# Readers: 2 related questions about books

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/readers-2-related-questions-about-books/643102>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 5, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/readers-2-related-questions-about-books/643102 "2012-12-05T18:33:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/readers-2-related-questions-about-books/643102/41 "2012-12-11T19:06:48Z")

</div>

> [@Kaio](#):
>
> So, if you came across an author you were unfamiliar with, would it influence your enjoyment of the story to read that the main character had the same first name as the author?

A part of me has always been amused that the most beautiful of the Bennett sisters in _Pride and Prejudice_ was named “Jane,” but otherwise, I probably don’t even notice.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/readers-2-related-questions-about-books/643102/42 "2012-12-11T19:23:17Z")

</div>

> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> … (Mercedes Lackey) also had a little story on her website where she’s confronted by her characters who complain about the hell she puts them through …

Maksim Gorky’s serio-comic short story “Christmas Phantoms” may be the original of this trope – characters from his conventional heart-rending Christmas stories accuse him of exploiting their misery for personal gain.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/readers-2-related-questions-about-books/643102/43 "2012-12-12T00:26:18Z")

</div>

> [@chinchalinchin](#):
>
> Valis. Although, Horselover Fat wasn’t actually the author’s persona. The main character referred to himself as Philip. Horselover was the main character’s split personality where he stored all the crazy nonsense about the robotic satelitte god (Vast Active Living Intelligent Satelitte, hence VALIS) who transmitted directly into his brain via a pink laser beam the revelation that time stopped somewhere around 400 AD and the American Empire was a virtual overlay of the Roman Empire. Or something. It really only made sense if you dosed yourself into a coma with LSD.

Even better: In _Radio Free Albemuth_, the novel he wrote prior to writing _VALIS_ (which was almost a straight re-write of _RFA_), one of the main characters is a science fiction author named Philip K. Dick who has visions given to him, he thinks, by an otherworldly entity that he names VALIS, etc.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/readers-2-related-questions-about-books/643102.md?page=2)