Textuality

When I commended Poul Anderson and Ian Fleming for their treatment of age in their characters, Dominic Flandry and James Bond, respectively, I also wrote that one of those authors, Fleming, played some clever tricks with his character's age. Fleming was able to do this because of a feature of fictional texts that we can discuss in connection with:

Arthur Conan Doyle

Rider Haggard

Dornford Yates (and here)

Ian Fleming

Poul Anderson

Sometimes a fictional text exists both in our real world and in its own fictional world, the most obvious example being Dr. Watson's memoirs. If we read the Holmes series in order, then, while we are reading The Sign Of Four, we not only remember having read A Study In Scarlet but also understand that Watson's public has also read that earlier volume. It is word for word the same text whether, to us, written by Conan Doyle or, to them, by Watson. Since the publication of the text has become an event in the alternate world, that event can itself influence events that are yet to be recounted in subsequent texts. In "The Adventure of the Empty House," Holmes states that something written by Watson in "The Final Problem" was not literally true and this helps to explain how Holmes survived at Reichenbach.

Allan Quatermain reads Rider Haggard's She, then posts to Haggard his own account of his earlier encounter with She, She And Allan. Clever, certainly.

Dornford Yates' first person narrator, Richard Chandos, meets Jenny, whom he later marries, in She Fell Among Thieves. In Ne'er-Do-Well, Chandos refers not only to earlier events but also to She Fell Among Thieves as a published text.

In Casino Royale, Bond is said to have been active in the Secret Service before the War whereas, in You Only Live Twice, he is said to have joined the Royal Navy and thus also the Secret Service during the War and then only by lying about his age. However, this information as given in You Only Live Twice is imparted in an obituary written by M. Thus, this "Obit." is a text within the text. Further, it refers to other such texts. A former friend and colleague of Commander Bond had written some popular but inaccurate accounts of his exploits. Thus, all ten previous volumes are reduced to the level of fictions within the fiction. When, in the last volume, The Man With With The Golden Gun, Bond, returned like Holmes from apparent death, telephones Secret Service headquarters, he is initially dismissed as another nut who thinks that he is James Bond - a statement that could have been made either in our world or in his.

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, all twelve instalments collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate have been written and in some cases previously published in Technic civilization. Most have been gathered together by the editor, Hloch, although three have been specially written for the Earth Book. Subsequently, John Henry Reeves' account of the Imperial Founder, Manuel Argos, may be historical fiction but is nevertheless published as presenting an authentic picture of an important age.