Fictional Books You'd Like to Read Quoted in Novels
jtingle
headings, etc.
In some cases, the fictional books become infamous, 'The
Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred' or 'The King in
Yellow' come to mind. These are two books I'm sure no sane
person would want to read (almost by definition).
On the other hand, some of the grace notes are often as
interesting as (or unintentionally more interesting than)
the novels they grace. The three that come immediately to
mind for me are:
Fitzgerald, 'Probability & Human Conduct' (from Murray
Leinster's 'Med Ship' stories... Thanks, Eric Flint.*)
Fitzgerald, 'The Practice of Thinking' (also from the 'Med
Ship' stories)
'The Eco-Tech Dialogs' (from Modesitt's 'Parafaith War')
In all 3 cases, interesting oblique views of human conduct
and it's interaction with society and the larger world are
presented, very plausibly. In the first two cases as
science, in the third as philosophy.
What other books in novels that you wish someone had
actually written come to mind?
Regards,
Jack Tingle
*I was glad to see these republished. I always loved
Leinster, even if he invented a sub-genre I despise, 'modern
men in a group transposed into past primitive cultures'.
Extra points for the story title and date. [PERSONAL
OPINION: My suspicion is that this is the progenitor for all
of the useless, misbegotten, tree-killing, shelf-clogging,
'tampering with time line/alternate history'
intellectual-auto-eroticism (to be polite) books that have
come since. In any case, Steve Stirling owes Leinster big
time. So do a whole lot of other authors who used
Leinster's ur-plots.]
Anton Sherwood
> What other books in novels that you wish someone had
> actually written come to mind?
<The Avatar's Apprentice> looks like fun, but I imagine Baron Bodissey's
<Life> as a mountain of platitudes and twaddle with the occasional gem.
(Both by Jack Vance.)
--
Anton Sherwood, http://www.ogre.nu/
D E Siegel
>
>*I was glad to see these republished. I always loved
>Leinster, even if he invented a sub-genre I despise, 'modern
>men in a group transposed into past primitive cultures'.
>Extra points for the story title and date. [PERSONAL
>OPINION: My suspicion is that this is the progenitor for all
>of the useless, misbegotten, tree-killing, shelf-clogging,
>'tampering with time line/alternate history'
>intellectual-auto-eroticism (to be polite) books that have
>come since. In any case, Steve Stirling owes Leinster big
>time. So do a whole lot of other authors who used
>Leinster's ur-plots."
>
>
You put this text in quotes, did you write it? if not, who did?
I assume that the ref is to "Sidewise in Time" although there maybe another
Leinster story I have missed. Personally i think that the modern AH sub-genre
derives more from _Lest Darkness Fall_ then it does from Leinster.
In any cse the development was fairly obvious given H.G. Wells's _The Time
Machine_, IMO.
By this reasoning RAH owes Leinster big time for the generation ship "ur-plot"
("Far Centarus" IIRC)
-DES
Warrick M. Locke
Heh. I'd like very much to have the set of _Life_ [the full ten volumes, not the six-volume
early work.] What are the titles of all of them? By the evidence of later stories, the books
form, more or less, the Constitution of the Gaean Reach.
But you sound like the reviews quoted in _The Killing Machine_: "Six volumes
of rhodomontade and piffle" -- _Academia_, London, Earth.
Regards,
Ric
Dorothy J Heydt
jtingle <jti...@shore.net> wrote:
>SF authors seem to like to make up book quotes for chapter
>headings, etc.
>
>In some cases, the fictional books become infamous, 'The
>Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred' or 'The King in
>Yellow'
James Blish reconstructed it, or 99% of it anyway. See
"More Light" in _Alchemy and Academe,_ ed. Anne
McCaffrey.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djh...@kithrup.com
http://www.kithrup.com/~djheydt
Anton Sherwood
> Heh. I'd like very much to have the set of [Bodissey's] _Life_.
> . . . By the evidence of later stories, the books form, more
> or less, the Constitution of the Gaean Reach.
Not the Constitution; maybe the Tocqueville. ;)
Adam Canning
says...
> SF authors seem to like to make up book quotes for chapter
> headings, etc.
>
> In some cases, the fictional books become infamous, 'The
> Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred' or 'The King in
> Yellow' come to mind. These are two books I'm sure no sane
> person would want to read (almost by definition).
>
> What other books in novels that you wish someone had
> actually written come to mind?
IIRC Lem did two books, one a set of reviews of imaginary volumes the
other forewords to a different set.
Some of those I'd like to have seen.
And Id like a copy of the Kaerthreon Cycle, otherwise known as Prophecies
of the Dragon. Preferably in the vulgar tongue.
--
Adam
Once you have pulled the pin, Mr Nova Bomb is no longer your friend.
Will Linden
I would dearly like to get THE RED CUCKOLD (mentioned in several places
by Cabell as the "sequel" to the book he is "translating" in CHIVALRY), so
I could see HIS version of Richard III.
Oops, I guess that doesn't count because CHIVALRY is not a "novel".
--
Will Linden wli...@panix.com
http://www.ecben.net/
Magic Code: MAS/GD S++ W++ N+ PWM++ Ds/r+ A-> a++ C+ G- QO++ 666 Y
Dan Clore
>
> I would dearly like to get THE RED CUCKOLD (mentioned in several places
> by Cabell as the "sequel" to the book he is "translating" in CHIVALRY), so
> I could see HIS version of Richard III.
>
> Oops, I guess that doesn't count because CHIVALRY is not a "novel".
Well, then, how about: _The Terrible and Marvellous History
of Manuel Pig-Tender That Afterwards Was Named Manuel the
Redeemer_, an anonymous sixteenth-century redaction of _Les
Gestes de Manuel_?
From which we get quotations like this (sorry about the lost
italics):
Consider, faire Miserie, (quoth Manuel) that it lyes not in
mans power to place his loue where he list, being the worke
of an high Deity. A Birde was neuer seen in Pontus, nor true
loue in a fleeting mynde: neuer shall remoue the affection
of my Hearte, which in nature resembleth the stone Abiston.
Soe the x Ymages which Dom Manuel made to be a Mockerie for
the Ymage Makers were by Queene Freydis pryuyly conueyed
awaye to serue a diuerse Purporte. . . . They of Poictesme
narrate that Queene Freydis thereafter did giue Lyfe to
these muddie Ymages, eche at a certayne Houre, and that her
sotyll scyaunce of Egromancy sett these x to liue among Mans
Kind, with all which of such a State apertayneth: to grete
Hurtes and Harmes, by Cause that these x Ymages were unlyke
to Beings naturallie conceyued, in so much that they hadde
inside them Sparkes and small Flamings of the Fyer of
Audela.
Often tymes herde Manuel tell of the fayrness of this Queene
of Furies and Gobblins and Hydræs, insomuch that he was
enamoured of hyr, though he neuer sawe hyr: then by this
Connynge made he a Hole in the fyer, and went ouer to hyr,
and when he had spoke with hyr, he shewed hyr his mynde.
Soe Manuel made all the Goddes that we call mamettes and
ydolles, that were sett ouer the Subiection of his lyfe
tyme: and euery of the goddes that Manuel wolde carue
toilesomelie hadde in hys Bodie a Blemmishe; and in the
mydle of the godes made he one god of the Philistines.
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
All my fiction through 2001 and more. Intro by S.T. Joshi.
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe and Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Said Smygo, the iconoclast of Zothique: "Bear a hammer with
thee always, and break down any terminus on which is
written: 'So far shalt thou pass, but no further go.'"
--Clark Ashton Smith
Konrad Gaertner
>
> What other books in novels that you wish someone had
> actually written come to mind?
Have you seen the Invisible Library ( http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/
) yet? A huge catalog of books that only exist in fiction.
--KG
Jilly
> SF authors seem to like to make up book quotes for chapter
> headings, etc.
>
> In some cases, the fictional books become infamous, 'The
> Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred' or 'The King in
> Yellow' come to mind. These are two books I'm sure no sane
> person would want to read (almost by definition).
>
> On the other hand, some of the grace notes are often as
> interesting as (or unintentionally more interesting than)
> the novels they grace.
I recently heard of a site called the Invisible Library, which is a
catalogue of imaginary books referred to in works of fiction. It's at
http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/ILCatalogf.htm
Cool site.
Jilly
Fire3Sky
>>Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred' or 'The King in
>>Yellow'
The Necronomicon is from Lovecraft, right? What book is "The King in Yellow"
from?.
Fire3Sky
William George Ferguson
wrote:
>SF authors seem to like to make up book quotes for chapter
>headings, etc.
>
>In some cases, the fictional books become infamous, 'The
>Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred' or 'The King in
>Yellow' come to mind. These are two books I'm sure no sane
>person would want to read (almost by definition).
>
>On the other hand, some of the grace notes are often as
>interesting as (or unintentionally more interesting than)
>the novels they grace. The three that come immediately to
>mind for me are:
[snip]
>What other books in novels that you wish someone had
>actually written come to mind?
>
>Regards,
>Jack Tingle
I'm cheerfully admitting that I would probably love Quadgop the
Mercotan if it actually existed.
I also think that I'd find the Sayings of the Egg (from Hunters of the
Red Moon) interesting.
--
I have a theory, it could be bunnies
Dan Clore
_The King in Yellow_.
(Okay, sorry: that's a story collection by Robert W.
Chambers--some of the stories refer to a play with the same
title.)
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
All my fiction through 2001 and more. Intro by S.T. Joshi.
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord We˙rdgliffe and Necronomicon Page:
Nyrath the nearly wise
> On the other hand, some of the grace notes are often as
> interesting as (or unintentionally more interesting than)
> the novels they grace. The three that come immediately to
> mind for me are:
>
> Fitzgerald, 'Probability & Human Conduct' (from Murray
> Leinster's 'Med Ship' stories... Thanks, Eric Flint.*)
That was the one that immediately sprang to mind.
Others that I personally enjoyed were the quotes
from the "Hipcrime Vocab" in John Brunner's
STAND ON ZANZIBAR, and the quotes from the agent's
handbook in AGENTS OF CHAOS by Norman Spinrad.
Vegard Valberg
certainly like to read quite a few of the books mentioned there. They sound
most interesting all of them.
---
--
- Vegard Valberg
My e-mail adress is <Vval...@online.no>,
that is two v's, not one W.
Fire3Sky
Alley. J.K. Rowling did do some small books for charity about Quidditch and
Fantastic Beasts, but I wish the texts Harry reads actually existed.
Fire3Sky
Peter Möller
Nanny Oggs Cookbook, the first draft.
--
/Peter Möller
If you receive something that says 'Send this to everyone you know',
pretend you don't know me.
Andrew Wells
Secret".
Andrew
--
Andrew Wells
Replace nospam with my first name to reach me
Gene Wirchenko
[snip]
>What other books in novels that you wish someone had
>actually written come to mind?
"Encyclopedia Galactica" from Asimov's Foundation series.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.
James Burbidge
wrote:
>What other books in novels that you wish someone had
>actually written come to mind?
Mannheim's _The Golden Road_ (_A Point of Honor_).
James Burbidge jamesandma...@sympatico.ca
Abigail Ann Young
>
> On Sat, 24 Aug 2002 20:56:18 -0400, "jtingle" <jti...@shore.net>
> wrote:
>
> >What other books in novels that you wish someone had
> >actually written come to mind?
>
> Mannheim's _The Golden Road_ (_A Point of Honor_).
>
Oh, yes -- is there any chance that Dorothy might write it?
AAY
--
Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/Records of Early English Drama/
Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada M5S 1K9
Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 813-4093/ abigai...@utoronto.ca
List-owner of REED-L <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html>
<http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html> REED's home page
<http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/stage.html> our theatre resource page
<http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young> my home page
Thomas Womack
jtingle <jti...@shore.net> wrote:
>What other books in novels that you wish someone had
>actually written come to mind?
"Tool-Using Cultures of the Upper Pleistocene". Surprisingly few
volumes; the last one, "Capitalism", is cited as the last chapter
of Ken Macleod's _The Star Fraction_.
There are lots of references to political books (the pile of them
delivered to the labour camp in _The Sky Road_; the ones sold by the
old man in the Norlonto bazaar) in _The Fall Revolution_; many of them
I assumed were Ken's invention, until, meeting him, I was informed of
my ignorance of late-nineteenth-century socialist philosophy.
Tom
David E. Siegel
> James Burbidge wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, 24 Aug 2002 20:56:18 -0400, "jtingle" <jti...@shore.net>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >What other books in novels that you wish someone had
> > >actually written come to mind?
> >
> > Mannheim's _The Golden Road_ (_A Point of Honor_).
> >
>
> Oh, yes -- is there any chance that Dorothy might write it?
>
> AAY
As it is said to be a large work, compared favorably by many with
LOTR, and the cumulation of many years work, writing it would be a
fairly major undertaking IMO.
-DES
Dorothy J Heydt
Abigail Ann Young <abigai...@utoronto.ca> wrote:
>James Burbidge wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 24 Aug 2002 20:56:18 -0400, "jtingle" <jti...@shore.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >What other books in novels that you wish someone had
>> >actually written come to mind?
>>
>> Mannheim's _The Golden Road_ (_A Point of Honor_).
>
>Oh, yes -- is there any chance that Dorothy might write it?
Alas, not likely. It would need a second Tolkien--or at least a
T. A. Shippey--at the VERY least someone who can read Middle
High German, which I can't.
Kevin Robinson
> In article <AUV99.14333$X_7.17...@news.pvt>,
> jtingle <jti...@shore.net> wrote:
>
> >What other books in novels that you wish someone had
> >actually written come to mind?
The obvious pick is the Hitchhiker's Guide, and someone has
also mentioned the Encyclopedia Galactica, but there is one
book, so frighteningly useful, wise and omniscient, that
if anyone in the real world possessed it and made use of
its terrible secret knowledge, said person would be an
unstoppable force on his way to achieving wealth, fame,
or whatever his heart desired.
I speak, of course, of the storied Junior Woodchuck's Handbook,
as described in the fabled work of Carl Barks, in the comics
stories about Donald Duck, his nephews, and their Uncle Scrooge.
Luckily, the Junior Woodchuck oath forbids use of the Secret
Knowledge for Eeeeeeeviiiil.
Kevin
Randy Money
If anyone ever finds a copy, I'd like to read _The Invisible Book of
Invisibility_.
Randy M.
James Nicoll
Randy Money <rbm...@library.syr.edu> wrote:
>Fire3Sky wrote:
>>
>> I'd like to read pretty much all of the books Harry Potter buys in Diagon
>> Alley. J.K. Rowling did do some small books for charity about Quidditch and
>> Fantastic Beasts, but I wish the texts Harry reads actually existed.
>>
>Invisibility_.
>
transparent.
--
"Frankly, Captain, I feel interstellar diplomacy is out of our
depth."
"Ah, hence the nuclear weapons."
Konrad Gaertner
>
> In article <3D76673B...@library.syr.edu>,
> Randy Money <rbm...@library.syr.edu> wrote:
> >Fire3Sky wrote:
> >>
> >> I'd like to read pretty much all of the books Harry Potter buys in Diagon
> >> Alley. J.K. Rowling did do some small books for charity about Quidditch and
> >> Fantastic Beasts, but I wish the texts Harry reads actually existed.
> >>
> >If anyone ever finds a copy, I'd like to read _The Invisible Book of
> >Invisibility_.
> >
> The author is not much of a stylist. The prose is utterly
> transparent.
Not to mention the most PATHETIC cover art I've ever seen....
--KG
how...@brazee.net
On 4-Sep-2002, Randy Money <rbm...@library.syr.edu> wrote:
> If anyone ever finds a copy, I'd like to read _The Invisible Book of
> Invisibility_.
I've got one, somewhere in my basement...
Robert Whelan
Fortunately, there's a handy "See Invisible" spell on page 42.
Randy Money
Is there a Braile edition?
(Ah, I knew if I stuck around rasfw long enough I'd find my niche.
Apparently I'm the group's Bud Abbott. Then again, I used to be able to
mimic Dean Martin's voice...)
Randy M.
Kent Coyle
_An Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages_, only it's not
fictional....