Whatever works.
There are some stories out there about Frodo meeting Professor Tolkien and giving him the 'Red Book.'
Strange New Worlds-Worth the read?
- Thread starter stardream
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Whatever works.
There are some stories out there about Frodo meeting Professor Tolkien and giving him the 'Red Book.'
Whatever works.
There are some stories out there about Frodo meeting Professor Tolkien.
Heck, it used to be the authors themselves who claimed that they'd been told these stories by their actual protagonists -- H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Bram Stoker, etc. I think the early authors of SF/fantasy felt they had to present their tales as "true stories" to lend them verisimilitude despite their fantastic premises -- or at least to say "Hey, I'm just repeating what this person claimed/reprinting this document I found, so if you don't believe it, take it up with them, not me."
That was even part of Roddenberry's thinking behind the log entries in Star Trek -- the original idea was that the episodes would be after-the-fact recountings of events that had already happened, on the principle that that would somehow make them more believable. That's why some of the first-season log entries are in the past tense. And in Roddenberry's TMP novelization, he pretended he was a 23rd-century producer who'd made a series that had dramatized the Enterprise's "real" adventures in an occasionally inaccurate way (with TMP being a more faithful adaptation, to explain the changes in the way Starfleet, the Klingons, etc. were portrayed).
Seth Grahame-Smith used this conceit for Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (the author is given a diary about Lincoln's secret life) and Last American Vampire (as an interview/biographical piece). Dan Simmons used it for Abominable.
I think the conceit descends from the earliest novels (of like the 1600s), which usually justified their own existence by being recovered documents: Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, &c. This way of creating verisimilitude drops out of a lot of texts as the novel becomes the dominant mode of literature-- because you can take it as a given-- but persists in more fantastic fiction, I think for the reasons already stated. Tons of proto-sf takes this approach: Frankenstein is a letter about someone else's narrated story, The Last Man is framed by Mary Shelley finding the events scribbled on a cave wall, The Mummy! is a vision in a crystal ball held by an angel(!), The Purple Cloud is based on notes dictated by a man in an insane asylum. All of these explain how stories of the future could "really" be told.
It's also still present in some realist novels in the 19th century, though; for example, the narrator of Adam Bede has asides about having talked to and hung out with Adam and friends.
It's also still present in some realist novels in the 19th century, though; for example, the narrator of Adam Bede has asides about having talked to and hung out with Adam and friends.
And surely one of the most famous examples of this phenomenon is Sherlock Holmes complaining about how Watson misrepresents and exaggerates his abilities in several of the Holmes stories!
Good point.
Sometimes this literary device can get out of hand, though. The Shaver Mystery and its sequels created genuine believers in their fantastical subject matter, because they were presented as "passed down," true accounts.
Was there a story in one of the SNW's volumes that dealt with the families of Voyager's crew? Like Janeway's family and fiance and Mr. and Mrs. Kim, etc. Perhaps dealing with the events from the disappearance of Voyager up until they came home.
I think you're thinking of "Letting Go" by Keith R.A. DeCandido in the Voyager tenth anniversary anthology Distant Shores.
Thanks. I recall now there were a lot of good stories in that one.
Tracy, you may also be thinking of "The Ones Left Behind" by Mary Wiecek in SNW III, which tells the reactions of Voyager crewmembers' friends and family and loved ones in epistolary form, from the time the ship is lost to when communication is reestablished. (I don't think the ship had come home yet by the time that volume was published.)
There's also a sequel story by the same author in SNW VI, "Widow's Walk," continuing those characters (specifically Joe Carey's family) through Voyager's return home.
Oh, I read SNW III, but totally forgot about that one. Thanks!
I read all the volumes, but I forgot she was able to write a sequel to her own story. How awesome is that?
Does anyone remember if there is a story in one of the Strange New World's volumes that has Kes going back to Ocampa after the events of Fury?
The one I'm thinking about, she uses her powers to restore the planet's ecology. I think there's a passage in the story near the end about flowers growing in a field on Ocampa and they are called Kes' Tears in her memory.
The one I'm thinking about, she uses her powers to restore the planet's ecology. I think there's a passage in the story near the end about flowers growing in a field on Ocampa and they are called Kes' Tears in her memory.
According to my index, that would be "Restoration" by Penny A. Proctor in SNW V.
That was in Strange New Worlds V, Restoration. The events were also mentioned in The Eternal Tide.
Thank you.
Regarding another post I made in this thread about the story Redux in SNW7. I said I thought it was set season 7 or later. Someone answered that the way Torres and Seven were not getting along seemed out of character for season 7. I agree on that point about the out of character. But I was re-reading this recently on my Kindle and B'Elanna refers to Tom as her husband in this, so it wouldn't be earlier than season 7.
Regarding another post I made in this thread about the story Redux in SNW7. I said I thought it was set season 7 or later. Someone answered that the way Torres and Seven were not getting along seemed out of character for season 7. I agree on that point about the out of character. But I was re-reading this recently on my Kindle and B'Elanna refers to Tom as her husband in this, so it wouldn't be earlier than season 7.
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I think something similar also happened in the third String Theory book.
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