View source for Venus on the Half-Shell and Others

{{Short description|2008 collection by Philip José Farmer}}
{{infobox book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name          = Venus on the Half-Shell and Others
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = Venus on the Half Shell.jpg
| caption =
| author        = [[Philip José Farmer]]
| editor        = [[Christopher Paul Carey]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = [[Bob Eggleton]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = [[Science fiction]]
| publisher     = [[Subterranean Press]]
| release_date  = 2008
| media_type    = Print (hardcover)
| pages         = 325 pp
| isbn          = 978-1-59606-142-2
| oclc= 192074536
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}
'''''Venus on the Half-Shell and Others''''' ({{ISBN|978-1-59606-128-6}}) is a collection mostly of [[science fiction]] author [[Philip José Farmer]]'s pseudonymous fictional-author literary works, edited by [[Christopher Paul Carey]] and published in [[2008 in literature|2008]]. Farmer describes a fictional-author story as "a tale supposedly written by an author who is a character in fiction."<ref>[[#Far79|Farmer 1979]]</ref> Carey, who had access to Farmer's correspondence while editing the book, reveals in his introduction that in the early to mid-1970s Farmer planned to edit an anthology of fictional-author stories by other writers. Farmer solicited fictional-author stories from authors such as [[Arthur Jean Cox]], [[Philip K. Dick]], [[Leslie Fiedler]], [[Ron Goulart]], [[Howard Waldrop]], and [[Gene Wolfe]], urging them to submit their stories to venues such as ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction]]''. Only Cox, Waldrop, and Wolfe completed their stories and had them published, although Philip K. Dick's never realized fictional-author story "A Man for No Countries" as by [[Man in the High Castle|Hawthorne Abendsen]] is said to have led Dick to write his posthumous novel ''[[Radio Free Albemuth]]''.<ref>[[#Car08|Carey 2008]]</ref><ref>[[#Wil86|Williams 1986]]</ref> In the end, Farmer's fictional-author anthology never materialized.<ref>[[#Car08|Carey 2008]]</ref>
==The Tom Wode Bellman Conundrum==
The Foreword by [[Tom Wode Bellman]] in ''Venus on the Half-Shell and Others'' states that Bellman was also solicited by Farmer to write a fictional-author story entitled "The Wee Weepers of Mu" as by Gabriel Weltstein, which was reputedly published in 1976 in a [[fanzine]] called ''Kukuanafan'', although there has been some debate as to whether the name Tom Wode Bellman is itself a fictional-author pseudonym.<ref>[[#Nun08|Nuninga 2008]]</ref><ref>[[#Bel08|Bellman 2008]]</ref> The July 2008 issue of ''[[Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer]]'' published a Guest of Honor speech which Farmer presented at the science fiction convention Balticon 11 that only adds to the Bellman mystery. In the speech, Farmer states that he planned to write a novel about the science fiction community featuring a protagonist named Tom Wode Bellman. However, an essay accompanying the speech, purportedly by Bellman, claims that Farmer merely used Bellman's name for the character as a joke.<ref>[[#Far08|Farmer 2008]]</ref><ref>[[#Bel08|Bellman 2008]]</ref>
==Contents==
*"[[Foreword]]" by [[Tom Wode Bellman]]
*"Introduction: More Real Than Life Itself: Philip José Farmer's Fictional-Author Period" by [[Christopher Paul Carey]]
*"[[Why and How I Became Kilgore Trout]]"
*''[[Venus on the Half-Shell]]'' (a novel originally published under the byline [[Kilgore Trout]])
*"[[The Obscure Life and Times of Kilgore Trout]]"
*"[[The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod]]"
*"[[The Problem of the Sore Bridge--Among Others]]" as by [[Bunny Manders|Harry Manders]]
*"[[The Volcano (short story)|The Volcano]]" (originally published under the byline [[The League of Frightened Men|Paul Chapin]])
*"[[Osiris on Crutches]]" as by [[Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor]]
*"[[The Phantom of the Sewers]]" (originally published as "It's the Queen of Darkness, Pal" by [[The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966|Rod Keen]])
*"[[A Hole in Hell]]" as by [[Riverworld|Dane Helstrom]]
*"[[The Last Rise of Nick Adams]]" (originally published as "The Impotency of Bad Karma" under the byline [[Cordwainer Bird]])
*''[[The Adventure of the Peerless Peer]]'' as by [[Dr. Watson|John H. Watson]]
*"Philip José Farmer as Fictional Author: A Chronological Bibliography"
*"[[The Impotency of Bad Karma]]" (only available in the Lettered leatherbound edition)
== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}
==References==
* [[Philip José Farmer|Farmer, Philip José]]. (1979) ''[[Riverworld and Other Stories]]'' New York: Berlkley.  {{ISBN|0-425-04208-1}}
* [[Philip José Farmer|Farmer, Philip José]]. (2008) "Wild Weird Clime: Balticon 11 Guest of Honor Speech" in ''[[Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer]]'' no. 13, July 2008
* {{cite web |url=http://tomwodebellman.blogspot.com/2008/02/through-obscurity-dalrkly.html |title=Through Obscurity, Dalrkly |access-date=2008-09-02 |last=Bellman |first=Tom Wode |date=17 February 2008 | author-link=Tom Wode Bellman |publisher=The Unofficial Tom Wode Bellman Blog }}
* [[Tom Wode Bellman|Bellman, Tom Wode]]. (2008) "To Be, or Not to Be" in ''[[Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer]]'' no. 13, July 2008
* [[Christopher Paul Carey|Carey, Christopher Paul]]. (2008) "Introduction: More Real Than Life Itself: Philip José Farmer's Fictional-Author Period" in ''[[Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories]]'' by [[Philip José Farmer]], Burton, MI: Subterranean Press.  {{ISBN|978-1-59606-142-2}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.xs4all.nl/~rnuninga/PJFnew-200802.htm |title=The trickster(s) did it again! |access-date=2008-09-02 |last=Nuninga |first=Zacharias |publisher=Philip José Farmer International Bibliography }}
* [[Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)|Williams, Paul]]. (1986) ''[[Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick]]'' Encinitas: Entwhistle Books.  {{ISBN|0-425-04208-1}}
== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://tomwodebellman.blogspot.com The Unofficial Tom Wode Bellman Blog]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080120232357/http://www.pjfarmer.com/farmerphile.htm Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer]
* [https://archive.today/20130124202348/http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_farmer_venushalfshell.html Green Man Review review of ''Venus on the Half-Shell and Others'']
* [http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6506195.html ''Publishers Weekly'' starred review of ''Venus on the Half-Shell and Others'']
{{Philip José Farmer}}
[[Category:Science fiction short story collections]]
[[Category:Works by Philip José Farmer]]
[[Category:2008 short story collections]]
[[Category:Kurt Vonnegut]]
[[Category:Subterranean Press books]]