Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

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On December 13, 1795, a small meteorite plunged to the ground near the Yorkshire village of Wold Newton. According to veteran sf author Philip Jose Farmer, the crash produced a radiation shower that blanketed two horsedrawn carriages carrying some extraordinary witnesses. The meteorite was very real (a memorial marks where it struck); the witnesses were entirely fictional. As delineated in a series of papers spanning several decades of his career, Farmer's "researches" identified among the witnesses an impressive roster of celebrities, including everyone from Captain Blood, Sherlock Holmes, and Allan Quatermain to Tarzan, Doc Savage, and James Bond--often along with their offspring--just to name a few. Editor Eckert collects all of Farmer's so-called essays as well as others by several fans to fill out Farmer's fanciful scholarship. Although the volume appeals primarily to Farmer fans, anyone interested in "secret" biographical tidbits on Holmes and his popular-literary ilk may enjoy at least taking a peek. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

In his classic "biographies" of fictional characters (Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life), Hugo- and Nebula-award winning author Philip José Farmer introduced the Wold Newton family, a collection of heroes and villains whose family-tree includes Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, Philip Marlowe, and James Bond. In books, stories, and essays he expanded the concept even further, adding more branches to the Wold Newton family-tree. MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER’S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE collects for the first time those rarely-seen essays. Expanding the family even farther are contributions from Farmer’s successors—scholars, writers, and pop-culture historians—who bring even more fictional characters into the fold.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: MonkeyBrain Books (November 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932265147
• ISBN-13: 978-1932265149
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #149,926 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chris Davies is WRONG!, May 18, 2006

By	Joshua Small "Josh" (Tishomingo, OK) - See all my reviews

Having read both this book from cover to cover and the reviews that are posted on this sight, I can only conclude that one of the reviewers has an axe to grind with one or more of the writers responsible. Don't let that sway you; this is an excellent book that, yes, occasionally offers up contradictory information - if you take the time to read the introductory portion CAREFULLY, you will note that not only does Mr. Eckert acknowledge as much, but goes on to state that this is part of the fun in the game these writers are playing. Some people should lighten up and learn how to have fun already!

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you have any love for the Pulps, buy this now, December 28, 2005

By	R. Dorf - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really can't say enough good things about this book, or about Win Eckert's incredible Wold Newton web site. For those new to it, the Wold Newton universe grew out of Science Fiction legend Philip Jose Farmer's imaginative take on a world where almost every major event and adventure of nineteenth and early twentieth century fantastic fiction had some basis in reality. It was a world where Doc Savage and Tarzan brushed shoulders and/or shared bloodlines with Phileas Fogg and Sherlock Holmes, a world where Bruce Wayne did fight crime, if not quite in the way portrayed by his more imaginative biographers. The Wold Newton Universe as Farmer created it was the mindscape of every voracious young reader of a certain generation. The essays collected here by Win Eckert expand and enlarge on that world, adding a depth and level of detail worthy of both the original source material and Farmer's own creations.

If you are a fan of early twentieth century speculative and fantastic fiction, the pulps, or Philip Jose Farmer, this book is a must read. It is also of special interest to fan fiction writers and role playing gamers, presenting a first rate re-imagining of established fictional characters.

I strongly recommend it.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Wold Newton Universe, November 2, 2005

By	Henry Covert (2046) - See all my reviews

The groundbreaking, iconoclastic science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer introduced us to the Wold Newton Family concept back in 1972 with Tarzan Alive, a biography of the man Edgar Rice Burroughs variously called John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, and Tarzan of the Apes. In Tarzan Alive, Farmer asserts that Greystoke was a real person, and that Burroughs greatly exaggerated Greystoke's exploits for his pulp adventure audience.

In Tarzan Alive, Farmer did several things that set the tone for all Wold Newton works to follow. First, as noted, he followed the lead of Baring-Gould's 'biography' Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street and claimed that many fictional characters were in fact real people. Second, he analyzed the 'fictionalized' texts and attempted to reconcile any conflicting information, much as the Holmesian canon has been scrutinized for lapses in continuity by Baring-Gould, the Baker Street Irregulars, and others. Lastly, Farmer created the concept of the Wold Newton Family - a grouping of fictional characters that Farmer claims are blood related, including Tarzan, Holmes, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Raffles, Professor Challenger, the Shadow, and many others. He also accounts for the prodigious talents of Holmes, Tarzan, etc. by revealing that they are descended from a group of people traveling by coach in Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England in 1795 when a meteor struck a nearby cottage. The passengers of those coaches were exposed to radiation from the meteor, and this accounts for the benevolent mutations of their offspring (the Wold Newton meteor strike actually did occur on that date). Of course, their offspring all intermarried, and things became very complex.

Farmer continued to explore these ideas in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, a 'biography' of the classic pulp hero. Not only does Farmer further the conceit of the hero being a real person, but he adds many branches to his Wold Newton family tree. By the end of DS:HAL, we see a huge family of extraordinary folk emerging, from the Spider, James Bond, and Fu Manchu, to Leopold Bloom from Ulysses, Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout, and Farmer's own hero Kickaha from his World of Tiers series - among many others. Farmer adds more outre texts (from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos to Harlan Ellison's talking dog Ralph von Wau Wau) than in his previous work and doesn't claim they are fictionalized to the degree asserted in TA.

Now, many years later, comes this superb volume edited and including work by Win Eckert, who has maintained the premiere site for Wold Newton speculation on the Web. Eckert has coined the term 'Wold Newton Universe' to denote that many more fictional characters than dreamed of by Farmer inhabit the same shared universe. Eckert has added many characters by documenting crossovers between fictitious characters from all media, in all genres, though the pulp theme remains strong. Eckert explains how the WNU 'works' and his own methodology in Myths for the Modern Age. Dr. Peter Coogan contributes an amazing essay, 'Woldnewtonry', which describes the way various writers 'wold', that is bring in more characters and reconcile more contradictory texts. There are many essays here by 'post-Farmerian' writers, such as Chuck Loridans, who reveals which female adventure characters are the 'Daughters of Greystoke'; Brad Mengel, who explores the tangled family tree of Sherlock Holmes; and Dennis Power, who discusses 'Asian Detectives in the Wold Newton Universe', brings Kipling's Mowgli into the Wold Newton Family in an interesting way and provides, with co-writer Coogan, a definitive look at the long and storied life of Burroughs' John Carter of Mars (which is timely what with a feature film on John Carter in pre-production).

I cannot recommend this book highly enough to any and all fans of Philip Jose Farmer, pulp heroes, Tarzan, Holmes, or crossover fiction such as the League of Extraordinary Gentleman (for which MFTMA contributor Jess Nevins has penned two exhaustive companion volumes). You may not agree with all of the theories about your favorite genre characters and the connections between them (just as in real scholarship, the 'parascholarship' employed here invites a wide range of sometimes conflicting theories - attempting to reconcile them into a cohesive universe is one of the many thrills of 'The Game'). But you will definitely have an incredibly entertaining and informative read.