Fictive Science & Science Fiction
Fictive Science & Science Fiction
Fictional science is at some level science fiction. Fictional science fiction consists of books that help describe their writer or owner, or serve as a very significant plot device (not simply as McGuffin).
The History of Ancient Egypt
RADCLIFFE EMERSON
Edinburgh: Hutman, 1982.
First mentioned in Elizabeth Peters’ The Deeds of the Disturber.
Radcliffe Emerson, MA Ox., D.C.L. Ox., LLD (Edinburgh), FBA, FRS, FRGS, was “the greatest Egyptologist of his time, deny it who dare.” His method of strict record keeping during his archaeological operations won him lasting fame and respect. Professor Emerson was married to Amelia Peabody, a feat which also won him lasting fame and respect.
Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds with Some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats
SAMUEL PICKWICK
London: Simpkin, 1827.
First mentioned in Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers.
This is the paper that agitated the scientific world and launched into renown the public career of the immortal Pickwick. It is Mr. Pickwick’s personal copy, from which he read at the first meeting of the society that bears his name.
Cloud-Cuckoo Land c. 435 B.C.E.
Νεφελοκοκκυγία
DIOGENES fl. 440-430 B.C.E.
In Venetia: Paulus Manutius, 1560.
Lost in antiquity.
Νεφελοκοκκυγία is a city in the sky, built by birds (with some Athenian help), and it symbolizes the dream land of fantasy and whimsical behavior. Similar to Cockaigne. With this play, Diogenes gave Aristophanes the idea for “The Birds.”
This play, like Teleclides’ Amphictyons, presented Diogenes’ audience with a vision of a new Golden Age, a time of peace and cornucopia.
This is the rarest of the Elzevir Republics, unrecorded in Willems’ bibliography. With special thanks to FABS president Jennifer Larson for her great generosity in reuniting my copy with its original title page, which she discovered in Paris in 2018.
Dialect and Semantics
ELWIN RANSOM
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947.
First mentioned in C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.
This is Professor Ransom’s major work, in which he explores the semantic relationships among languages and their dialects. The book is well-respected in in the field of philology: Jane Studdock recognized Ransom immediately on its mere mention. Ransom’s role as a leading philologist was of greatest importance in his non-academic work. It was his openness to, and aptitude for, learning a new language so rapidly that gained him access to Old Solar.
The Genius of the Place
HANNAH JARVIS
Oxbridge: Oxbridge University Press, 1993.
First mentioned in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.
Hannah Jarvis’ study of the riddle of the hermit of Sidley Park became a popular best-seller, largely because of its sympathetic treatment of what appeared at first to be a mad mathematician. Like many country houses leaning toward a Gothic atmosphere (the gardens were designed by Richard “Culpability” Noakes), Sidley Park included a hermitage, a dwelling for which the dowager Lady Croom contracted a resident hermit of a rather surprising origin.
Even in Arcadia: Sex, Literature, and Death
BERNARD NIGHTINGALE
in The Byron Journal, No. 7, 1979, pp.20-38., .
First mentioned in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.
Bernard Nightingale’s article incorrectly claiming that Lord Byron killed Ezra Chater in a dual at Sidley Park in 1809 seems in retrospect a perfect storm of misinterpreted evidence. The Sidley Park game book, a letter from the distressed lady in question, and a handwritten challenge all pointed to a duel that in fact never occurred.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Many authors
Ursa Minor β: Megadodo Publications, n.d..
First mentioned in the eponymous novel.
The standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom. The replacement for the out-of-date Encyclopedia Galactica. The guidebook for the entire universe. A client/server-based intergalactic Baedeker. The most useful book ever written, even when it is wildly inaccurate.
pp. 5,973,509 (varies)
6¾” x 4¾”; Network: 3 x 1018 km.
Computer tablet and massive interstellar infrastructure.
Towel
Traveler’s towel, mid-twentieth century Earth, which will have belonged to Arthur Dent.
The Bene Gesserit Code
ANONYMOUS
Wallach System: n.p., n.d..
First mentioned in Frank Herbert’s Dune.
The foundational principles and rules of the order of the Bene Gesserit. A matriarchal order, their sisterhood was founded shortly after the Butlerian Jihad and achieved the ability to train the bodies and minds of its members to attain what appear to be super-human powers. They conduct a complex but indirect campaign to direct humankind toward an enlightened existence.
The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey
RASILLON
Gallifrey: Panopticon, n.d..
Mentioned in Gareth Roberts and Douglas Adams’ Shada.
Red hoixhide with gold stamping.
Also known as The Book of Rassilon, this is one of the Artifacts of Rassilon, an object with a non-bibliotropic function. The book is a physical key to the planet Shada, the Time Lords’ prison planet, to which it gives access. It has an odd structure: since it absorbs all forms of radiation, it resists all attempts at spectrographic analysis and hence appears to have no discernable atomic structure: time runs backwards over it.
The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo: Practical Instructions for Beta Embryo-Store Workers
ANONYMOUS
London: Newhouse, 2540 CE.
First mentioned in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
A standard textbook for technicians working in nurseries or conditioning rooms. This is the book with which John learns to read before he finds the copy of Shakespeare that will prove so important in his formation. The retro nineteenth-century book design was popular in the early 2540s.
The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism
EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN
New York: n.p., 2019.
First mention in George Orwell’s 1984.
A commemorative edition of Goldstein’s landmark work. “... a terrible book. A compendium of all the heresies.”
The initial chapters are:
- Ignorance is Strength
- Freedom is Slavery
- War is Peace
The book explains the use of the Party’s principal tools:
- the telescreen
- historical revisionism
- newspeak (impoverished language eliminating subtlety)
- black and white thinking (a result of newspeak)
- doublethink
- preventive stupidity
N.B. 2024 is the fortieth anniversary of 1984.
Copper, Silver, Gold: An Indestructible Metallic Alloy
EGBERT B. GEBSTADTER
New York: Convoluted Books, 1979.
Mentioned in Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
One of the many, many subjects of this book is the Predictably Terminating Test. To increase its suspense and make the ending unpredictable, the book’s length is disguised by terminating the text well before the end of the pages. The volume contains fully 848 pages, but the text ends at page 776.