Honore de Balzac, The Human Comedy;
Marcel Proust, Remembrance Of Things Past;
Sinclair Lewis, the city of Zenith in the state of Winnemac;
Robert Heinlein, the Future History;
Poul Anderson, the Psychotechnic History;
Poul Anderson, the History of Technic Civilization.
In "Concerning Future Histories" (SFWA Bulletin, Fall 1979), Poul Anderson traces a possible influence from Balzac to Lewis and definite influences from Lewis to Heinlein, then from Heinlein to himself. Lewis drew detailed maps of Zenith.
Blogging on a computer with internet access makes it easy to follow interesting digressions. Thus, we learn that Lewis' Zenith novels include Elmer Gantry which was filmed starring Burt Lancaster.
Elmer Gantry and Nicholas van Rijn have nothing in common except that each is a character in a detailed multi-volume fictional world. I learned about Gantry's connection with Zenith only by googling Lewis because of his influence on Heinlein.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've heard of ELMER GANTRY, but never read it. All I vaguely "know" about it is that it features a corrupt, cynical, hypocritical politician who's the exact opposite or reverse of what he claims to be or stand for.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I checked, and ELMER GANTRY is about an evangelical minister who's all the things I listed above. The plot seems so exaggerated that I wondered if Sinclair Lewis was maligning Protestant clergy.
Ad astra! Sean
Lewis wasn't a believer. OTOH, American Protestantism did throw up con-men fairly frequently, particularly the wilder fringes of it. The most conspicuous (and successful) example was Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism... who got a lot of his relations to attest to the existence of the gold tablets! I very much doubt he believed a word of it, though his -successors- did.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Granted, I forgot about the frauds and con men. Later examples, like the infamous Jim Jones, also comes to mind.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Dang, my comment disappeared.
I agree, I forgot about the frauds and con men, including table rapping "Spiritualists." And there were later examples, such as the infamous Jim Jones.
Ad astra! Sean
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