What Do You Think of Pastiches and What Are Your Favorite and Least Favorite Pastiches?

[Alex The G and T]

Dave, you can't drop PJ Farmer into this thread and ignore the great Venus on the Half-Shell controversy.

It was published, in 1974, under the byline "Kilgore Trout," fictional SF author appearing in several Kurt Vonnegut books; the title from a Kilgore Trout book discovered in a pornography shop in God Bless you, Mr Rosewater.

The mystery and speculation over identity of the real author, lasted for a couple of years, before PJ Farmer confessed. Vonnegut had originally given permission for the hoax; but grew disgruntled with the project, after the fact, because of a torrent of letters accusing himself of writing the thing. The story is a rather absurd space adventure, sort of Arthur Dent on galactic sex odyssey. Hilarious.

Recommended: Venus on the Half Shell, and Others. Subterrranean Press, 2008. "The best of the best from Farmer's 'Fictional Authors period.'"

I need to read this again. Just skimming the TOC is hilarious.

Here's a couple of the original covers:

 

[2DaveWixon]

I quite like basic meat and potato ones but I think the Cornish ones tend to be over seasoned

My fave is pastiche ice cream!

 

[2DaveWixon]

Dave, you can't drop PJ Farmer into this thread and ignore the great Venus on the Half-Shell controversy.

It was published, in 1974, under the byline "Kilgore Trout," fictional SF author appearing in several Kurt Vonnegut books; the title from a Kilgore Trout book discovered in a pornography shop in God Bless you, Mr Rosewater.

The mystery and speculation over identity of the real author, lasted for a couple of years, before PJ Farmer confessed. Vonnegut had originally given permission for the hoax; but grew disgruntled with the project, after the fact, because of a torrent of letters accusing himself of writing the thing. The story is a rather absurd space adventure, sort of Arthur Dent on galactic sex odyssey. Hilarious.

Recommended: Venus on the Half Shell, and Others. Subterrranean Press, 2008. "The best of the best from Farmer's 'Fictional Authors period.'"

I need to read this again. Just skimming the TOC is hilarious.

Here's a couple of the original covers:

View attachment 35542 View attachment 35543

You'd be amazed how much I can ignore...

Strangely enough, while I do recall the Kilgore Trout uproar, I thought even at the time that it was much ado about nothing...and I was disappointed to find that Phil was responsible: when I read the book I did not know that, and it was so bad that I was sure Vonnegut must have written it!

But my comment was harking back to my memory of Farmer's Mother Was a Savage Beast -- which, now I think about it, may well have been the first true pastiche I ever read...
But it's also true that the Conan pastiches, by various authors, may have taken the prize for sheer volume of sales... And they were good!

 

[The Big Peat]

I quite like Robert Jordan's Conan novels.

If you want to use pastiche in its fullest sense, I wish Sir Pterry had done more with the Fantasy pastiche he created with the early Discworlds, rather than evolving it into a pastiche of everything as he did (although equally I'm incredibly glad he did).

 

[Alex The G and T]

Hah, Dave Wixon, I call your Mother Was a Savage Beast and raise you The Jungle Rot Kid in the Nod.

 

[2DaveWixon]

I quite like Robert Jordan's Conan novels.

If you want to use pastiche in its fullest sense, I wish Sir Pterry had done more with the Fantasy pastiche he created with the early Discworlds, rather than evolving it into a pastiche of everything as he did (although equally I'm incredibly glad he did).

You're right -- there were several different directions he could have gone; and, like you, I like what he ended up doing...while at the same time, I wish he could have turned that mind in several other directions as well. (*What do you mean, you can't write 26 hours per day!??!*)

 

[2DaveWixon]

Hah, Dave Wixon, I call your Mother Was a Savage Beast and raise you The Jungle Rot Kid in the Nod.

I confess, I have not run across that second one... Tell me more.

 

[Alex The G and T]

The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod.

A Tarzan story as if written by William S, rather than Edgar Rice. ?!? Only Farmer... I remember it as being chaotic and hard to follow.

Now I have to read it again. I'll report back later.

 

[BAYLOR]

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane This book is set in Clive Barkers Hellraiser universe . It is an excellent book .

 

[Alex The G and T]

"There's nothing that bugs an Omniscient more than not knowing something." -- Philip Jose Farmer

Relevant to this conversation as it's a quote from "Osiris on Crutches," Another bit from the Venus on a Half Shell collection.

Pardon me for leaving you all hanging over the evaluation of The Jungle Rot Kid... bit; for lo, this past month. I actually read the thing on the same night as my last post on the 25 of May; in the middle of a sleepless night. This proved to prove the reason which my wife bought a fancy memory foamed California King sized Mattress. The sort where you can stand a champagne flute on the one side, without spilling; while Alex shudders spastically with stifled laughter on the other side. Not once did Elaine bolt upright, shouting, "Earthquake!" while I struggled to make sense out of Tarzan's diatribe upon the House Of Lords over sending too much money to insurgent militias in South Africa.

Or Something.

I got distracted by a reread of the entire 8 volumes of Glen Cook's Annals of the Black Company. (I couldn't remember which I had and hadn't read; so I had to read them all)

Back on task I read the "jungle rot kid" again. And yet a third time. I'm still failing to make a coherent narrative out of the thing.

In three short pages, Lord Greystoke, aka Tarzan, aka The Jungle Rot Kid spews a psychotic word salad upon the House of Lords decrying the funding of no end of rape, pillage, sodomy and heroin addiction upon the innocent denizens of Tarzan's bucolic South Africa. "Jane was never the same again." (As suspected, the phrase, "On the nod," is a reference to heroin abuse)

I could read it three more times and still make no sense of it; though it becomes funnier each time.

Oddly, it would have seemed dated a year ago. Not so much now. It's Retro!

 

[Toby Frost]

In three short pages, Lord Greystoke, aka Tarzan, aka The Jungle Rot Kid spews a psychotic word salad upon the House of Lords decrying the funding of no end of rape, pillage, sodomy and heroin addiction upon the innocent denizens of Tarzan's bucolic South Africa. "Jane was never the same again." (As suspected, the phrase, "On the nod," is a reference to heroin abuse)

According to Wikipedia, the Jungle Rot Kid is a parody of William Burroughs, so that's exactly how I'd expect it to be!

 

[BAYLOR]

I quite like Robert Jordan's Conan novels.

If you want to use pastiche in its fullest sense, I wish Sir Pterry had done more with the Fantasy pastiche he created with the early Discworlds, rather than evolving it into a pastiche of everything as he did (although equally I'm incredibly glad he did).

They were quite good.

 

[Connavar]

It depends on what kind of pastiche we are talking about, new Sherlock Holmes books that are different take on famous character, his world. Or the stuff like the messy Conan mass market paperback era. That mess that overshadow the original author stories in that period of time and then some fans mix the real, the fake stories when they think about classic S&S hero. When it comes to fav classic authors like Howard im too much of a purist that is annoyed with that kind of history of many terrible pastiche out there.

I hate the fact that i didnt see Howard's Conan in local library until i was annoyed, told the librarians that Robert Jordan's Conan is the nobody, the pastiche and not the original. I complained about that since they could confuse new generation of readers, in the end they started buying new Gollancz books of Complete Conan.

So there is history of bad pastiche out there and there is many good ones with famous characters like Homes, Bond, Bourne etc. I dont mind them when its done with respect.
Although personally im too loyal to fav authors, too much of a purist fan of for example Doyle/Sherlock Homes that i would never touch the pastiche no matter how well done they are.

 

[Danny McG]

My fave is pastiche ice cream!

Coming back to this one to explain. A common UK 'pie like' snack is a pastie (with first part simply pronounced "past") . They are often meat & potato, with a more seasoned version called Cornish.
Pronunciation of pastiche and pastie sound similar enough to venture the atrocious wordplay back in March.
Only realised whilst going back through this thread how this could cause a bit of confusion

 

[BAYLOR]

Dave, you can't drop PJ Farmer into this thread and ignore the great Venus on the Half-Shell controversy.

It was published, in 1974, under the byline "Kilgore Trout," fictional SF author appearing in several Kurt Vonnegut books; the title from a Kilgore Trout book discovered in a pornography shop in God Bless you, Mr Rosewater.

The mystery and speculation over identity of the real author, lasted for a couple of years, before PJ Farmer confessed. Vonnegut had originally given permission for the hoax; but grew disgruntled with the project, after the fact, because of a torrent of letters accusing himself of writing the thing. The story is a rather absurd space adventure, sort of Arthur Dent on galactic sex odyssey. Hilarious.

Recommended: Venus on the Half Shell, and Others. Subterrranean Press, 2008. "The best of the best from Farmer's 'Fictional Authors period.'"

I need to read this again. Just skimming the TOC is hilarious.

Here's a couple of the original covers:

View attachment 35542 View attachment 35543

I haven't see a copy of that book in years.

 

[BAYLOR]

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove

 

[Bick]

I’ve just seen this thread. I’m struck by the fact that most things suggested are not pastiches at all. Simply using characters or worlds from another author doesn’t make it a pastiche. It must be written to sympathetically reconstruct the style and flavour of the original author. Star Wars books are not pastiches, nor are Farmers’s Paradies and satires. Just saying’.

 

[Vince W]

The current master of the pastiche is of course Sebastian Faulks, though his works are not SFF. He wrote a James Bond book, and recently published a Jeeves and Wooster novel. He changes his writing style to suit apparently, and while I haven't read them, I've heard great reviews.

Pastiche is difficult to do well. The most recent I read was Blood of the Serpent, a Conan story by S.M. Stirling. It was a weak effort hampered by the need to alter Conan’s behaviour based on modern thinking.

 

[Finch]

A good Pastiche is a homage . One I enjoyed was A Study in Emarald by Neil Gaiman .

 

[BAYLOR]

Dave, you can't drop PJ Farmer into this thread and ignore the great Venus on the Half-Shell controversy.

It was published, in 1974, under the byline "Kilgore Trout," fictional SF author appearing in several Kurt Vonnegut books; the title from a Kilgore Trout book discovered in a pornography shop in God Bless you, Mr Rosewater.

The mystery and speculation over identity of the real author, lasted for a couple of years, before PJ Farmer confessed. Vonnegut had originally given permission for the hoax; but grew disgruntled with the project, after the fact, because of a torrent of letters accusing himself of writing the thing. The story is a rather absurd space adventure, sort of Arthur Dent on galactic sex odyssey. Hilarious.

Recommended: Venus on the Half Shell, and Others. Subterrranean Press, 2008. "The best of the best from Farmer's 'Fictional Authors period.'"

I need to read this again. Just skimming the TOC is hilarious.

Here's a couple of the original covers:

View attachment 35542 View attachment 35543

I laws meant to read that book. Never got around to it.