Anomalies In The Old Phoenix

 

We are used to two levels of narrative: real world and fictional. In Lancaster, a hospital porter showed his work-mate a tabloid newspaper headline. The second man smiled in appreciation of the story, whatever it was, then asked, "Wha'? In real life or in t'soap?" First, he appreciated the "story" - the same word is used for news and for fiction - then he checked which of the two parallel narratives it belonged to: celebrity news or popular TV drama. It was (almost) as if both narratives were equally real and valid. Either, after all, could be reported in a newspaper headline.

Of course, there are also subtly different levels within fiction and metafiction. Writers can create a space in which fictional characters comment on fiction. When, in Neil Gaiman's Inn of the Worlds' End, one character comments that a "reality storm...sounds like something out of Star Trek," we realize that our world is one of the many represented by the visitors in the inn. In Poul Anderson's Old Phoenix Inn between the universes, Valeria Matuchek learns of a world where Shakespeare is not the Great Dramatist but the Great Historian. All the soap operas and feature films can exist in parallel with the Shakespearean universe but here an anomaly arises.

At a certain stage in his career, the cinematic James Bond, as opposed to the literary one(s), ceases to resemble Sean Connery and begins to resemble George Lazenby (etc). No one in that universe notices because all of their memories and records change accordingly. But anyone looking into that universe from outside does notice. If that Bond were to visit the Old Phoenix, then Taverner and his wife would be puzzled unless of course they already understand such phenomena.

In a series of Dominic Flandry films, the actor should change just once, when Flandry has had his single biosculp. A cinema audience will notice that the actor has changed and might then be surprised when Kheraskov remarks that Flandry has changed his face! If it were necessary for external reasons to change the actor again later in the series, then a second biosculp could be invented even though there was only one in the books.