I Don't Remember Reading 'THAT'

[Nesacat]

In Fred Chappell's short story The Adder, we have a book that changes and effectively oblierates any book it comes into contact with.

The book or The Adder as it were is The Necronomicon in the original Arabic and in the short story, it is placed at the bottom of a book case next to a battered copy of John Milton's verse.

The Necronomicon here behaves as a vampire would and slowly the words of the poem change. The change is not only in this one copy but in every single copy in existence across the world as well as in the minds of everyone who has ever read it or who remembers. It's as if the original never was.

So ... what would you place The Adder next to?

[j. d. worthington]

Let's see... Any of the "Dress for Success" nonsense, not to mention "How to Win Friends and Influence People" stuff; any of the New Age fluff-brained gobbledygook mated to psychobabble.... The vast majority of tv/movie tie-in novels and novelizations....

Hmmm. I fear me the Adder's going to be one very, very busy book....

[ice.monkey]

For a head spin:
If I had an e-version I'd place it next to your post. Does my head in to think what this thread would then end up as!

To be controversial:
Stick it next to the Bible - oh, sorry, I think someone's already done that!

For bad taste:
Stick it in a bookcase of cookery books - Roast beef in a marmalade, vinegar and heavily salted suace!

[Curt Chiarelli]

Anything written by Rush Limbaugh, William Buckley, Jr., Anne Coulter, Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon, or Nora Roberts, any number of corporate psychopath/bully instructional manuals on the marketplace, the Holy Bible (it never hurts to re-affirm one's convictions amongst fellow compatriots), the Patriot Act, the collected screenplays of William Goldman and any feng shui interior decoration books in existence.

[palooka]

"Colin the Librarian", although possibly that is beyond help!

[pyan]

Question - if you put it next to the first book in a series, do all the sequels change to reflect alterations in details or premises in that first book?
Be interesting beside Robert Jordan or JKR!

[chrispenycate]

With my standard "anti-book-burning" philosophy I've decided that, even if I don't like (or aprove of) a book. I'm not competent to make the decision for others. Thus "The Book" is being kept in solitary; or at least (to prevent boredom) in a pile of New York telephone directories, where it can't do any harm.

[Nesacat]

Pyan ... I think it would change what was similar in all the books in a series, which might be quite intriguing.

Chris ... since The Adder changes what it is with ... I'm rather curious about what it would do with telephone directories.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Nesacat

Pyan ... I think it would change what was similar in all the books in a series, which might be quite intriguing.

Yeeesss....but think of the potential paradoxes it may set up - I mean, if it wrote out a major character in the adjacent book, who later turned out to be essential to the sequel - might that not lead to that sequel disappearing in a puff of metaphorical smoke? And would we remember that there ever was such a sequel?

[Parson]

I have the perfect place for the Adder. I'd place it right up against the National Budget. Hopefully it would make some transfers into my pocket!

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by pyanfaruk

Yeeesss....but think of the potential paradoxes it may set up - I mean, if it wrote out a major character in the adjacent book, who later turned out to be essential to the sequel - might that not lead to that sequel disappearing in a puff of metaphorical smoke? And would we remember that there ever was such a sequel?

My understanding of Chappell's story is not that it could alter things that drastically -- to cause the physical disappearance of such a large object -- only the smaller change of altering the text, usually subtly, but enough to make gibberish, for instance, out of Milton... something that sounds almost right, but simply cannot be made to add up. It distorts the language and the meaning of the books (and all copies of the books, including, as Nesa says, those in people's minds). And the narrator there, a lover of Milton's work, knows something is wrong, but can't place it, and can no longer recall what it was originally; all his memories of the text itself now match this one, but it doesn't feel right -- he's aware something is awry, but can't put his finger on it. In line with Lovecraft's conceptions, the Adder breeds chaos....

[pyan]

You've a wide field of obscure knowledge, jd - what's the similar story about books bound in a hard-wearing luxurious animal skin, that changes the meanings and moral stance of the contents? I'm sure I read it not too long ago, as well.

[Nesacat]

Sounds like The Adder. The book was all dull and faded and worn until it started 'feeding'. The colours then got richer and thr inks inside brighetened and took on a deep glow. It was a beautiful book.

And it changed what it read. It didn't obliterate in the leaving empty pages behind sense. It change words and lines and the ultimate sense of the whole piece of writing. I think someone unfamiliar with the book would probably be totally unaware of the change.

So I really am now very curious about what it would make out of research papers, or budgets or financial reports or even directories and dictionaries or encyclopaedias.

[Talysia]

I very nearly suggested putting it next to a dictionary myself. Very interesting consequences! I hadn't even thought of putting it next to encyclopaedias! Makes me wonder what would change in reality.

[Nesacat]

I guess it would change things to what it knew best as it did with Milton.So we migt find ourselves with a lot of information about Elder Gods and world dominion of the tentacular kind.