I recently read a description of an author’s books that sounded incredibly interesting, but I forgot who it was. I read a ton of books, and I read a ton of magazines and newspapers so I have no clue where I might have read this.
Basically, it was a description of three of an author’s books, which may be collected together, which formed a little series. The basic thing that linked the three books was that each book either changed the reality of the previous book, questioned it, or otherwise cast doubt on it or invalidated it - like nested unreliable narratives. It was something to the effect of there’s one novel, then the second novel explains that the first novel was the delusion of one of the characters in the second, and the third explains that the second was a story made up by a character in the third…or something like that (I said these were ridiculously obscure clues!). The other thing that stuck out to me was that the names of characters or places, and possibly the names of the three novels, all evolve as weird puns on the previous one and weird inversions or mutations of the previous character names or titles or something.
And, really, that’s about all I remember. Does anyone know what the hell I’m talking about?
Yeah, I love Calvino, but it’s definitely not him.
Other clues I can think of:
I think that the author might have been a fantasy or sci-fi author.
I think they took place on an island or with a lighthouse or something like that.
The big thing was the names - there was some sort of pun or weird inversion between each one, like the first one is called “Terror Island” and then the second one is called “Island Terror” - stuff like that.
Ah, Gene Wolfe, perhaps? He wrote three stories with inverted titles almost exactly like you describe: The Island of Doctor Death, The Doctor of Death Island, and The Death of Doctor Island. I think I read them a long time ago, but I honestly can’t remember if the stories themselves were connected or if it was just the titles. Plus, they weren’t novels. But it’s the closest thing I could come up with!
DUDE, that’s it! I read it in that fantasy digest that had the dedicated Wolfe issue. I don’t normally read those things, so that’s probably why I couldnt’ think of where I had read it! Insane that you got it.
Woo-hoo! I think this is the first time I have ever solved a SDMB Mystery before someone else beat me to it! (Yes, the fact that’s it’s 3am and all sensible dopers are in bed might have something to do with it, but still . . .)
Also, I just looked up Wolfe’s Wikipedia entry and discovered there is a fourth story in the “Wolfe Archipelago” that I wasn’t aware of: Death of the Island Doctor. It was written some years after the others and I haven’t read it. Now I’m going to have to hunt down his collection *The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories *and satisfy my curiousity about the series. Of course, considering the author, it’s likely I will only be more confused once I’ve read them, but oh well . . .
Wolf’s “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” was nominated for a Nebula award in 1970. At the banquet, Isaac Asimov was to announce the winner. So he stands up and says, “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories.” Wolfe gets applause and starts heading to accept.
Meanwhile, someone whispers something in Asimov’s ear. Asimov turns white, and says, there’s been a mistake. The winner is “no award” (which is always an option on the ballot). Wolfe has to walk back to his table.
Later, at the party, someone says to Wolfe that he should write a story called “The Death of Doctor Island” and he’d win. So Wolfe does, and “The Death of Doctor Island” wins a Nebula two years later.
Later, Wolfe wrote “The Doctor of Death Island” and “The Death of the Island Doctor.” All four stories have been collected as The Wolfe Archepelago
Wolfe did something similar when he wrote The Castle of the Otter after someone misheard the title of his The Citadel of the Autarch.