Wombat on TBOTSS and fanfic

Ah. Okay. Apparently I'm being so sloppy with terms that I'm nearly incomprehensible. SHORT/LONG SUN EARTH biography fiction autobiography fiction biography masked as autobiography fiction autobiography masked as biography fiction docudrama fiction based on a true story fiction In TBOTSS, the power of the text is important: the text being TBOTLS. Many people on Blue have read TBOTLS, a biography in novel form * (rather like the Little House on the Prairie series, come to think of it). People who have never met Silk in the flesh are huge "admirers of" him, to the point that, for example, Gaon launches an expedition to get Silk from the Whorl, just as New Viron does. Now then, the Little House books are not exactly "biography" or "autobiography," (in the shelving sense for libraries and bookstores) but they are close, since they were written by a participant (Laura) and/or her daughter (Rose). (Contrast with THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, which claims to be biography, and may have some basis in the childhood experiences of "Mark Twain," but is understood to be fiction unencumbered by biography.) The Little House series proved popular, and more books have been written (to fill in the gaps before and behind) by people further removed: the Little Farm in the Ozarks books, if I got the title right, are presumably more reliant upon texts (historical texts, the Little House books, diaries, etc.) than direct personal experience of the life and times of Laura. So the Ozarks books are a species of fiction, written "in the tradition of" and "continuing the saga of" an earlier series of fiction-based-on-autobiography books; but the autobiographical/first person pov has dropped out and been replaced with the fabrication (within limits set by historical facts and the flavors established by the master text) of huge "admirers of" who have read all the other books, know all the relevant history, and can generate an esthetically competant text (semi-pastiche?). Whatever. Funny, I don't recall all this definition gaming/term policing when people were calling Robert Borski's work "fanfic"--I guess I must've dozed and missed all of his slash and Mary Sue stuff! (I could've sworn that others used this term, but who knows, perhaps I started misusing it even then!) But yes, on another topic (or is it? hmmm), I did enjoy PALE FIRE greatly. More than ADA. About as much as LOLITA, I guess. * If you are going to argue that TBOTLS is, within its universe, strict BIOGRAPHY as opposed to BIOGRAPHY IN NOVEL FORM (`"biography" is not the same as "fiction"') then by all means, make your argument. =mantis= Sirius Fiction Has Moved To http://www.siriusfiction.com/ *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

I'm not sure what point this table is making. You're being too compressed again.

Actually, they've read The Book of Silk, but I mostly agree with your characterization of it as "a biography in novel form".

Yes. But they're not "fans" of Silk any more than the author of "Acts of the Apostles" was a "fan" of Jesus, Paul, and Peter. They're historians writing historical narrative for a didactic purpose.

I missed the initial discussion and only noticed it when Blattid put "fanfic" in the subject line. Checking the archives, I can't find anyone using the term "fanfic" to describe Borski's pieces. The term was introduced into the discussion to describe Wolfe's work as being fanfic-like--"wouldn't it be neat if Silk met Severian?" is the type of impulse which drives fanfic. But it makes no sense to apply the term to what Hoof and Hide (or any other unnamed redactors) are doing, because they're not writing fiction about fictional characters.

Wombat wrote

Something we can agree on.

Sorry, you are wrong! <g> Unless what you really meant to write was: "the author Horn thought of the title as being (or even planned to name it) BOOK OF SILK, but it became known as THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN" (see EXODUS p. 371). Or do you mean that they read that other guy's book (the "other book" mentioned in the text)?

Why do you seem to be arguing with me when I'm using the terms you want me to use? I didn't write "fans," I wrote "admirers of." I should take you to task for saying they are "historians." Good grief! =mantis= *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

Oops. You're right.

Because you seem to be veering towards using "admirers of" as a five-syllable perfect synonym of "fan", which it isn't. That's why I said "yes"--they are admirers --but went on to restate that they are not "fans".

They're historians but not in a modern sense; they're historians in the sense that the author of the Book of Kings was a historian, or, as I said, "Luke", the author of Acts of the Apostles was a historian. I've just spent too long reading Surpassing Wonder and the term stuck in my mind. Skimming the archives, I think the comparison between the third-person portions of Hoof & Hide's book (*) and The Killer Angels is spot-on. *Do we know what The Book of the Short Sun is called among its readers?

Thanks.

We know what the editors called it: Book of the Short Sun (RttW, 410). --Adam *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.