# Is there a word for this type of literature? (Details in OP) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941 "2019-06-23T22:39:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/21 "2019-06-24T14:16:03Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Pastiche borrows the style from a work, not the elements of the work, right? As such, most of these examples aren’t pastiches, to my mind. My dictionary is old, but it allows that a pastiche may be a work in the style of, or borrowing any element or elements of, another work. I’m very liberal about this, because I think it’s more fun that way. There are limits: if you just renamed the characters in your story after those in _Hamlet_, and there are no other similarities, probably not a pastiche. But if your characters behave or speak in similar ways, or if the same or analogous things tend to happen to them, or if you use recognizable language or forms, you might. But I believe you don’t need all these things at once, just enough to consistently evoke the original. Then you’re free to write your way to Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern on the moon, or opening a two-man detective agency in San Francisco and waiting for a certain Miss O’Shaunessy to walk in. Say you wanted to write a pastiche of _Waiting for Godot_. You don’t need to name your characters Vladimir and Estragon. Maybe you just begin with two guys hanging out under a tree, waiting for _something_. Maybe you throw in a clever giveaway: instead of your version of Estragon having trouble pulling on his boots, give him a laptop computer that he’s trying to reboot. You don’t have to do any copying of dialogue, just remember that they’re prone to semi-elliptical statements. Toss in a more obvious reference by having them discuss whether to hang themselves. The original has a third character deliver a long nonsensical peroration. You can do the same, if you want. All that can be accomplished in a few lines, and it is, as far as I’m concerned, a pastiche, the rest of the page is yours to convey whatever you want. Once you build the bicycle, ride it where you want. That’s just me. I have no investment in anyone else’s definition. _Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern_ is neither improved nor harmed by calling it a pastiche or not, after all. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/22 "2019-06-24T16:38:04Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Plagiarism? > > H.P. Lovecraft encouraged other authors to use his settings, monsters, and lore to write their own stories, and many shared in the bounty. The term in that case was the _Cthulhu Mythos_, although I’m not aware of \*mythos \*being used for any other shared literary universes. I wouldn’t call it plagiarism, but, parenthetically, I found out a little while ago that Jordan Peele is working on a TV (?) version of Matt Ruff’s _Lovecraft Country_. So excited! I really liked the book, and it’s a good thing that a more than competent person will be bringing it to life. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/23 "2019-06-24T16:55:27Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I wouldn’t call it plagiarism, but, parenthetically, I found out a little while ago that Jordan Peele is working on a TV (?) version of Matt Ruff’s _Lovecraft Country_. So excited! I really liked the book, and it’s a good thing that a more than competent person will be bringing it to life. That’s fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/24 "2019-06-24T17:12:49Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > One of the most famous, and.maybe earliest(?) was Grendel which was the story of Beowulf as retold by the Monster. _Wide Sargasso Sea_ was 1966, and _Grendel_ was 1971, so it wasn’t the earliest. Captain Nemo appears in Jules Verne’s _Mysterious Island_ (1874), although the novel is not really a sequel to _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea._ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/25 "2019-06-24T17:16:11Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s a form of metafiction - if it were a novel, I’d call it a “parallel novel” (like _Wide Sargasso Sea_ parallels _Jane Eyre_, or _The Wind Done Gone_ parallels _Gone With The Wind_). so maybe “parallel play”. This is the sense meant by “paraquel,” mentioned above, as distinct from sequel or prequel: a work that covers the same time period as another but from a different perspective. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/26 "2019-06-24T17:23:01Z")
Why not [fanfic](http://www.hpmor.com/)? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/27 "2019-06-24T17:25:53Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why not [fanfic](http://www.hpmor.com/)? “Fanfic” generally refers to amateur work. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/28 "2019-06-24T17:27:27Z")
There are lots of examples of this. If you want another one that plays off of Shakespeare, Christopher Moore’s **Fool** tells the story of _King Lear_ from the point of view of the king’s Fool (who Moore names “Pocket”). I recommend it – the book is _hilarious_, despite being based on one of Shakespeare’s bleakest and most depressing tragedies. The much-revioed _Mary Reilly_ tells the story of _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ from the POV of Jeckyll’s maid. Back around the time that the deLaurentiis remake of _King Kong_ came out, someone published _My Story_, telling it from Kong’s POV. Fred Saberhagen’s _The Dracula Tapes_ tells the story of Dracula from the Count’s perspective. Peter Watts’ _the Things_ tells the story of _The Thing_ (the John Carpenter film version) from the Thing’s POV. Heinlein worked this one on himself, with part of his last novel, _To Sail Beyond the Sunset_ telling a story from _Time Enough for Love_ through a different character’s eyes. I’ve written stories like this, myself. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/29 "2019-06-24T17:54:28Z")
Come to think of it, using a subsidiary character in one work as the main character in another goes back at least to _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ in relation to _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer._ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/30 "2019-06-24T17:56:59Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Come to think of it, using a subsidiary character in one work as the main character in another goes back at least to _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ in relation to _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer._ And farther back, by Shakespeare himself: Falstaff from _Henry IV_ in _The Merry Maids of Windsor._ And Orson Welles’ movie [_Chimes at Midnight_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimes_at_Midnight) retells the story of Prince Hal/Henry V from Falstaff’s perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/31 "2019-06-24T18:29:31Z")
Isn’t this a pretty ancient storytelling tradition? Ovid’s Metamorphoses arguably fits in the tradition; and in any case, telling new stories about bit players in another story surely isn’t something that modern authors invented. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/32 "2019-06-24T18:30:04Z")
It goes _all_ the way back–late in his story, Gilgamesh runs into Utanapishtim, [who was a character from his own story](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis#Alterations_and_adaptations). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/33 "2019-06-24T18:37:09Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It goes _all_ the way back–late in his story, Gilgamesh runs into Utanapishtim, [who was a character from his own story](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis#Alterations_and_adaptations). I’m not sure how well these recent additions to the thread fit the OP – his example gives an already-existing story told through the eyes of non-major characters. I tried to keep to that in my additions. If you’re going to include cases where someone takes a character from someone else’s story and simply uses them in another unrelated story, the list of cases becomes huge. Ovid did this a LOT. Not just in the _Metamorphoses_, but with his other poems, where he had stories including Polyphemus and Glaucus and others. Heck, look at Virgil’s _Aeneid_. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/34 "2019-06-25T00:20:37Z")
The best example I know was not a pastiche, but shared universe describes it accurately. The novel Psychohistorical Crisis by Don Kingsbury takes place in what is quite obviously Asimov’s Foundation universe. But he changed all the names. For example, the planet that was obviously Trantor became Splendid Wisdom and the inhabitants of one planet were called the Frightful People. The author explained that he did that to avoid any copyright problems (he was a colleague of mine). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/35 "2019-06-25T00:28:56Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > The novel Psychohistorical Crisis by Don Kingsbury takes place in what is quite obviously Asimov’s Foundation universe. But he changed all the names. For example, the planet that was obviously Trantor became Splendid Wisdom and the inhabitants of one planet were called the Frightful People. What were you named?😉 ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/36 "2019-06-25T05:08:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > And farther back, by Shakespeare himself: Falstaff from _Henry IV_ in _The Merry Maids of Windsor._ And Orson Welles’ movie [_Chimes at Midnight_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimes_at_Midnight) retells the story of Prince Hal/Henry V from Falstaff’s perspective. It’s the _Merry **Wives** of Windsor_, not Maids. Another author known for paraquels is Joan Aiken, who wrote five “companion novels” to Jane Austen’s works. _Emma_ is retold from another character’s viewpoint in _Jane Fairfax_; _Mansfield Revisited_ take up the story with a focus on Susan, Fanny’s younger sister. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/37 "2019-06-25T07:49:14Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > This is the sense meant by “paraquel,” mentioned above, as distinct from sequel or prequel: a work that covers the same time period as another but from a different perspective. Problem is that while I get it’s _meant_ to be “parallel sequel”, I read the “para” as its own suffix, so it just become basically a time-specific form of “parafiction”, which is already a distinct, different thing (fiction that pretends to be true as an aesthetic conceit). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/38 "2019-06-25T07:54:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The much-revioed _Mary Reilly_ tells the story of _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ from the POV of Jeckyll’s maid. The movie might be, but could you really call the Nebula- and WFA-nominee _novel_ “much reviled”? ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/39 "2019-06-25T12:14:14Z")
“Canon” literature maybe? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941/40 "2019-06-25T12:32:21Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > “Canon” literature maybe? You mean with the quotes? _Faux_-canon might be less likely to be misinterpreted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-this-type-of-literature-details-in-op/835941.md?page=1)