Fix-up
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Afix-up(orfixup) is anovelcreated from severalshort fictionstories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as aframe storyor other interstitial narration, is written for the new work. The term was coined by thescience fictionwriterA. E. van Vogt,[1]who published several fix-ups of his own, includingThe Voyage of the Space Beagle,[2]but the practice (if not the term) exists outside of science fiction. The use of the term in science fiction criticism was popularised by the first (1979) edition ofThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction,edited byPeter Nicholls,which credited van Vogt with the term’s creation.[3][4] The name “fix-up” comes from the changes that the author needs to make in the original texts, to make them fit together as though they were a novel. Foreshadowing of events from the later stories may be jammed into an early chapter of the fix-up, and character development may be interleaved throughout the book. Contradictions and inconsistencies between episodes are usually worked out.
Some fix-ups in their final form are more of ashort story cycleor composite novel, rather than a traditional novel with a single main plotline. Examples areRay Bradbury'sThe Martian Chronicles,andIsaac Asimov'sI, Robotboth of which read as a series of short stories which may share plot threads and characters, but which still act as self-contained stories.[5]By contrast, van Vogt'sThe Weapon Shops of Isheris structured like a continuous novel, although it incorporates material from three previous van Vogt short stories.
Fix-ups became an accepted practice in American publishing during the 1950s, when science fiction andfantasy—once published primarily in magazines—increasingly began appearing in book form. Large book publishers likeDoubledayandSimon & Schusterentered the market, greatly increasing demand for fiction. Authors created new manuscripts from old stories, to sell to publishers.Algis Budrysin 1965 described fixups as a consequence of the lack of good supply during the "bad years for quality" of the mid-1950s, although citingThe Martian ChroniclesandClifford D. Simak'sCityas exceptions.[6]
Examples
[edit]Science fiction and fantasy
[edit]- Slan[6](1946) byA. E. van Vogt
- The Book of Ptath(1947) byA. E. van Vogt
- The World of Null-A(1948) byA. E. van Vogt
- TriplanetarybyE. E. Smith
- The Voyage of the Space Beagle(1950) byA. E. van Vogt
- The Martian Chronicles(1950) byRay Bradbury[6][2]
- The Dying Earth(1950) byJack Vance[2]
- I, Robot(1951) byIsaac Asimov[6][7][2]
- City(1952) byClifford D. Simak[6]
- The Mixed Men(1952) byA. E. van Vogt[2]
- More Than Human(1953) byTheodore Sturgeon
- Mutant(1953) byHenry KuttnerandC. L. Moore(asLewis Padgett)
- The Weapon Shops of Isher(1954) byA. E. van Vogt[2]
- Earthman, Come Home(1955) byJames Blish
- Men, Martians and Machines(1955) byEric Frank Russell
- Hell's Pavement(1955) byDamon Knight
- Lest We Forget Thee, Earth(1958) byRobert Silverberg(as Calvin M. Knox)
- The Outward Urge(1959) byJohn Wyndham(as John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes)
- A Canticle for Leibowitz(1959) byWalter M. Miller Jr.
- The War Against the Rull(1959) byA. E. van Vogt[2]
- The Great Explosion(1962) byEric Frank Russell
- Hothouse(1962) byBrian W. Aldiss
- Savage Pellucidar(1963) byEdgar Rice Burroughs
- Stormbringer(1965) byMichael Moorcock
- Rogue Ship[2](1965) byA. E. van Vogt
- The Beast(1965) byA. E. van Vogt
- The Eyes of the Overworld(1966) by Jack Vance
- Counter-Clock World(1967) byPhilip K. Dick
- Pavane(1968) byKeith Roberts
- The Silkie(1969) byA. E. van Vogt
- The Ship Who Sang(1969) byAnne McCaffrey
- Quest for the Future(1970) byA. E. van Vogt
- Half Past Human(1971) byT. J. Bass
- Operation Chaos(1971) byPoul Anderson
- Puzzle of the Space Pyramids(1971) byEando Binder
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go(1971) byPhilip Jose Farmer
- The Fabulous Riverboat(1971) byPhilip Jose Farmer
- The World Inside(1971) byRobert Silverberg
- 334(1972) byThomas M. Disch
- The Godmakers(1972) byFrank Herbert
- To Ride Pegasus(1973) byAnne McCaffrey
- A World Out of Time(1976) byLarry Niven
- In the Ocean of Night(1977) byGregory Benford
- The Mercenary(1977) byJerry Pournelle
- If the Stars are Gods(1977) byGregory BenfordandGordon Eklund
- Born to Exile(1978) byPhyllis Eisenstein
- Space War Blues(1978) byRichard A. Lupoff
- Catacomb Years(1979) byMichael Bishop
- The World and Thorinn(1981) byDamon Knight
- Windhaven(1981) byGeorge R. R. MartinandLisa Tuttle
- The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger(1982) byStephen King
- The Crucible of Time(1983) byJohn Brunner
- Icehenge(1984) byKim Stanley Robinson
- Emergence(1984) byDavid R. Palmer
- The Postman(1985) byDavid Brin
- Saturnalia(1986) byGrant Callin
- Tuf Voyaging(1986) byGeorge R. R. Martin
- Life During Wartime(1987) byLucius Shepard
- A Different Flesh(1988) byHarry Turtledove
- Prince of Mercenaries(1989) byJerry Pournelle
- Mirabile(1991) byJanet Kagan
- TheSword of Destiny(1992) byAndrzej Sapkowski
- Crashlander(1994) byLarry Niven
- Amnesia Moon(1995) byJonathan Lethem(fix-up of all previously unpublished stories)
- Vacuum Diagrams(1997) byStephen Baxter
- Kirinyaga(1998) byMike Resnick
- Rainbow Mars(1999) byLarry Niven
- From the Dust Returned(2001) byRay Bradbury
- Coyote(2002) byAllen Steele
- Sister Alice(2003) byRobert Reed
- Roma Eterna(2003) byRobert Silverberg
- The Carpet Makers(2005) byAndreas Eschbach
- Accelerando(2005) byCharles Stross
- From the Files of the Time Rangers(2005) byRichard Bowes
- Central Station(2016) byLavie Tidhar
- Driftwood(2020) byMarie Brennan
Other genres
[edit]- Scenes of Bohemian Life(1851) byHenri Murger
- Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town(1912) byStephen Leacock
- The Inimitable Jeeves(1923) byP. G. Wodehouse
- The Big Four(1927) byAgatha Christie
- The Pastures of Heaven(1932) andThe Red Pony(1937) byJohn Steinbeck
- The Unvanquished(1938) byWilliam Faulkner
- The Big Sleep(1939),Farewell My Lovely(1940) andThe Lady in the Lake(1943) byRaymond Chandler[8]
- Report on England, November 1940(1940) byRalph Ingersoll[9]
- Go Down, Moses(1942) byWilliam Faulkner
- Dandelion Wine(1957) byRay Bradbury
- Three for the Chair(1957) byRex Stout
- Lives of Girls and Women(1971) byAlice Munro
- Who Do You Think You Are?(1978) by Alice Munro
- The Things They Carried(1990) byTim O'Brien
- Green Shadows, White Whale(1992) byRay Bradbury
- Trainspotting(1993) byIrvine Welsh
- Throat Sprockets(1994) byTim Lucas
- Haunted(2005) byChuck Palahniuk
- A Visit from the Goon Squad(2010) byJennifer Egan
- The Seven Wonders(2012) bySteven Saylor
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Weinberg, Robert (1980)."A.E. van Vogt".Icshi.net(interview). Isaac Walwyn. Archived fromthe originalon 2020-11-15.Retrieved2016-12-27.
- ^abcdefgh Liptak, Andrew (2013-08-05)."A.E. van Vogt and the fix-up novel".Kirkus Reviews.
- ^ Nicholls, Peter; Clute, John (1999).New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.London, UK: Orbit. p. 432.ISBN1-85723-897-4.
- ^ "Fixup".Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(Third ed.).
- ^ Luscher, Robert M. (2012)."The American short-story cycle".InBendixen, Alfred(ed.).A Companion to the American Novel.Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture. Vol. 80. John Wiley & Sons. p. 370.ISBN9781405101196.
- ^abcde Budrys, Algis (October 1965)."Galaxy Bookshelf".Galaxy Science Fiction.pp. 142–150.
- ^ Latham, Rob (2009)."Fiction, 1950-1963".In Bould, Mark; Butler, Andrew M.; Roberts, Adam; Vint, Sherryl (eds.).The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction.Routledge. p. 82.ISBN9781135228361.
- ^ Bruccoli, Matthew J.(1979).Raymond Chandler: A descriptive bibliography.Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography.University of Pittsburgh Press.
- ^ Ingersoll, Ralph (1940)."Publishers' foreword".Report on England, November 1940.New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. p. v – via Archive.org.