Jeff Prucher suggests more coin stories
Dear Locus,
Perhaps you could run the following request for Characteristic Remarks of
Characters in Fantastic Literature.
For some years I have been collecting the characteristic remarks of
characters in fantastic literature and the media for an anthology. I have
over 700 such remarks in place: speaker, remark, detailed information on
source: ''Up, up and away!'' ''Me Tarzan, you Jane,'' ''Big Brother is Watching
You,'' ''I'm worried, Dave,'' ''I pray for one last landing,'' etc.,
''Shazam!''...these are six characteristic remarks and ''quotable quotes.'' I
would love to hear from anyone who has favourite
remarks, replies, ultimata, exchanges, etc. I will credit all contributors.
I compiled the first anthology of Canadian fantastic literature and am a
contributor to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and The Encyclopedia
of Fantasy.
Thanks,
John Robert Colombo
3 November 1999
(posted Wed 10 Nov 1999)
Dear Locus Online,
While I mostly liked your pair of editorials inspired by the ''Harry Potter'' books, I beg to differ with your description of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as ''a book by a non-genre writer that attracted virtually no genre attention (Hugo and Nebula nominations, etc.) when it was published.''
First of all, Adams's pre-''Hitchhiker'' writing experiences included a stint
as script editor and occasional scriptwriter for the Doctor Who TV
series, punching up the humor during the time that Tom Baker played the
Doctor. While TV scriptwriters in those days weren't widely known to fans,
one could hardly say that Adams had not had an impact on the SF genre!
Secondly, the radio series on which the first two ''Hitchhiker'' books were
based was indeed nominated for a ''Dramatic Presentation'' Hugo in 1979, the
same year that the first ''Hitchhiker'' book appeared.
On the other hand, it's certainly true that The Hitchhiker's Guide, in
whatever form, has had a greater long-term impact on SF than many more
popular works of the time, starting perhaps with the actual dramatic Hugo
winner for 1979, the original Christopher Reeve Superman movie.
Rob Tomshany
30 October 1999
(posted Wed 10 Nov 1999)
Dear Locus Online,
Just like to comment that part of becoming a ''classic'' requires that the work come to the attention of a large number of readers. Douglas Adams' ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series had the advantage that it began as a BBC radio series, later a TV series, that generated a large audience before it was released in book form. With a large reservoir of fans to support its release, the first book naturally sold well, a phenomenon that was noted in the press, stimulating yet more sales!
Perhaps we need to rethink the promotional end of launching new titles in our favorite genres, and new approaches to reminding potential readers of the riches they are missing. In this sense, no publicity is bad publicity.
Scott Quinney
6 November 1999
(posted Wed 10 Nov 1999)
[ Yes, Adams's radio series was nominated for a Hugo -- but the book wasn't. Yet it's the book version of ''Hitchhiker'' that's achieved lasting popularity, to the extent that it's included, for instance, among the 25 books on Amazon.com's list of The Best SF and Fantasy of the Century. (Another book on that list, Richard Adams's Watership Down, might have been a better example of a work that became a classic from outside the genre.) Most movie and TV novelizations are quickly forgotten; Hitchhiker's is probably unique as a media novelization that survived its progenitors and has endured as a work of written SF. (Maybe partly because the radio and TV versions of ''Hitchhiker'' have not remained readily available. I for one preferred the radio series to the books. Clarke's 2001, though not exactly a movie novelization, is another example of a media inspired work that has survived, but Clarke wasn't new to written SF when it appeared.)
While the Adams case and Rowling's aren't perfectly analogous, both their works gained initial popularity as much or more from outside the field of dedicated genre readers as from within, and -- I predict -- Rowling's work will endure, and be embraced by the genre, as most bestselling SF/F works, e.g. Crichton's Jurassic Park, are not. To the extent that Adams's TV experience is relevant, his work is unique in another way; you don't find prose works by George Lucas, J. Michael Straczynski, or any other star of dramatic SF on anybody's list of best SF books.
--ed. ]
Dear Locus Online,
I have followed the Harry Potter excitement with great interest; my aunt owns a children's bookstore in Ventura and was in the early vanguard of Rowling recomenders
(after all, it's not the chain stores that get books like this off the
ground). We have read all three books to my 11- and 8-year-olds at bedtime
chapter by chapter, which is an acid test for an author's storytelling. The
kids don't care about beautiful writing, they want a well-told tale with
interesting people that they care about, and issues that they can
comprehend. (We have ranged in the past from the ''Little House'' books to
Edward Eager's magic books to The Hobbit). Also, I have to enjoy the book,
or I won't bother with it. By these criteria, the Harry Potter books
succeed wonderfully. My kids would groan when I would close the book (if I
didn't read enough in an evening, I would walk downstairs to the chants of
''mean daddy'' from the little angels). As a bonus, my wife who is usually
too busy taking care of the three of us to have much time for leisure reading,
is hooked as well, and finished the third book before the rest of us. Rowling
is a born storyteller, with scary and funny tidbits in every chapter. As a
hard-core fantasy reader I wouldn't put them at the level of the best adult
work (such as McKillip or Kay), but they are great entertainment.
After we finished Potter #3, I tried some other YA fantasies in the
same vein. Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard?, which I remembered fondly,
became very hard to follow and we bailed out by page 50. Now we are reading
Charnas' The Bronze King, and they like that a lot. I'm still figuring out
what to try next after the Charnas trilogy.
Having read numberous articles (in Locus and elsewhere) about the greying
of the SF audience, I am hopeful that the Harry Potter series might serve as
a springboard to the other Good Stuff that is out there, rather than as an
endpoint (as ''Star Wars'' and ''Goosebumps'' seem to be.) It would be interesting
to hear the experience of the SF/independent bookstores with Harry Potter
follow-up.
Roger Silverstein
30 October 1999
(posted Wed 10 Nov 1999)
Dear Locus Online,
I felt the need to write and let you know that I agree with your editorial.
I am very much a fan of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books but I think that it
is waaaay to soon to consider them classics. I think that the books
resonated with me because I have always felt like an outsider. However, I
find them to be just as enjoyable as light, escapist reads.
Thanks.
Tina DeSantis
30 October 1999
(posted Wed 10 Nov 1999)
Dear Locus,
There are two coin stories based on the idea of a magic pocket (or pocketbook) that always has a coin in it that I can think of. R.A. Lafferty's ''Bright Coins in a Never Ending Stream'' (published in Damon Knight's anthology Orbit 20) is about a man whose life is literally linked to such a pocketbook, and whose fortunes have decreased as coins of progressively lesser value are provided within it. The other is ''The Never Ending Penny'' by Bernard Wolfe (published in Playboy, Sept. 1960, and occasionally anthologized since), about the problems that arise from trying to spend an infinite number of pennies.
Jeff Prucher
2 November 1999
(posted Wed 10 Nov 1999)