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57-532: Solar Pons is a fictional detective created by August Derleth as a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes . Robert Bloch wrote of the series, "During a span of a century there have been literally hundreds of Sherlockian imitations, ranging from parody to direct duplication, but no one except August Derleth ever succeeded in capturing the essential charm of Doyle's original concept... To Pons's exploits he brought not only expertise but evident expression of his respect, appreciation, and affection for

114-744: A 1990 series of short stories about the Vietnam War . Fictional works that explicitly involve supernatural, magical, or scientifically impossible elements are often classified under the genre of fantasy , including Lewis Carroll 's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings , and J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series. Creators of fantasy sometimes introduce imaginary creatures and beings such as dragons and fairies. Types of written fiction in prose are distinguished by relative length and include: Fiction writing

171-513: A Victorian Gothic and a detective story) and The House of the Wolf (a novel of lycanthropy ) were both illustrated by Stephen Fabian . Necropolis received a 1981 nomination for the Locus Award Best Fantasy novel category. Copper edited a 1982 two-volume omnibus collection of Derleth's stories of the 'Pontine' canon, published by Arkham House; in that edition, Copper "edited" most of

228-404: A certain point of view. The distinction between the two may be best defined from the viewpoint of the audience, according to whom a work is non-fiction if its people, settings, and plot are perceived entirely as historically or factually real, while a work is regarded as fiction if it deviates from reality in any of those areas. The distinction is further obscured by a philosophical understanding, on

285-447: A completely imaginary way or been followed by major new events that are completely imaginary (the genre of alternative history ). Or, it depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understandings or capabilities (the genre of science fiction ). Contrarily, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting (time and location in the world) is, in fact, real and whose events could believably happen in

342-471: A figure from history, Bonnie Prince Charlie , and takes part in the Battle of Prestonpans . Some works of fiction are slightly or greatly re-imagined based on some originally true story, or a reconstructed biography. Often, even when the fictional story is based on fact, there may be additions and subtractions from the true story to make it more interesting. An example is Tim O'Brien 's The Things They Carried ,

399-551: A limited edition chapbook of Copper's preferred text of the story " The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich ". Later, Sarob Press published two further volumes of Pons work by Copper: the novel Solar Pons Versus the Devil's Claw (2004) and a collection titled Solar Pons: The Final Cases (2005) which contains six stories, five being revised editions of earlier Copper Pons contributions, and one Sherlock Holmes story ("The Adventure of

456-695: A major impact on the creation and distribution of fiction, calling into question the feasibility of copyright as a means to ensure royalties are paid to copyright holders. Also, digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg make public domain texts more readily available. The combination of inexpensive home computers, the Internet, and the creativity of its users has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be found online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. The Internet

513-776: A name that was syllabically similar to "Sherlock Holmes", and wrote his first set of pastiches in 1928, which were published in The Dragnet Magazine in 1929. He would ultimately write more stories about Pons than Conan Doyle did about Holmes. Pons is a pastiche of Holmes; the first full book about Solar Pons was published in 1945 titled In Re: Sherlock Holmes : The Adventures of Solar Pons . Like Holmes, Solar Pons has prodigious powers of observation and deduction, and can astound his companions by telling them minute details about people he has only just met, details that he proves to have deduced in seconds of observation. Where Holmes' stories are narrated by his companion Dr. John H. Watson ,

570-648: A pipe filled with "abominable shag". The covers for the books also depict Pons wearing the familiar Holmesian garb of a deerstalker cap and Inverness cape. The actual Sherlock Holmes also exists in Pons' world: Pons and Parker are aware of the famous detective and hold him in high regard. Whereas Holmes' adventures took place primarily in the 1880s and 1890s, Pons and Parker live in the 1920s and 1930s. Pons fans also regard Derleth as having given Pons his own distinctly different personality, far less melancholy and brooding than Holmes's. The Pons stories also cross over at times with

627-529: A print journal, with three annual numbers published to date. The Twin Peaks character Cyril Pons is named after Solar Pons. David Marcum's book " The Papers of Sherlock Holmes", Volume II includes a story titled "The Adventure of the Other Brother", in which Holmes' nephew Siger takes the name "Solar Pons" in order to make his own name, instead of relying on that of his famous uncle. Fiction Fiction

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684-570: A subset (written fiction that aligns to a particular genre ), or its opposite: an evaluative label for written fiction that comprises popular culture , as artistically or intellectually inferior to high culture . Regardless, fiction is commonly broken down into a variety of genres: categories of fiction, each differentiated by a particular unifying tone or style ; set of narrative techniques , archetypes , or other tropes; media content ; or other popularly defined criterion. Science fiction predicts or supposes technologies that are not realities at

741-501: A university or a similar institution, and with the continuation of such positions determined not by book sales but by critical acclaim by other established literary authors and critics. On the other hand, he suggests, genre fiction writers tend to support themselves by book sales. However, in an interview, John Updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction' has sprung up recently to torment people like me who just set out to write books, and if anybody wanted to read them, terrific,

798-434: A written work of fiction that: Literary fiction is often used as a synonym for literature , in the narrow sense of writings specifically considered to be an art form. While literary fiction is sometimes regarded as superior to genre fiction, the two are not mutually exclusive, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime fiction , romance , etc., to create works of literature. Furthermore,

855-508: Is a part of media studies. Examples of prominent fictionalization in the creative arts include those in the general context of World War II in popular culture and specifically Nazi German leaders such as Adolf Hitler in popular culture and Reinhard Heydrich in popular culture . For instance, American actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin portrayed the eccentric despot Adenoid Hynkel in the 1940 satirical film The Great Dictator . The unhinged, unintelligent figure fictionalized real events from

912-446: Is also used for the development of blog fiction , where a story is delivered through a blog either as flash fiction or serial blog, and collaborative fiction , where a story is written sequentially by different authors, or the entire text can be revised by anyone using a wiki . The definition of literary fiction is controversial. It may refer to any work of fiction in a written form. However, various other definitions exist, including

969-672: Is any creative work , chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals , events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history , fact , or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose – often referring specifically to novels , novellas , and short stories . More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium , including not just writings but also live theatrical performances , films , television programs , radio dramas , comics , role-playing games , and video games . Typically,

1026-439: Is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to realistic or plausible individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genre of realistic fiction is characterized by a greater degree. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often, the sub-genre of fantasy ). Or, it depicts true historical moments, except that they have concluded in

1083-490: Is known as fictionalization . The opposite circumstance, in which the physical world or a real turn of events seem influenced by past fiction, is commonly described by the phrase " life imitating art ". The latter phrase is popularity associated with the Anglo-Irish fiction writer Oscar Wilde . The alteration of actual happenings into a fictional format, with this involving a dramatic representation of real events or people,

1140-446: Is known as both fictionalization , or, more narrowly for visual performance works like in theatre and film, dramatization . According to the academic publication Oxford Reference , a work set up this way will have a "narrative based partly or wholly on fact but written as if it were fiction" such that "[f]ilms and broadcast dramas of this kind often bear the label 'based on a true story'." In intellectual research, evaluating this process

1197-492: Is most long-established in the realm of literature (written narrative fiction), the broad study of the nature, function, and meaning of fiction is called literary theory , and the narrower interpretation of specific fictional texts is called literary criticism (with subsets like film criticism and theatre criticism also now long-established). Aside from real-world connections, some fictional works may depict characters and events within their own context, entirely separate from

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1254-427: Is often described as "elegantly written, lyrical, and ... layered". The tone of literary fiction can be darker than genre fiction, while the pacing of literary fiction may be slower than popular fiction. As Terrence Rafferty notes, "literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way". Based on how literary fiction is defined, genre fiction may be

1311-407: Is the process by which an author or creator produces a fictional work. Some elements of the writing process may be planned in advance, while others may come about spontaneously. Fiction writers use different writing styles and have distinct writers' voices when writing fictional stories. The use of real events or real individuals as direct inspiration for imaginary events or imaginary individuals

1368-720: The Tunbridge Wells Vintage Film Society and often gave talks at various film organisations in London. He was a member of the British Film Society and the Vintage Film Circle of London . Copper was a longtime resident of Sevenoaks in Kent , and was survived by his French-born wife Annie (née Guerin) to whom he had been married since 1960. Copper had his very first short story, "The Curse", published when he

1425-422: The human condition . In general, it focuses on "introspective, in-depth character studies" of "interesting, complex and developed" characters. This contrasts with genre fiction where plot is the central concern. Usually in literary fiction the focus is on the "inner story" of the characters who drive the plot, with detailed motivations to elicit "emotional involvement" in the reader. The style of literary fiction

1482-521: The 18th and 19th centuries. They were often associated with Enlightenment ideas such as empiricism and agnosticism . Realism developed as a literary style at this time. New forms of mass media developed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, including popular-fiction magazines and early film. Interactive fiction was developed in the late-20th century through video games. Certain basic elements define all works of narrative , including all works of narrative fiction. Namely, all narratives include

1539-499: The Dark (1977) and his novels Necropolis (1980) and The House of the Wolf . His work drew praise from Donald Wandrei who said of him: "He beguiles the mind as he lures the imagination beyond the outposts of reality." Copper's work was also championed by editor Peter Haining . Copper's best-known macabre tales include: "The Academy of Pain", "Amber Print", "The Recompensing of Albano Pizar" (dramatised by BBC Radio 4) "The Candle in

1596-1039: The Lighthouse, and the Trained Cormorant." Others are variants on Holmesian tales, such as "The Adventure of the Tottenham Werewolf ," paralleling (in some ways) Holmes' " Adventure of the Sussex Vampire ". After Derleth's death in 1971, further stories about the character were written by the author Basil Copper . The first four of these volumes were published by Pinnacle Books: The Dossier of Solar Pons , The Further Adventures of Solar Pons , The Secret Files of Solar Pons and The Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons (original UK title: Some Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons ) (all 1979). A further two volumes of Copper's continuations were published by Fedogan and Bremer: The Exploits of Solar Pons (1993) and The Recollections of Solar Pons (1995). Fedogan and Bremer also issued

1653-533: The Persecuted Painter"). Most recently, PS Publishing reissued all of Copper's Pons stories in 6 volumes, adding a 7th volume entitled The Solar Pons Companion , which contains related non-fiction and assorted materials. Copper also edited Derleth's Pons stories for Arkham House under the title The Solar Pons Omnibus . In addition to his extensive edits, in which Copper "rather controversially corrected many errors and adjusted many Americanisms," he arranged

1710-410: The Pons stories are narrated by Dr. Lyndon Parker; in the Pons stories, he and Parker share lodgings not at 221B Baker Street but at 7B Praed Street , where their landlady is not Mrs. Hudson but Mrs. Johnson. Whereas Sherlock Holmes has an elder brother Mycroft Holmes of even greater gifts, Solar Pons has a brother Bancroft Pons to fill the same role. Like Holmes, Pons is physically slender and smokes

1767-608: The Praed Street Irregulars", and "The Adventure of the Camberwell Beauty". The tales in the Pontine canon can be broadly divided into two classes: the straight and the humorous, the straight being more or less straightforward tales of detection in the classic Holmesian mode, while the others—a minority—have some gentle fun, most notably by involving fictional characters from outside either canon (e.g., Dr. Fu Manchu); perhaps

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1824-518: The Skull' (read over Hallowe'en on BBC Radio 4), "Better Dead", the acclaimed Lovecraftian novella "Beyond the Reef", "Bright Blades Gleaming" and "Ill Met by Daylight". Copper's novel The Great White Space (1975) describes an expedition into a remote part of Asia to discover the location of the mysterious Old Ones. The Great White Space was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Lovecraft and includes elements of

1881-604: The audience's willing suspension of disbelief . The effects of experiencing fiction, and the way the audience is changed by the new information they discover, has been studied for centuries. Also, infinite fictional possibilities themselves signal the impossibility of fully knowing reality, provocatively demonstrating philosophical notions, such as there potentially being no criterion to measure constructs of reality. In contrast to fiction, creators of non-fiction assume responsibility for presenting information (and sometimes opinion) based only in historical and factual reality. Despite

1938-415: The audience, including elements such as romance , piracy , and religious ceremonies . Heroic romance was developed in medieval Europe , incorporating elements associated with fantasy , including supernatural elements and chivalry . The structure of the modern novel was developed by Miguel de Cervantes with Don Quixote in the early-17th century. The novel became a primary medium of fiction in

1995-581: The context of the real world. One realistic fiction sub-genre is historical fiction , centered around true major events and time periods in the past. The attempt to make stories feel faithful to reality or to more objectively describe details, and the 19th-century artistic movement that began to vigorously promote this approach, is called literary realism , which incorporates some works of both fiction and non-fiction. Storytelling has existed in all human cultures, and each culture incorporates different elements of truth and fiction into storytelling. Early fiction

2052-595: The earliest Faraday novels. Instead, he used maps of the city and films based there to supply background detail for the series. Copper also ghostwrote two novels about the comics hero the Phantom for Lee Falk . Copper's work has been translated into many languages, reprinted in leading anthologies and filmed for television by Universal Pictures. The TV adaptation was of his well-known macabre story "Camera Obscura", filmed as an episode of Rod Serling 's Night Gallery in 1971. His novels Necropolis (a crossover between

2109-442: The elements of character , conflict , narrative mode , plot , setting , and theme . Characters are individuals inside a work of story, conflicts are the tension or problem that drives characters' thoughts and actions, narrative modes are the ways in which a story is communicated, plots are the sequence of events in a story, settings are the story's locations in time and space, and themes are deeper messages or interpretations about

2166-474: The fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects the work to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the themes and context of a work, such as if and how it relates to real-world issues or events, are open to interpretation . Since fiction

2223-567: The imperial period. Plasmatic narrative, following entirely invented characters and events, was developed through ancient drama and New Comedy . One common structure among early fiction is a series of strange and fantastic adventures as early writers test the limits of fiction writing. Milesian tales were an early example of fiction writing in Ancient Greece and Italy. As fiction writing developed in Ancient Greece, relatable characters and plausible scenarios were emphasized to better connect with

2280-441: The known physical universe: an independent fictional universe . The creative art of constructing such an imaginary world is known as worldbuilding . Literary critic James Wood argues that "fiction is both artifice and verisimilitude ", meaning that it requires both creative inventions as well as some acceptable degree of believability among its audience, a notion often encapsulated in the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's idea of

2337-661: The latter author's Cthulhu Mythos stories. The novel also features a character called Clark Ashton Scarsdale who appears to be an affectionate tribute to Clark Ashton Smith . Copper is also noted for his Cthulhu Mythos short story "Shaft Number 247" in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1980). Though his important work was in the domain of the macabre, he also wrote a long-running novel series featuring hard-boiled Los Angeles private detective Mike Faraday (58 novels from 1966 to 1988). Copper had not visited Los Angeles when he wrote

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2394-508: The more the merrier. ... I'm a genre writer of a sort. I write literary fiction, which is like spy fiction or chick lit". Likewise, on The Charlie Rose Show , he argued that this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, so he does not really like it. He suggested that all his works are literary, simply because "they are written in words". Literary fiction often involves social commentary , political criticism , or reflection on

2451-560: The most outstanding example is "The Adventure of the Orient Express", which features thinly disguised versions of Ashenden , Hercule Poirot , and the Saint . Several Pons stories have titles taken from "unrecorded" cases of Holmes to which Watson alluded, including those of "Ricoletti of the Club Foot (and his Abominable Wife)," "The Aluminium Crutch", "The Black Cardinal", and "The Politician,

2508-493: The one hand, that the truth can be presented through imaginary channels and constructions, while, on the other hand, works of the imagination can just as well bring about significant new perspectives on, or conclusions about, truth and reality. All types of fiction invite their audience to explore real ideas, issues, or possibilities using an otherwise imaginary setting or using something similar to reality, though still distinct from it. The umbrella genre of speculative fiction

2565-417: The source of their inspiration. Viewed as Holmesian homage or as a character in his own right, Solar Pons became Derleth's personal guide to an enchanted time and place." On hearing that Doyle did not plan to write more Sherlock Holmes stories, the young Derleth wrote to him, asking permission to take over the series. Doyle graciously declined, but Derleth, despite having never been to London, set about finding

2622-458: The stories in order of their internal chronology, rather than by release date. A later omnibus, The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition , was issued by Mycroft & Moran in 2000, reverting the stories to Derleth's original versions, and printing them in order of publication. A society, the Praed Street Irregulars (PSI), was dedicated to Solar Pons. The Irregulars were founded by Luther Norris with assistance from Peter Ruber in 1966 in

2679-541: The story that its audience is left to discuss and reflect upon. Traditionally, fiction includes novels, short stories, fables , legends , myths , fairy tales , epic and narrative poetry , plays (including operas , musicals , dramas, puppet plays , and various kinds of theatrical dances ). However, fiction may also encompass comic books , and many animated cartoons , stop motions , anime , manga , films , video games , radio programs , television programs ( comedies and dramas ), etc. The Internet has had

2736-448: The study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades. The term is sometimes used such as to equate literary fiction to literature. The accuracy of this is debated. Neal Stephenson has suggested that, while any definition will be simplistic, there is today a general cultural difference between literary and genre fiction. On the one hand literary authors nowadays are frequently supported by patronage, with employment at

2793-712: The style of the better-known Baker Street Irregulars . The PSI produced a newsletter, later a journal, the Pontine Dossier , published by The Pontine Press between 1967 and 1977 for 15 issues. A branch, The London Solar Pons Society, was established in England headed by Roger Johnson. Other branches were established in other areas. Though it is not formally associated with the Praed Street Irregulars, publication of The Solar Pons Gazette began in 2006 as an online journal. In more recent times, Belanger Books has revived The Pontine Dossier as The Pontine Dossier: Millennium Edition,

2850-545: The tales in ways that many Solar Pons aficionados found objectionable. A later omnibus, The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition , was issued in 2000 under the imprint of Mycroft & Moran . In early 2008, a bio-bibliography was published on him: Basil Copper: A Life in Books , compiled and edited by Stephen Jones . The volume received the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction. In March 2010, Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper

2907-495: The then ongoing Second World War in a way that presented fascist individuals as humorously irrational and pathetic. Many other villains take direct inspiration from real people while having fictional accents, appearances, backgrounds, names, and so on. Basil Copper Copper's interests included swimming, gardening, travel, sailing and historic film material. One of England's leading film collectors, his private archive contained almost one thousand titles (at 1977). He founded

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2964-501: The time of the work's creation: Jules Verne 's novel From the Earth to the Moon was published in 1865, but only in 1969 did astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to land on the Moon. Historical fiction places imaginary characters into real historical events. In the 1814 historical novel Waverley , Sir Walter Scott 's fictional character Edward Waverley meets

3021-535: The traditional view that fiction and non-fiction are opposites, some works (particularly in the modern era) blur this boundary, particularly works that fall under certain experimental storytelling genres—including some postmodern fiction , autofiction , or creative nonfiction like non-fiction novels and docudramas —as well as the deliberate literary fraud of falsely marketing fiction as nonfiction. Furthermore, even most works of fiction usually have elements of, or grounding in, truth of some kind, or truth from

3078-666: The writings of others, such as Derleth's real-life literary correspondent H. P. Lovecraft in "The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders", and with Carnacki the Ghost-Finder , the fictional creation of author William Hope Hodgson in "The Adventure of the Haunted Library". Pons has several encounters with Sax Rohmer 's Dr. Fu Manchu (referred to solely as "The Doctor") in "The Adventure of the Seven Sisters", "The Adventure of

3135-706: Was 14 years old; however his first professionally published short story was "The Spider" in the Fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories (1964). His first book was the Mike Faraday novel The Dark Mirror (1966). The first of Copper's stories published by editor August Derleth was "The House by the Tarn" in Dark Things (1971). Copper went on to have a long-lived relationship with Derleth's Arkham House , which published his collections From Evil's Pillow (1973) and And Afterward,

3192-465: Was closely associated with history and myth . Greek poets such as Homer , Hesiod , and Aesop developed fictional stories that were told first through oral storytelling and then in writing. Prose fiction was developed in Ancient Greece , influenced by the storytelling traditions of Asia and Egypt. Distinctly fictional work was not recognized as separate from historical or mythological stories until

3249-591: Was launched at the Brighton World Horror Convention as a two-volume set by PS Publishing . Copper has received many honours in recent years. In 1979, the Mark Twain Society of America elected him a Knight of Mark Twain for his outstanding "contribution to modern fiction", while the Praed Street Irregulars have twice honoured him for his work on the Solar Pons series. He has been a member of

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