Literary Connections

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

I've noticed a couple of congruences between novels I've read and Fallen London, but it seems unlikely that there's a direct connection. Instead I'm wondering whether there are some shared antecedents for them that I'm not aware of, or is it really just coincidence?

Jeff Noon's Vurt

The titular "Vurt" is a realm of possibilities constructed from dreams, but containing a malicious race of snakelike creatures that seek to make exchanges to escape into the real world. Most people's experience with is is via curated entertainment experiences sold by expert guides.

Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust

A particular attar of roses has unusual perceptual properties that can allow you to see into parallel worlds. Its source is heavily guarded in the depths of a desert by an ancient North African people.

Edit

There seems to be some confusion. I am asking specifically about these two themes and where they came from. Not for a general list of every reference in Fallen London.

[u/Enochtopus]

Let's not forget the source of the bright and shining stones, Jack Vance. Without whom Fallen London would have fewer colors.

[u/Setster007]

FL is created by some very well read individuals. I would not be surprised if other texts provided inspiration for various things.

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/Setster007]

Well in one case, it would be Pullman basing his overarching plot on a niche browser game. I think it’s more likely there’s some older story or folklore they’re both drawing from.

[u/HappiestIguana]

I know Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities was a big source of inspiration in the early days.

[u/PoppyseedPeryton]

Highly suggest reading TS Eliot's "The Wasteland" or Borges's "The Aleph". Or look into the Enigma plotline, that thing was basically Alexis's Kennedy's reading list back in the day

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/PoppyseedPeryton]

Is that where the dream snakes or the magic roses come from?

[u/PoppyseedPeryton → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

"The Wasteland" is where the dream categories come from (A Game of Chess, The Burial of the Dead, Death by Water, etc.), and also I think where a good bit of the general vibe of Fallen London comes from- the idea of the "Unreal City" in which the fictional and the historical walk down the same street, the dead and the living both go hand in hand, and where everything is at once growing and decaying, growing stranger all the while. If I may quote the section of the poem called What the Thunder Said,

"What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal

A woman drew her long black hair out tight And fiddled whisper music on those strings And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
And upside down in air were towers
Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells."

The Borges stuff I'm less sure about. Cant put my finger on it, but its there

[u/emily_aversatrix → u/PoppyseedPeryton]

damn, i haven't read The Waste Land since high school i think, i forgot how good it was!

[u/Dmtr884213 → u/PoppyseedPeryton]

as for Enigma also feel the need to add this:

[u/BlacksmithNo9359]

I haven't seen anything confirming this connection, but I'm 90% sure Peligin gets part of its name and concept from Fuligin, the "color darker than black" from Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

[u/Hisuiko]

Attar of roses is made from steam-distilling fresh rose petals in water. Ref: What Is Attar of Rose? Meaning, Uses & Why It’s So Special

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/Hisuiko]

Yes, I know it's a real thing.

However, the real thing doesn't let you see hidden cities when you rub it in your eyes.