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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Recursive SF </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 25 September 2023. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=recursive_sf'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=recursive_sf'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=recursive_sf'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> <span style="cursor: pointer;" onclick="window.open('/gallery.php?link=recursive_sf');"> <img alt="Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com" style="margin: 0; position: relative; top:-2px;" src="/images/icon-gal.gif"></img></span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=Leiber-Eggheads.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/Leiber-Eggheads.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>Recycling material from the vast and growing storehouse of the already-written has long been a practice of sf writers. Plots and characters constantly reappear throughout sf, usually but not always in the form of sequels written by the author of the original work; venues (like Edgar Rice <a href="/entry/burroughs_edgar_rice">Burroughs</a>'s <a href="/entry/mars">Mars</a>) become universal props; and terms descriptive of devices or circumstances unique to sf (from <a href="/entry/bem">BEMS</a> to <a href="/entry/corpsicle">Corpsicles</a> to partials – Greg <a href="/entry/bear_greg">Bear</a>'s coinage for autonomous computer-generated partial copies of human personalities, here discussed under <a href="/entry/avatars">Avatars</a>) tend, once introduced, to become common parlance. When Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a> made reference in <i>"The Number of the Beast"</i> (<b>1980</b>) to characters and situations which appeared in earlier novels by him and other sf writers, he was operating in this traditional manner. But when he introduced into the same book people – writers, editors, fans – who had been involved in sf itself, he did something very different, something which marked his career, and the sf genre within which the book was written, as approaching a late and self-referential phase. Wilson <a href="/entry/tucker_wilson">Tucker</a> so frequently introduced real figures into his stories that such insertions became known for a while as <a href="/entry/tuckerisms">Tuckerisms</a>; but a Tuckerism is a private allusion or joke among friends, and should not be seen as making a binding argument about the relationship between fiction and the world. Heinlein, on the other hand, was writing full-blown recursive sf, a term narrowly defined in Anthony R <a href="/entry/lewis_anthony_r">Lewis</a>'s <i>An Annotated Bibliography of Recursive Science Fiction</i> (<b>1990</b> chap) as "science fiction stories that refer to science fiction ... to authors, fans, collectors, conventions, etc.". More broadly, recursive sf may be defined as stories which treat real people, and the fictional worlds which occupy their dreams, as sharing equivalent degrees of reality. It is, in other words, a technique which may be used to create <a href="/entry/alternate_history">Alternate Histories</a>, usually backward-looking in time, and frequently expressing a powerful nostalgia for pasts in which the visions of early <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre SF</a> do, in fact, come true.</p> <p>An amusing early example from George Bernard <a href="/entry/shaw_george_bernard">Shaw</a>'s play <i>Back to Methuselah</i> (<b>1921</b>; revs <b>1921</b>-<b>1945</b>) is the "electric hedge" (see <a href="/entry/force_field">Force Field</a>) used to immobilize and confine future troublemakers; this borrowing from a similar device in Rudyard <a href="/entry/kipling_rudyard">Kipling</a>'s "As Easy as A.B.C." (March-April 1912 <i>The London Magazine</i>) is acknowledged when a victim complains of being "Kiplingized". Another instance prior to Tucker's popularization of sf name-dropping is "He Who Shrank" (August 1936 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>) by Henry <a href="/entry/hasse_henry">Hasse</a>, whose events are supposedly communicated to and published as sf by the "renowned" author Stanton Cobb Lentz (Stanton A <a href="/entry/coblentz_stanton_a">Coblentz</a>).</p> <p>Novels with recursive elements include Alma <a href="/entry/alexander_alma">Alexander</a>'s <i>AbductiCon</i> (<b>2015</b>), Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>'s <i>Frankenstein Unbound</i> (<b>1973</b>) and <i>Dracula Unbound</i> (<b>1991</b>), Kingsley <a href="/entry/amis_kingsley">Amis</a>'s <i>The Alteration</i> (<b>1976</b>), Manly <a href="/entry/banister_manly">Banister</a>'s early spoof on sf fandom, <i>Egoboo: A Fantasy Satire</i> (<b>1950</b> chap), Michael <a href="/entry/bishop_michael">Bishop</a>'s <i>The Secret Ascension</i> (<b>1987</b>; vt <i>Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas</i> <b>1988</b>), Anthony <a href="/entry/boucher_anthony">Boucher</a>'s detective novel <i>Rocket to the Morgue</i> (<b>1942</b>), Fredric <a href="/entry/brown_fredric">Brown</a>'s <i>What Mad Universe</i> (September 1948 <a href="/entry/startling_stories">Startling</a>; exp <b>1949</b>) and <i>Martians, Go Home</i> (<b>1955</b>), Gene <a href="/entry/deweese_gene">DeWeese</a>'s and Robert <a href="/entry/coulson_robert">Coulson</a>'s <i>Now You See It/Him/Them</i> (<b>1975</b>) and <i>Charles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats</i> (<b>1977</b>), Philip K <a href="/entry/dick_philip_k">Dick</a>'s <i>The Man in the High Castle</i> (<b>1962</b>), David <a href="/entry/dvorkin_david">Dvorkin</a>'s <i>Time for Sherlock Holmes</i> (<b>1983</b>), Philip José <a href="/entry/farmer_philip_jose">Farmer</a>'s <i>To Your Scattered Bodies Go</i> (January 1965-March 1966 <a href="/entry/worlds_of_tomorrow">Worlds of Tomorrow</a>; fixup <b>1971</b>) and its sequels, Charles L <a href="/entry/harness_charles_l">Harness</a>'s <i>Lurid Dreams</i> (<b>1990</b>), David <a href="/entry/langford_david">Langford</a>'s and John <a href="/entry/grant_john">Grant</a>'s <i>Earthdoom!</i> (<b>1987</b>), Sharyn <a href="/entry/mccrumb_sharyn">McCrumb</a>'s farce-mysteries <i>Bimbos of the Death Sun</i> (<b>1987</b>) and <i>Zombies of the Gene Pool</i> (<b>1992</b>), Barry N <a href="/entry/malzberg_barry_n">Malzberg</a>'s <i>Dwellers of the Deep</i> (<b>1970</b> dos), <i>Gather in the Hall of the Planets</i> (<b>1971</b> dos, both as by K M O'Donnell, a pseudonym which itself homages C L <a href="/entry/moore_c_l">Moore</a> and Henry <a href="/entry/kuttner_henry">Kuttner</a>), and <i>Herovit's World</i> (<b>1973</b>), Larry <a href="/entry/niven_larry">Niven</a>'s and Jerry <a href="/entry/pournelle_jerry">Pournelle</a>'s <i>Inferno</i> (August-October 1975 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>; <b>1976</b>; rev <b>2008</b>) and <i>Footfall</i> (<b>1985</b>), Tim <a href="/entry/powers_tim">Powers</a>'s <i>The Stress of Her Regard</i> (<b>1989</b>), Christopher <a href="/entry/priest_christopher">Priest</a>'s <i>The Space Machine</i> (<b>1976</b>), Mack <a href="/entry/reynolds_mack">Reynolds</a>'s mystery <i>The Case of the Little Green Men</i> (<b>1951</b>), Rudy <a href="/entry/rucker_rudy">Rucker</a>'s <i>The Hollow Earth</i> (<b>1990</b>), Fred <a href="/entry/saberhagen_fred">Saberhagen</a>'s and Roger <a href="/entry/zelazny_roger">Zelazny</a>'s <i>The Black Throne</i> (<b>1990</b>) and Kurt <a href="/entry/vonnegut_kurt_jr">Vonnegut</a> Jr's <i>God Bless You, Mr Rosewater</i> (<b>1965</b>). Many further titles could be added.</p> <p>Media examples of note include Nigel <a href="/entry/kneale_nigel">Kneale</a>'s <a href="/entry/kinvig">Kinvig</a> (<i>1981</i>); <a href="/entry/martian_successor_nadesico">Martian Successor Nadesico</a> (<i>1996</i>), whose spoofing of <a href="/entry/anime">Anime</a> tropes includes a show-within-a-show which the cast watches and criticizes; and <a href="/entry/galaxy_quest">Galaxy Quest</a> (<i>1999</i>), which affectionately mocks both <a href="/entry/star_trek">Star Trek</a> and its <a href="/entry/fandom">Fandom</a>.</p> <p><i>Inside the Funhouse</i> (anth <b>1992</b>) edited by Michael <a href="/entry/resnick_mike">Resnick</a> assembles examples of the form, with an introductory essay. A useful reference is <i>An Annotated Bibliography of Recursive Science Fiction</i> (<b>1990</b>) edited by Anthony R <a href="/entry/lewis_anthony_r">Lewis</a>, subsequently much expanded on line [see links below]. [JC/DRL]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/cthulhu_mythos">Cthulhu Mythos</a>; <a href="/entry/gurps">GURPS</a>.</p> <p><b>further reading</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li>Anthony R <a href="/entry/lewis_anthony_r">Lewis</a>, editor. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=An+Annotated+Bibliography+of+Recursive+Science&field-author=Lewis+Anthony+R" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">An Annotated Bibliography of Recursive Science Fiction</a></em> (Framingham, Massachusetts: NESFA Press, <b>1990</b>) [bibliography: chap: pb/Merle Insinga]</li> <li>Mike <a href="/entry/resnick_mike">Resnick</a>, editor. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Inside+the+Funhouse+17+SF+Stories+about+SF&field-author=Resnick+Mike" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Inside the Funhouse: 17 SF Stories about SF</a></em> (New York: Avon Books, <b>1992</b>) [anth: pb/Tim O'Brien]</li> </ul> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://data.nesfa.org/Recursion/">Recursive Science Fiction (NESFA)</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/gallery.php?link=recursive_sf">Picture Gallery</a></li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/recursive_sf' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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