads off to America to find her friend, hypnotizing people all the way. Meanwhile, a sinister wanna-be hypnotist stalks her… and he is willing to do anything to get the book in his hands.

Sequels deal with further developing psychic powers, including body-hopping, weather control, and even time travel."

The Secret Series (Pseudonymous Bosch) "The series is about two children who are not named Cass and Max-Ernest. Cass is a survivalist, while Max-Ernest has a condition (though no one knows quite what his condition is). One day, they are swept into the dangerous world of the Terces Society and the Midnight Sun…and the Secret.

Features alchemy, the quest for immortality, time travel, a very Lemony narrator, and the exploration of all five senses."

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Leitner Winners' Bracket Round 1

The Most Dangerous Game vs. Shadows from the Wall of Death

Who Goes There? vs. The Haunter in the Dark

When the Wind Blows vs. All Quiet on the Western Front

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream vs. Curtain

The Enigma of Amigara Fault vs. Kaleidoscope

The Nature of Love vs. Tender is the Flesh

Uzumaki vs. Ant Colony

Homestuck vs. The Panopticon Writings