![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularIan Fleming introduced Nero Wolfe into a James Bond thriller and asserted that [Rex] Stout's was "one of the most civilized minds ever to concern itself with detective fiction." He asked Rex to collaborate with him on a Wolfe and Bond novel. "No," said Rex, "Bond would get the girl. Archie wouldn't like that."
-from "Nero Wolfe: A Retrospective" by John McAleer
introduction to Bantam 1984 edition of Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
Reprinted without permission and not for profit.
I consider this Exhibit "A" in why crossovers are worthy endeavors for an author. Ian Fleming, of course, created James Bond, whom you have probably heard of unless you've been living on Mars the past thirty or forty years. Rex Stout created Nero Wolfe, who is a giant among the pantheon of literary detectives, right up there with Sherlock Holmes.
A note for people introducing characters in fiction: Rex Stout didn't give a biography of each character as he was introduced in Fer-de-Lance, which was the first of the Nero Wolfe Books, but rather, brought the reader into this new world in media res, as it were, trusting that the reader would come to understand these new faces from context. This contrasts favorably with things I've seen in other books ... one time, I saw a Star Trek book (a one-time guilty pleasure), opened it up, and they were describing characters - regular Trek characters - as though the reader had never heard of them before. Exposition's one thing, but that ...
Again, to quote, this time the first sentence of Fer-de-Lance:
There was no reason why I shouldn't have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmont National Bank case had been gathered in the week before and there was nothing for me to do but errands, and Wolfe had never hesitated about running me down to Murray Street for a can of shoe-polish if he happened to need one....
You get to know the characters through what they do.
I guess it could be considered a rule of fiction writing:
Don't tell us who these people are, show us who they are.
Though doubtless, others have said it better.
Close entry.
-from "Nero Wolfe: A Retrospective" by John McAleer
introduction to Bantam 1984 edition of Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
Reprinted without permission and not for profit.
I consider this Exhibit "A" in why crossovers are worthy endeavors for an author. Ian Fleming, of course, created James Bond, whom you have probably heard of unless you've been living on Mars the past thirty or forty years. Rex Stout created Nero Wolfe, who is a giant among the pantheon of literary detectives, right up there with Sherlock Holmes.
A note for people introducing characters in fiction: Rex Stout didn't give a biography of each character as he was introduced in Fer-de-Lance, which was the first of the Nero Wolfe Books, but rather, brought the reader into this new world in media res, as it were, trusting that the reader would come to understand these new faces from context. This contrasts favorably with things I've seen in other books ... one time, I saw a Star Trek book (a one-time guilty pleasure), opened it up, and they were describing characters - regular Trek characters - as though the reader had never heard of them before. Exposition's one thing, but that ...
Again, to quote, this time the first sentence of Fer-de-Lance:
There was no reason why I shouldn't have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmont National Bank case had been gathered in the week before and there was nothing for me to do but errands, and Wolfe had never hesitated about running me down to Murray Street for a can of shoe-polish if he happened to need one....
You get to know the characters through what they do.
I guess it could be considered a rule of fiction writing:
Don't tell us who these people are, show us who they are.
Though doubtless, others have said it better.
Close entry.
