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Literary Agent Hypothesis: Difference between revisions
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* In ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'', it's heavily alluded to that ''[[Dracula]]'' was pretty much commissioned from Bram Stoker, so people would have a defence against the Black Court. In ''Grave Peril'', Harry mentions that the Black Court is almost nonexistent, thanks to that book. And, in one of the recent "extra" stories, it's pointed out that the ''Necronomicon'' was actually a Grimoire of great power -- until the White Council found it and published it all over the place, and by making it available to every minor mage and wannabe in existence, effectively nullified the power by spreading the effect over the entire world.
** In an interview with the author, a fan asked whether H.P Lovecraft was onto something in the same way. The answer - yes. [[Oh Crap]].
* ''The Number of the Beast'' revolves around this idea, and Heinlein coined the term "World-As-Myth" to describe it. It is a kind of [
* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]''. Dedicated fans use the conceit that Conan Doyle was merely Dr. Watson's literary agent, from whence comes the name of this trope. So basic to the Sherlockian fandom that you can go to a meeting of Sherlockians and never hear Conan Doyle referred to by any other name than "The Literary Agent".
** But note that Dr. Watson himself claims this to be the case -- and who are you going to believe: a real-life doctor and veteran of The War in Afghanistan (three thousand years and counting!), or some obscure literary agent?
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** Interestingly enough, ''The Time Ships'' is ''itself'' an example of this trope, with Baxter claiming to have only slightly polished a manuscript allegedly by the Time Traveller himself. The anecdotes by the author at both the beginning and the end of the novel also hint at what ultimately became of him...
* Steve Hockensmith's mystery/Western ''Holmes on the Range'' (about a cowboy who is inspired to take up detective work after reading several Sherlock Holmes stories) doesn't just play this card but starts off being [[Direct Line to the Author]] as well! The story itself uses the original literary agent hypothesis -- it sets out Holmes as a real person, one of the villains is related to a character from the Holmes story "The Noble Bachelor", and {{spoiler|it's eventually revealed that the book is set two years after "The Final Problem"}}.
* In his novels ''Tarzan Alive'' and ''Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life,'' [[Philip Jose Farmer|Philip José Farmer's]] claims that Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lester Dent were just the biographers of [[Tarzan]] and [[Doc Savage]]. He claims that their books were highly fictionalized and sensationalized and presents somewhat more mundane, but still sensational versions of the stories that correct various factual inaccuracies and continuity errors. For example, he explains that whenever Tarzan encountered a lion, a plains dwelling animal, in the jungle, it was actually a leopard and Burroughs exaggerated because lions were bigger and more dangerous looking. He also tries to explain away both characters' great strength and intelligence by claiming their [
** There's a lovely moment in ''Tarzan Alive'' when Tarzan tells Farmer the actual story behind one particular book, adding that the secondary hero's love interest was [[Downer Ending|killed by a hit-and-run in New York City some six months after the book ends]]. Farmer comments that he likes Burroughs' version better (the lovers stay in a [[Lost World|medieval city]] in Africa), and Tarzan smiles and says, "He knew what he was doing."
* Edgar Rice Burroughs himself used this approach for Tarzan, the Barsoom novels, and much of his other work. This makes Farmer's approach that of representing literary agent material as a different literary agent.
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== Music ==
* [http://www.xocmusic.com/ XOC], who covers videogame music, invented [http://www.xocmusic.com/vgtmtg/ Videogame: The Movie: The Game], including a full background involving a really bad movie, as an excuse to write chiptunes for such levels as [[Slippy
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[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]
[[Category:Literary Agent Hypothesis]]
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