Alien Plot by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Short Stories (Single Author), Fiction
ISBN: 9780812530728
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 1992-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

E van S

For years I tried to market humor, but editors told me that humor required a special touch, which unfortunately I lacked. I think editing requires a special touch, which unfortunately most editors lack. Only when I got Xanth into print did I begin to prove that the editors really didn't know much about humor either. Critics, being humorless, still hate Xanth, of course. But what, then, was I to do with those earlier rejected efforts? Two I sneaked into Anthonology. I'm sneaking some more into this volume.

Way back in 1963 I was asked to enter a story in a fan contest sponsored by the National Fantasy Fan Federation, or N3F. This was a problem, because I had sold my first story in 1962 so was technically professional. But they wanted me to enter regardless. So I compromised by submitting a serious story I had written in 1958 well before becoming pro, "Deva," and by writing a joke entry that couldn't possibly win, "E van S." Wouldn't you know it, they turned out to be two of the top entries. But I had given "Deva" to a fan editor long before, who had then disappeared—only to reappear after I had given up and sent the story to the contest. This is the nature of fan editors. So it was disqualified because of the fanzine publication. However, the following year the first and second places in the contest were taken by two of my correspondents and later collaborators, and their stories were duly published in IF MAGAZINE in 1964: "A As in Android" by Frances T. Hall, and "Monster Tracks" by Robert E. Margroff. So the contest did do somebody some good.

I was left with the joke story. I never tried to market it, until decades later another writer, Brad Linaweaver, asked me to contribute to his anthology Off the Wall, for which odd stuff was appropriate. So now, as my brain slowly softens with age, I'm ready to let readers see it. Beware: This one is wacky. I should explain one of the puns, though: I have a play on the pronunciation of Don Quixote, who was a rather special fictional adventurer in Spain. It is pronounced Don Kee Hotay, but from it comes the word "quixotic," pronounced Quick Sotic. Later a TV cartoon series had a similar play on the word, but I believe I was the first. There are other literary allusions, for those with the inclination and education to fathom them.

Note, incidentally, how little commercial television has changed since 1963. Evidently the same demons are in charge.

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