AXLER.Upenn-1100%Rand-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP (01/30/84)
From: AXLER.Upenn-1100@Rand-Relay (David M. Axler - MSCF Applications Mgr.)
d SF.
Any other suggestions?"
The proper name for this sort of thing is "roman a clef" (with an accent
grave over the solo 'a'). According to Harry Warner Jr., this is found in the
sf field as far back as 1934, and shows up in both fan and pro magazines [c.f.,
Warner, All Our Yesterdays: An Informal History of Science Fiction Fandom
in the Forties (Chicago: Advent:Publishers, 1969), pp. 51-52.] One classic
example of this form is "The Enchanted Duplicator", by fans Bob Shaw and
Walt Willis (published and re-published in numerous editions, available at
any good con...), in which Jophan makes his way through such trial s as the
Hekto Swamp, the Forest of Stupidity, and the Desert of Indifference on his
journey from the village of Prosaic (in the country of Mundane, where else?)
to the land of Trufandom, where he reached the Enchanted Duplicator, clutches
its handle, and thenceforth becomes a True Fan.
In an article entitled "Say, Didn't I See You at Last Year's Worldcon" in
the February 1976 issue of Dick Geis' Science Fiction Review (vol 5, #1),
author Richard Lupoff cites several other examples of "fan fiction", such as the
short stories "A Way of Life", by Robert Bloch, and "Whatever Happened to
Nick Neptune", by Lupoff himself. He also mentions several of the novels of
Barry Malzberg, which take place at cons and feature authors as their
protagonists (or perhaps I should say antagonists).
One aspect of this style of writing is the process known as "Tuckerization"
(named after its inventor, author & fan Wilson Tucker), in which real sf
personalities are included in a story under either their own names or a
transparent disguise. It was in honor of this invention that Tucker is the
murder victim in Coulson & DeWeese's "Now You See Him/It/Them".
Another classic in this sub-genre is the Larry Niven/David Gerrold
collaboration, "The Flying Sorcerers". The novel takes place on a planet whose
inhabitants are heavily polytheistic. All the gods, plus the heavenly bodies,
are named after various sf personalities, and all the female characters are
given the first names of noted female sf authors. Among other Tuckerizations
in the book, one finds Hitch, the God of Birds, Ouells and Virn, the twin
suns, Tukker, the God of Names, Elcin, the God of Lightning, and Rotn'bair,
the God of Sheep. This book has recently come back into print; there's also
a fairly detailed analysis of who the various names really are in the review
of it published in The Alien Critic back in May 1974.
A fairly recent example of this is Isaac Asimov's mystery novel, "Murder at
the ABA," which involves not only sf personalities, but other varieties of
notable from the writing/publishing worlds. Norman Spinrad's non-sf novel
"Passing Through the Flame" includes several scenes depicting an sf writer who
is almost certainly Harlan Ellison. Most recently, a number of the hexes in
the Well World (from Jack Chalker's series) are named after sf authors.
--Dave Axler