Famous People Moved to the Future
Joseph Eros
immensely. Without spoiling, I can say the Ayn Rand (or rather a
near-perfect computer simulation of her) is a fairly important
character.
Ayn's viewpoint on the bizarre future world is convincingly portrayed,
even if not everything said about Rand by other characters is
accurate.
What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
identifiable
famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting? I recall
reading
parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_ or something like that,
but
it made little impression. Are there other well-executed combinations
of
real-world biography and SF?
---
Joseph Eros
"Scientists want to know the dirt on Eros" -- Boston Globe
James Nicoll
Joseph Eros <josep...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
>identifiable famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting?
>I recall reading parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_ or
>something like that, but it made little impression. Are there other
>well-executed combinations of real-world biography and SF?
Just FYI: there's something odd about your line formatting
making it come out as one long line followed by short one. I've
fixed it for my reply.
Two authors come to mind:
Crawford Kilian's Chronoplane books feature travel to
duplicate universes at different points in time. This lets modern
people interact with historicals without worrying that causality
will be broken and they do.
John Kessel's _Corrupting Doctor Nice_ has a somewhat similar
set up, except that his people have access to many more duplicate
universes and therefore can pull forward multiple copies of the same
person. There's several Christs running around, for example.
Both of them feature the future folks treating the historicals
like utter crap, although there's more overt genocide in Kilian's
books.
--
The Canadians were a hospitable and tolerant desert people,
living on the edge of a wilderness of snow and permafrost. Winnipeg,
Regina and Saskatoon were cities of the northern desert, Samarkands
of ice. J.G. Ballard
Allen Varney
identifiable famous person being moved into a futuristic SF
setting?>>>
James Blish's short story "State of the Art" (do I have the
title right?) deals insightfully with a future resurrection of
composer Richard Strauss. Barry Malzberg used a similar idea far
more clumsily with Beethoven. Carter Scholz in his early stories
practically made a career of desecrating the memories of Beethoven
and other composers with various dumb stories that either moved
the great figures into the future or had time travelers visit them
in the past.
I vaguely recall an interesting story from Terry Carr's old
UNIVERSE anthologies, "Vermeer's Window," where the protagonist
turned himself into the great painter and assiduously repainted
all his works, including the lost ones. Who wrote that?
--
-- Allen Varney
http://www.allenvarney.com
Delete second Austin to reply
Brenda W. Clough
Brenda
Joseph Eros wrote:
--
What do you do with a secret?
Whisper it in a desert at high noon.
Lock it up and bury the key.
Tell the nation on prime-time TV.
Choose a door . . .
Doors of Death and Life
by Brenda W. Clough
http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda
Tor Books
ISBN 0-312-87064-7
Reverend Sean O'Hara
>
> I recently read Matt Ruff's _Sewer, Gas & Electric_, which I enjoyed
> immensely. Without spoiling, I can say the Ayn Rand (or rather a
> near-perfect computer simulation of her) is a fairly important
> character.
> Ayn's viewpoint on the bizarre future world is convincingly portrayed,
> even if not everything said about Rand by other characters is
> accurate.
>
Rather (?).
> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
> identifiable
> famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting? I recall
> reading
> parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_ or something like that,
> but
> it made little impression. Are there other well-executed combinations
> of
> real-world biography and SF?
>
The Riverworld(?) books by P.J. Farmer. Although it's an afterlife
rather than the future.
Futurama does this all the time.
--
Reverend Sean O'Hara
You too can be an ordained minister: http://www.ulc.org/ulc
Staff Writer for EXPULSION: http://www.expulsion.org
"Just last week, Rummy sent me an e-mail over the Internet -
something that didn't exist just five years ago." - Sen. Armey
Richard Horton
<ava...@austin.rr.austin.com> wrote:
> James Blish's short story "State of the Art" (do I have the
>title right?) deals insightfully with a future resurrection of
>composer Richard Strauss.
"A Work of Art" (also called "Art-Work")
> Barry Malzberg used a similar idea far
>more clumsily with Beethoven. Carter Scholz in his early stories
>practically made a career of desecrating the memories of Beethoven
>and other composers with various dumb stories that either moved
>the great figures into the future or had time travelers visit them
>in the past.
> I vaguely recall an interesting story from Terry Carr's old
>UNIVERSE anthologies, "Vermeer's Window," where the protagonist
>turned himself into the great painter and assiduously repainted
>all his works, including the lost ones. Who wrote that?
Gordon Eklund. (What's he up to these days, anyway?)
"The Immortal Bard" by Isaac Asimov brings Shakespeare to the future.
_Brain Twister_ (aka "That Sweet Little Old Lady") by "Mark Phillips"
(Randall Garrett and Laurence M. Janifer) brings Elizabeth I to 1970
(sort of!).
--
Rich Horton | Stable Email: mailto://richard...@sff.net
Home Page: http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton
Also visit SF Site (http://www.sfsite.com) and Tangent Online (http://www.tangentonline.com)
Severian
> <<<What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
> identifiable famous person being moved into a futuristic SF
> setting?>>>
>
I don't know if this has already been mentioned, as this message is all I
have of the thread for some reason, but Philip Jose Farmers "Riverworld"
novels.
All kinds of interesting people in a futuristic environment. Mark Twain,
Cyrano de Bergerac, and others.
Rick
> identifiable famous person being moved into a futuristic SF
> setting?>>>
>
Goblin Reservation by Simak.
Eric Walker
[...]
> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
> identifiable famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting?
R.A. Lafferty's _Past Master_ shows Thomas More brought to a
strange future. Be forewarned that this is a surreal morality
play--superb, heady stuff, but strange indeed if one is new to
Lafferty.
For notes on Lafferty, I immodestly point to--
http://owlcroft.com/sfandf/AUTHORS/RALafferty.html
--
Cordially,
Eric Walker, webmaster
Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works
http://owlcroft.com/sfandf
A. B. Leal
news:ba38f237.01060...@posting.google.com:
[snip]
> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
> identifiable
> famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting? I recall
> reading
> parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_ or something like that,
> but
> it made little impression. Are there other well-executed combinations
> of
> real-world biography and SF?
Rotten memory tosses up "Mozart and the Wolf Gang", which I just
google-found is by Anthony Burgess, but my brain insists there
was also something like that in one of the stories in a C'punk
collection (Mirror Shades, I believe it was).
Jens Kilian
> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
> identifiable
> famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting?
_VAN GOGH IN SPACE!_
<gdr>
--
mailto:j...@acm.org phone:+49-7031-464-7698 (TELNET 778-7698)
http://www.bawue.de/~jjk/ fax:+49-7031-464-7351
PGP: 06 04 1C 35 7B DC 1F 26 As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish,
0x555DA8B5 BB A2 F0 66 77 75 E1 08 so is contempt to the contemptible. [Blake]
Sea Wasp
>
> josep...@hotmail.com (Joseph Eros) writes:
> > What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
> > identifiable
> > famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting?
>
> _VAN GOGH IN SPACE!_
I'd been refraining from mentioning that one.
Besides, that was _VAN GOGH IN SPACE ! ! ! _
--
Sea Wasp http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp/index.html
/^\
;;; _Morgantown: The Jason Wood Chronicles_, at
http://www.hyperbooks.com/catalog/20040.html
Joseph Eros
> In article <ba38f237.01060...@posting.google.com>,
> Joseph Eros <josep...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
>> identifiable famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting?
>> I recall reading parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_ or
>> something like that, but it made little impression. Are there other
>> well-executed combinations of real-world biography and SF?
>
> Just FYI: there's something odd about your line formatting
> making it come out as one long line followed by short one. I've
> fixed it for my reply.
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sure to use the "preview" feature
henceforth.
Thanks to all for the suggestions. I'll be looking for them.
Leif Magnar Kj|nn|y
Jens Kilian <Jens_...@agilent.com> wrote:
>josep...@hotmail.com (Joseph Eros) writes:
>> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
>> identifiable
>> famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting?
>
>_VAN GOGH IN SPACE!_
>
><gdr>
<lob hand grenade>
--
Leif Kj{\o}nn{\o}y | "Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
www.pvv.org/~leifmk| That it carries too far, when I say
Math geek and gamer| That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
GURPS, Harn, CORPS | And dines on the following day." (Carroll)
thomas monaghan
> josep...@hotmail.com (Joseph Eros) wrote in
> news:ba38f237.01060...@posting.google.com:
>
>
>> What are some other SF books that have used the device of an
>> identifiable
>> famous person being moved into a futuristic SF setting? I recall
> reading
> parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_ or something like that,
> but
> it made little impression. Are there other well-executed combinations
> of
> real-world biography and SF?
>
The Gamester Wars, by William R. Forstchen with Alexander, Napoleon and
others.
Tom
Jeandré
Can anyone ID a story where the "first" time traveler visits
Shakespeare, and finds the Bard nonchalantly accustomed to time
travelers?
Ta
Mike Simone
> josep...@hotmail.com (Joseph Eros) wrote in
> news:ba38f237.01060...@posting.google.com:
>
> [snip]
>
> google-found is by Anthony Burgess, but my brain insists there
> was also something like that in one of the stories in a C'punk
> collection (Mirror Shades, I believe it was).
I think that's 'Mozart in Mirroshades', by Bruce Sterling and
everybody's favorite collaborator, <mumble>.
Michael Grosberg
"Mozart in mirrorshades" was the name. Writer? dunno. Gibson I think.
There were others I remember. Charles sheffield had a story about cloning
dead physicists and somehow duplicating their memory. Different technique,
same end result. There was a short story, "Galileo complains", Can't
remember who wrote this one either but the idea is the same.
William December Starr
josep...@hotmail.com (Joseph Eros) said:
> I recall reading parts of a book called _Napoleon Disentimed_
> or something like that, but it made little impression.
You should have thrown it against the wall harder.
-- William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>
William December Starr
msim...@hotmail.com (Mike Simone) said:
>> Rotten memory tosses up "Mozart and the Wolf Gang", which I just
>> google-found is by Anthony Burgess, but my brain insists there was
>> also something like that in one of the stories in a C'punk
>> collection (Mirror Shades, I believe it was).
>
> I think that's 'Mozart in Mirroshades', by Bruce Sterling and
> everybody's favorite collaborator, <mumble>.
Lewis Shiner.