Metafictional Reality

Tag Area: Fictional Setting
Novel

The Pursuit of the Pankera

The 2020 posthumous publication of this 1977 manscript shows us Heinlein’s first forey into the multiperson solipsism of semi-mad scientist Jake Burroughs, his beautiful daughter Deety, her strong love interest Zeb Carter, Hilda Corners and their time/dimension-traveling ship Gay Deceiver. In all, the earlier manuscript has three adventures that were significantly changed in his eventual 1980 publication of the work, retitled as The Number of the Beast:
  1. In Pankera, the Mars Ten actually is Barsoom where the gang meets the Princess of Mars and others, while in Beast, Mars Ten is a relatively boring futuristic British Mars.
  2. Pankera has a long adventure in the Lensman universe, while Beast has only a few pages.
  3. Pankera’s ending is a 30-page, rushed description of how they plan to launch a major war against the Panki, while Beast’s 130-page ending takes the gang to the universe of Dora and Lazurus Long where they rescue Maureen from the past and are joined by a passel of Heinlein’s characters.
In both books, Gay Deceiver can clearly travel through any one of three time axes at will, although that ability is largely ignored apart from Maureen’s rescue in Beast. Because of this, we had a fierce debate up in the ITTDB Citadel about whether to even include Pankera in the database. In the end, we decided yes, marking it as the parent work of Beast, but on account of no easily recognizable time travel, we also marked it as having only debatable time travel. —Michael Main
Sharpie, you have just invented multiperson solipsism. I didn’t think that was mathematically possible.
A young man and woman stand defiantly in the foreground, with an older man and woman, a spaceship, and multiple planets behind them.
  • Science Fiction
  • Debatable Time Travel
Novel

The Number of the Beast

Semi-mad scientist Jake Burroughs, his beautiful daughter Deety, her strong love interest Zeb Carter, Hilda Corners (“Aunt Hilda” if you prefer) and their time/dimension-traveling ship Gay Deceiver yak and smooch their way though many time periods in many universes (including that of Lazurus Long), soon realizing the true nature of the world as pantheistic multiperson solipsism.

In Heinlein’s first version of this novel, written in 1977, the middle third of the story takes place on Barsoom, but in the 1980 published version, Barsoom was replaced by a futuristic British Mars —Michael Main
Sharpie, you have just invented multiperson solipsism. I didn’t think that was mathematically possible.
A man with long, 1970s-style hair stands with a futuristic rifle in a prairie with a walled compound and yellow sky behind him.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Time Bandits

A boy’s bedroom is invaded by six dwarves who have stolen The Supreme Being’s map, which naturally leads both boy and dwarves on adventures through time. —Michael Main
Is it all ready? Right. Come on then. Back to creation. We mustn’t waste any more time. They’ll think I’ve lost control again and put it all down to evolution.
Head shots of the film
  • Fantasy
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation, s02e03

Elementary, Dear Data

Geordi and Pulaski’s annoyance at Data’s inability to create a worthy opponent in a Sherlock Holmes mystery on the holodeck results in a more realistic Moriarty than any of them anticipated. —Michael Main
Clancy: [to Geordi] Aye, sir. Where can I reach you?
Data: He can be reached at 221 Baker Street!
In a Sherlock Holmes get-up, Brent Spiner (as Data) examines something through a magnifying glass.
  • Science Fiction
  • Mystery and Crime
  • Time Phenomena
Novel

The Last Musketeer 1

The Last Musketeer

  • by Stuart Gibbs
  • (HarperCollins, September 2011) [print · e-book]
While chasing the cad who stole his family’s prized black crystal, young Greg Rich ends up back in AD 1615 where he and three future Musketeers must save Greg’s parents from Dominic Richelieu (the cardinal’s evil brother) and the deadly prison known as La Mort. —Michael Main
When joined as a whole, the Devil’s Stone was rumored to perform many miracles: strike people dead in an instant, turn lead into gold, even open portals in time.
A boy dressed in a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve shirt on top leads the way down a dark alley with two Musketeers behind.
  • Fantasy
  • Audience: Children
  • Definite Time Travel
Novel

Dear Reader

Could it be that when Heathcliff disappeared from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in pain after overhearing Catherine’s marriage plans that he went to 21st-century New York City, where 17-year-old Flannery Fields would enlist him to help find her stray English teacher? —Michael Main
Here she was dancing at O’Kelleys while Miss Sweeney wandered the city in despair; here she was marveling at literary time travel as a true possibility, though literary time travel sounded so goofy and grandiose that it shamed her further.
The torso and hips of a teenaged schoolgirl in a white blouse and plaid skirt, clutching her books to her chest.
  • Fantasy
  • Audience: Young Adults
  • Debatable Time Travel