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Unconventional Formatting
- 181 statements
- 34 feature instances
- 51 referencing feature instances
Unconventional Formatting | type |
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Unconventional Formatting | label |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting | page |
UnconventionalFormatting | |
Unconventional Formatting | comment |
A literary trope in which the text is arranged on the page in strange ways, including but not limited to: tfel-ot-thgir (ni nrestseW skrow), bottom-to-top, reversed, u�op-�pᴉsdn etc. It can also make use of colours, multiple Fonts and other typographical tricks of this nature. It can be done for a variety of reasons. A popular one is to represent a character's mental state, e.g. using cramped text to symbolize claustrophobia or feeling "trapped". Or, to just Think in Text, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Other writers may use it to visually represent the action being described in the text. The technical name for this is ergodic literature, from the Greek ergon, meaning "work", and hodos, meaning "path" — that is, formatting in which a non-trivial amount of work is required on the part of the reader to find a "path" through the text. A subtrope of Painting the Medium. Sometimes used in Meta Fiction and Scrapbook Stories. If employed throughout a work it may be a kind of Constrained Writing. Related to Double-Sided Book (a book with two flipped sides), just on a smaller scale, and Page-Turn Surprise (when a Cliffhanger's resolution is on the next page). See also Footnote Fever (with which this sometimes overlaps), all lowercase letters, No Punctuation Period, Rainbow Speak, Censor Box, Bold Inflation, Color-Coded for Your Convenience. Interface Screw is the Video Game equivalent. May be used for Translation Punctuation. Note: When adding examples, please be descriptive. |
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Unconventional Formatting | fetched |
2024-04-25T08:32:14Z | |
Unconventional Formatting | parsed |
2024-04-25T08:32:14Z | |
Unconventional Formatting | processingComment |
Dropped link to CensorBox: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Unconventional Formatting | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Unconventional Formatting | processingComment |
Dropped link to TranslationPunctuation: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Unconventional Formatting | processingUnknown |
TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids | |
Unconventional Formatting | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_11c6567a | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_11c6567a | comment |
Fforde also uses this to graphically show what's happening in the text. Mycroft's Bookworms in The Eyre Affair produce apostrophes' as a waste product, as well as amper&s, and when they get upset, they hyphen-ate. These marks show up in the text of the dialogue to illustrate this. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_11c6567a | featureApplicability |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_11c6567a | featureConfidence |
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Thursday Next | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_11c6567a | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_1fc7499e | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_1fc7499e | comment |
In Reaper Man Death who is famous for speaking in ALL CAPS meets his boss, who speaks in "caps" so huge and bold they took up an entire page. Pratchett stated in interviews that he spent quite a bit of time arranging the prose so that this would happen on a left hand page and thus be a surprise to the reader. (And then a miscommunication meant that this didn't happen in the paperback, even though he'd written another scene so it would.) Reaper Man also uses two different typefaces for the A story and B story. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_1fc7499e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_1fc7499e | featureConfidence |
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Reaper Man | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_1fc7499e | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_222b64ac | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_222b64ac | comment |
The foreword to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is formatted to resemble a silhouette of a bomb. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_222b64ac | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_222b64ac | featureConfidence |
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Slaughterhouse-Five | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_222b64ac | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_238a4c21 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_238a4c21 | comment |
Most versions of The Talmud are arranged like this, with each page containing the main text of the Mishnah and Gemara at the center, with numerous commentaries and indices wrapping around them in smaller text sizes. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_238a4c21 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_238a4c21 | featureConfidence |
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The Talmud | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_238a4c21 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2b21b24c | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2b21b24c | comment |
And for that matter, Ellison himself has used the technique in a few stories. (Examples include "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes," "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "The Deathbird," among others.) | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2b21b24c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2b21b24c | featureConfidence |
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I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2b21b24c | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2ba3176c | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2ba3176c | comment |
In The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, the character is approached by a giant spider. The onomatopoeia used to describe this approach is 'boom!' in constantly increasing letter size, until the word covers a complete page. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2ba3176c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2ba3176c | featureConfidence |
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The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_2ba3176c | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_354d43de | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_354d43de | comment |
In the Red Dwarf novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, a lengthy elevator ride down through the spaceship Red Dwarf's cargo levels is conveyed by repeating the word "down" almost every other line, until finally it appears written with each letter on a separate line: | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_354d43de | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_354d43de | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Red Dwarf | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_354d43de | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_3ec5b7a6 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_3ec5b7a6 | comment |
House of Leaves is possibly the most extreme example of this: multiple fonts, multiple colours, literally hundreds of footnotes, text which goes up, down, left, right, backwards, in spirals, sometimes only with one or two words printed per page and so on. It was so over-the-top the publisher's typesetters wouldn't even look at it, so Danielewski was forced to typeset it himself. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_3ec5b7a6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_3ec5b7a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
House of Leaves | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_3ec5b7a6 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_40584212 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_40584212 | comment |
Ripper (2014) is written in third-person POV, except for the passages in first-person from Indiana's abductor. This part of the text is italicized. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_40584212 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_40584212 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ripper (2014) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_40584212 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_42ffb88e | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_42ffb88e | comment |
SCP Foundation has numerous articles where the typical format of database entries is disrupted by the In-Universe effects of the object involved. See the Foundation's subpage on Painting the Medium for examples. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_42ffb88e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_42ffb88e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
SCP Foundation (Website) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_42ffb88e | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4a94a5fc | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4a94a5fc | comment |
In Maskerade many readers were puzzled by a sentence fragment on the page, floating near the right margin saying "up here?". Near the bottom of the page a character is asked to demonstrate her skill in throwing her voice. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4a94a5fc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4a94a5fc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Maskerade | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4a94a5fc | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4b47f278 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4b47f278 | comment |
Finnegans Wake (naturally) has the occasional letter lying prone or supine or standing on its head, as well as sheet music interrupting the "narrative", a whole chapter spaced like an old classbook with two columns for marginalia and lots of footnotes, and special characters like triangles or squares standing in for some of the characters (sometimes. Maybe. It's hard to tell). Zettels Traum, Arno Schmidt's valiant (German-language) attempt at imitating the above has much of the same: multiple columns (frequently switching sides), very idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation throughout, as well as handwritten notes and blacked-out words, sentences or paragraphs (though to be fair, the novel was published as a facsimile version of the original typoscript, which the author never got around to preparing for print). |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_4b47f278 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4b47f278 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Finnegans Wake | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_4b47f278 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_50bcf7a6 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_50bcf7a6 | comment |
Homestuck is all about this. Every character has their own unique typing style that fits their personality (the humans doing subtle things like dropping initial caps or using different emoticons, and the trolls favouring Leet Lingo), certain Arc Words are written in specific (occasionally flashing) colours or with an animated gif replacing one of the letters, and at one point a character doing something around the back of the narrator speaks to the reader through Alt Text. The ==> command that indicates a new page is even replaced with ======> for the troll arc, to reflect the change from the four main characters to the twelve main characters (count the bars). At one point, Homestuck splits into two pages of the comic per web page, displaying them as two different columns, which allows larger pictures to be shown with half of their pieces on one column and half of them on the other. Naturally, the ==> arrows on the left column tilt upwards, since they direct the reader to the other side of the web page. |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_50bcf7a6 | featureApplicability |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_50bcf7a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Homestuck (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_50bcf7a6 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_514b9ee5 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_514b9ee5 | comment |
SIGNALIS: One of the notes you can find is written right-to-left and top-to-bottom in monospaced capitals. It is a clue to solving a puzzle, so before you can work out what it means, you have to work out what it says. It helps that the right-most column clearly says EMPRESS. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_514b9ee5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_514b9ee5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
SIGNALIS (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_514b9ee5 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_5d79b4c0 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_5d79b4c0 | comment |
The parody RPG HoL is entirely handwritten, as if someone took the notes they'd scrawled on a napkin for their role-playing game and just printed them as is. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_5d79b4c0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_5d79b4c0 | featureConfidence |
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HoL | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_5d79b4c0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_76e88c0b | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_76e88c0b | comment |
Trainspotting uses slightly unusual textual layouts whilst the protagonist is hallucinating due to heroin withdrawal. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_76e88c0b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_76e88c0b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Trainspotting | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_76e88c0b | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_93e8b35e | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_93e8b35e | comment |
"The Mouse's Tale" in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland winds down the page as if it were a mouse's tail. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_93e8b35e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_93e8b35e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
AliceInWonderland | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_93e8b35e | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9e876c22 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9e876c22 | comment |
Good Omens mentions about a million styles of typography used for the title and multiple subtitles of Agnes Nutter's "nice and accurate" book of prophecies. Though if you've seen the title pages of sufficiently old books, you'll know this is Truth in Television. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9e876c22 | featureApplicability |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_9e876c22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Good Omens | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9e876c22 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9fdd51 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9fdd51 | comment |
Danielewski's next novel, Only Revolutions, makes use of other tricks like this: more extensive use of colours, a timeline sidebar in the left margin of every page, and perhaps most insanely, the fact that the book is actually two different narratives - half the text is printed upside-down, so if you flip the book around and start from the other side, you can read the same story from the other protagonist's perspective. And of course, all their narration is arranged erratically in general. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9fdd51 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9fdd51 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Only Revolutions | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_9fdd51 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a2763fcf | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a2763fcf | comment |
In Fortune_Lover_(TGS Beta)(SARU_rip)[T+Eng0.75_Sincere].zip: when Parasite_Ib mentioned the titular file (which turns out to be a Game Mod of a Fictional Video Game), the filename is centered and changed to a fixed-width typeface. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a2763fcf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a2763fcf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Fortune_Lover_(TGS Beta)(SARU_rip)[T+Eng0.75_Sincere].zip (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a2763fcf | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a4b32585 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a4b32585 | comment |
In The City of Dreaming Books, right after the villain is revealed, he hands the main character a book which will "answer all his questions" on page 333. As he flips through the book, all pages are completely blank until he gets to page 333. The next two pages of the novel are completely filled with tiny letters that only say "You just have been poisoned. You just have been poisoned. You just have been poisoned. You just have been poisoned..." The next two pages of the novel are completely printed black with only a few words in white letters describing how he falls unconscious. You probably have to squint a bit and move the book close to your face to read it. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a4b32585 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a4b32585 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The City of Dreaming Books | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a4b32585 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5549ed0 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5549ed0 | comment |
Several versions of The Bible ('Red Letter' versions) print anything said by God in red. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5549ed0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5549ed0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Bible | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5549ed0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5f8cf3c | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5f8cf3c | comment |
The Fifty Year Sword only features a small handful of words per page and coloured quotation marks to indicate who is speaking. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5f8cf3c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5f8cf3c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Fifty Year Sword | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_a5f8cf3c | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd310eaa | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd310eaa | comment |
In El Goonish Shive, Diane's magical charisma boost is initially indicated by using a distinctive unusual font whenever the spell is active. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd310eaa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd310eaa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
El Goonish Shive (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd310eaa | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd4fd5e9 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd4fd5e9 | comment |
The Familiar uses different fonts and layouts depending on the character who is the focus of the chapter — and there's plenty of unusual occurrences too, like words falling like raindrops, forests made out of # symbols or, most notably, animals shaped out of words and phrases describing them. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd4fd5e9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd4fd5e9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Familiar | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_bd4fd5e9 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c0c155a6 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c0c155a6 | comment |
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close does this. Some words are circled in red, and entire pages are left blank, among other things. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c0c155a6 | featureApplicability |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_c0c155a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c0c155a6 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c8806255 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c8806255 | comment |
Solar Wind utilizes this everywhere. The story uses Discord's programmer formatting to convey its protagonist, Tav's, thoughts, as well as emojis to represent the voices of other characters. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c8806255 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c8806255 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Solar Wind (Roleplay) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_c8806255 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_cdcbdaed | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_cdcbdaed | comment |
One of the books in the Wayside School series involved a student standing on his head. The text of one paragraph was flipped upside down. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_cdcbdaed | featureApplicability |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_cdcbdaed | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Wayside School | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_cdcbdaed | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ceb35731 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ceb35731 | comment |
Voldemort's Children uses different colors and styles for each character's speech, and for the main character, Harry, the color/style changes over the course of the story to reflect Harry's changing thoughts. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ceb35731 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ceb35731 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Voldemort's Children (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ceb35731 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_e11e9296 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_e11e9296 | comment |
Tristram Shandy is probably the Ur-Example, including several unusual lines drawn to illustrate the "narrative line" of each volume and a completely black page after describing Parson Yorick's death. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_e11e9296 | featureApplicability |
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Unconventional Formatting / int_e11e9296 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tristram Shandy | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_e11e9296 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ea3d3f82 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ea3d3f82 | comment |
The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester use unusual type layout to depict telepathic conversations (sentences trailing down a page and interweaving like braids; a party game where the image formed by the words is a kind of charade clue). | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ea3d3f82 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ea3d3f82 | featureConfidence |
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The Demolished Man | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ea3d3f82 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ec9155b1 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ec9155b1 | comment |
When the god Om regains his strength at the end of Small Gods, he speaks with chapter and verse numbers inserted between his sentences. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ec9155b1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ec9155b1 | featureConfidence |
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Small Gods | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ec9155b1 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ee7390b9 | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ee7390b9 | comment |
Harsh Generation (inspired by Dhalgren, above) features crossed-out sections, idiosyncratic punctuation, and sentences that stop abruptly, including the novel's closing line. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ee7390b9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ee7390b9 | featureConfidence |
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Harsh Generation | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_ee7390b9 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_f163bd9f | type |
Unconventional Formatting | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_f163bd9f | comment |
An original early ElfQuest comic had a hand-lettered foreword on the inside front cover in the shape of a wolf's head. | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_f163bd9f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Unconventional Formatting / int_f163bd9f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
ElfQuest (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Unconventional Formatting / int_f163bd9f |
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