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* BiTheWay: Mary Pellam likes "a bit of each," but it becomes important to her plot that Thaddeus Iriguay only prefers men. Additionally, Erasmo describes Severin's mixed-gender crew as this, saying they've all fucked each other, cried over each other, and gotten right with each other.
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seen briefly as an old man. The implication is that the colonisation of space prevented both the genocide of Native Americans in the Midwest and West, and World War I, by reducing scarcity of land and raw materials on Earth, but that this has simply postponed such large-scale mechanised warfare and something in the future will happen that will be even worse.
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* AlternateHistory: AlternateHistory:
** Black-and-white silent films are still made in this day and age because Thomas Edison is hoarding the patents to film-making.
** In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seen briefly as an old man. The implication is that the colonisation of space prevented both the genocide of Native Americans in the Midwest and West, and World War I, by reducing scarcity of land and raw materials on Earth, but that this has simply postponed such large-scale mechanised warfare and something in the future will happen that will be even worse.
** Black-and-white silent films are still made in this day and age because Thomas Edison is hoarding the patents to film-making.
** In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seen briefly as an old man. The implication is that the colonisation of space prevented both the genocide of Native Americans in the Midwest and West, and World War I, by reducing scarcity of land and raw materials on Earth, but that this has simply postponed such large-scale mechanised warfare and something in the future will happen that will be even worse.
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* ParentalAbandonment: Percy feels he did this to Severin, after he [[spoiler:distanced himself from her following his confessing to shooting Thaddeus.]]
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* ParentalAbandonment: Percy feels he did this to Severin, after he [[spoiler:distanced himself from her following his (false) confessing to shooting Thaddeus.]]
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* InspiredBy: The subplot of Thaddeus's murder is loosely inspired by the real world death of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_H._Ince Thomas Harper Ince]] and the scandalous stories surrounding it.
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--> Endings are lush and lascivious, Vince; they call to me. All spread out on satin inevitabilities, waiting, beckoning, promising impossibly, obscenely elegant solutions-if you've been a good lab and dressed the house just so, for its comfort, for its arousal. All the rest of the nonsense a story requires is must a long seduction of the ending.
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--> Endings are lush and lascivious, Vince; they call to me. All spread out on satin inevitabilities, waiting, beckoning, promising impossibly, obscenely elegant solutions-if you've been a good lab lad and dressed the house just so, for its comfort, for its arousal. All the rest of the nonsense a story requires is must a long seduction of the ending.
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* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: All of the planets in the solar system are relatively hospitable to humans, have their own biological life, and are reachable by late 19th-early 20th century technology, in an homage to classical pulp fiction.
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* CallASmeerpARabbit: Come the latter third of the novel, young Anchises' narrative of life on Venus is peppered with native Venusian animals that are named after Earth fauna -- at least the narrative is upfront in pointing out the differences.
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* CallASmeerpARabbit: A common naming convention used by the settlers of other planets, in order to maintain a degree of familiarity. Mary Pelham says in her journal that the monkfish soup on the moon is made of something that has no resemblance to actual monk fish, but "the Savoy does not serve moon-monster soup". Come the latter third of the novel, young Anchises' narrative of life on Venus is peppered with native Venusian animals that are named after Earth fauna -- at least the narrative is upfront in pointing out the differences.
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* BizarreHumanBiology: [[spoiler:The ending strongly implies that long-term human consumption of callowmilk will cause humans to mutate into human-callowhale hybrids in the medium-term future, with the filmshow framing narrative revealing that an awful lot of the audience are wearing gloves.]]
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* ShoutOut: The decadent society on Pluto, in which everyone wears masks to protect their nasal passages from the freezing air, is a shout-out to [[TheEmpire Granbretan]] in Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheRunestaff'' series.
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** Percy's incomplete film grappling with a fictionalised version of his daughter's disappearance, along with him and his scriptwriting partner arguing about how it should go. In the process it mutates from private-eye noir to gothic romance to a children's story ([[InternalHomage very similar in style]] to Valente's ''Fairyland'' series) to a Golden Age detective story finale.
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** Percy's incomplete film grappling with about a fictionalised version of his daughter's Anchises investigating Severin's disappearance, along with him and his scriptwriting partner arguing about how it should go. In the process it mutates from private-eye noir to gothic romance to a children's story ([[InternalHomage very similar in style]] to Valente's ''Fairyland'' series) to a Golden Age detective story finale.
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* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a space soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
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* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including ScrapbookStory: Most of the novel consists of a few commercials for callowmilk number of separate in-universe narratives:
** Transcripts of Percy's home movies of Severin's childhood.
** Transcripts of Severin's own films.
** Mary Pellam's private memoirs, written as a letter to Severin after her death.
** Cythera questioning Erasmo about the events of the catastrophic shoot on the site of Adonis.
** Percy's incomplete film grappling with a fictionalised version of his daughter's disappearance, along with him and his scriptwriting partner arguing about how it should go. In the process it mutates from private-eye noir to gothic romance to aspace soap opera, children's story ([[InternalHomage very similar in style]] to Valente's ''Fairyland'' series) to a Golden Age detective story finale.
** Fragments of ''How Many Miles toBabylon?''Babylon?'', an in-universe pulp-adventure radio serial.
** A few other brief documents, including advertisements and a single letter by Erasmo.
** Transcripts of Percy's home movies of Severin's childhood.
** Transcripts of Severin's own films.
** Mary Pellam's private memoirs, written as a letter to Severin after her death.
** Cythera questioning Erasmo about the events of the catastrophic shoot on the site of Adonis.
** Percy's incomplete film grappling with a fictionalised version of his daughter's disappearance, along with him and his scriptwriting partner arguing about how it should go. In the process it mutates from private-eye noir to gothic romance to a
** Fragments of ''How Many Miles to
** A few other brief documents, including advertisements and a single letter by Erasmo.
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seen briefly as an old man.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: People who live on the Moon long enough turn blue - it's something in the water. It's harmless, but for a long time Lunar actors and actresses painted their skin so that they wouldn't alarm the rest of the solar system when they showed up on film.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: People who live on the Moon long enough turn blue - it's something in the water. It's harmless, but for a long time Lunar actors and actresses painted their skin so that they wouldn't alarm the rest of the solar system when they showed up on film.
to:
* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seen briefly as an old man.
man. The implication is that the colonisation of space prevented both the genocide of Native Americans in the Midwest and West, and World War I, by reducing scarcity of land and raw materials on Earth, but that this has simply postponed such large-scale mechanised warfare and something in the future will happen that will be even worse.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: People who live on the Moon long enough turn blue - it'ssomething silver compounds in the water. It's harmless, but for a long time Lunar actors and actresses painted their skin so that they wouldn't alarm the rest of the solar system when they showed up on film.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: People who live on the Moon long enough turn blue - it's
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* CorporateWarfare: There are allusions to conflicts between the big movie studios on the Moon occasionally leading to full-scale pitched battles with multiple fatalities.
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* {{Homage}}: The novel is a joint homage to UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood and to inter-war genre SF of the same era, with its hospitable solar system in which all the planets have complex life and have at least moderately tolerable conditions for humans.
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* VenusIsWet: Venus consists mostly of seas, lakes and marshes, as in this stereotype, but it's Neptune that is the full-blown waterworld with no land at all.
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* TheStoryteller: Severin Unck, though in a twist on the trope, her preferred way of telling stories was documentary filmmaking. We get rather more insight into her father's process, as he tells a story about his daughter to process his grief.
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* CallASmeerpARabbit: Come the latter third of the novel, young Anchises' narrative of life on Venus is peppered with native Venusian animals that are named after Earth fauna -- at least the narrative is upfront in pointing out the differences.
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* GenreRoulette: Let's see. The whole thing is decopunk science fiction with a fair helping of AlternateHistory. You have magazine articles ranging from film reviews to a report on a funeral. Interviews with various intentions, in different styles. For the first third you have FilmNoir-esque shenanigans on Uranus, for the second third there's Gothic horror, for the third it's a fairytale.
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* TakeThat: During the massive expansion into space, and out of all the planets in the galaxy, America managed to colonise...Pluto. Which is very nearly as inhospitable in this universe as it is in our own, and the only thing it has going for it is the flowers. The advertisement calling for pioneers still makes it sound like a world of opportunity.
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Fixed some typos, clarified that Mary Pellam plays Madame Mortimer, and rephrased some awkward sentences
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seem briefly as an old man.
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to be much smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seem seen briefly as an old man.
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* BreakTheCutie: Poor Anchises starts off as a child who wants nothing more than to see a callow whale and innocently wishes for his family's happiness. By the time Severin finds him, he's the only person left in Adonis, walking in circles, blinking in and out of existence, and so incoherent that he screams when Severin hugs him. Things don't get much better from there, as [[spoiler:he's beat up by one of the film crew members, when he tries to prevent the only footage of Severin's last document from being destroyed]]. He spends a lot of his life leaving his adopted father to run around the galaxy and, by the time her reaches his thirties, is withdrawn and tired.
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* BreakTheCutie: Poor Anchises starts off as a child who wants nothing more than to see a callow whale callowhale and innocently wishes for his family's happiness. By the time Severin finds him, he's the only person left in Adonis, walking in circles, blinking in and out of existence, and so incoherent that he screams when Severin hugs him. Things don't get much better from there, as [[spoiler:he's beat up by one of the film crew members, members when he tries to prevent the only footage of Severin's last document from being destroyed]]. He spends a lot of his life running around the galaxy after leaving his adopted father to run around the galaxy and, by the time her he reaches his thirties, is severely withdrawn and tired.
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: The planets are described as marvels to behold, but there are also riots, starvation, unfair laws, and more than one colonies have been destroyed or vanished mysteriously.
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: The planets are described as marvels to behold, but there are also riots, starvation, unfair laws, and more than one colonies which have been destroyed or vanished mysteriously.
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** To give just ''three'' examples, "Adonis" is the most famous of Venus' mortal lovers, a man divided between her and Proserpine (goddess of the Underworld); "Anchises" was another lover of Venus, most famous as [[Literature/TheAeneid the father of Aeneas]]; and "Cythera" is an epithet for the goddess - you guessed it - Venus.
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** To give just ''three'' examples, "Adonis" is the most famous of Venus' mortal lovers, a man divided between her and Proserpine (goddess of the Underworld); "Anchises" was another lover of Venus, most famous as [[Literature/TheAeneid the father of Aeneas]]; and "Cythera" is an epithet for the goddess of - you guessed it - Venus.
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** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] one as her most famous character, Madame Mortimer. While Anchises is based on the HardboiledDetective trope, she seemed to be more of an armchair detective in the vein of a younger Literature/MissMarple.
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** Madame Mortimer Mary Pellam is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] one as her most famous character, Madame Mortimer. While Anchises is based on the HardboiledDetective trope, she seemed to be more of an armchair detective in the vein of a younger Literature/MissMarple.
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* {{Unobtanium}}: Callowmilk, which can be gotten ''only'' from the callowhales of Venus. It has a huge variety of uses, including use as an industrial lubricant, coal substitute, fertilizer, and building material, but its most common use is being drunk (or turned into ice cream). Without callowmilk, no human could survive out of Earth's atmosphere very long - it repels radiation and builds up bone density that would otherwise be lost.
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* {{Unobtanium}}: Callowmilk, which can be gotten ''only'' from the callowhales of Venus. It has a huge variety of uses, including use as an industrial lubricant, coal substitute, fertilizer, and building material, but its most common use is being drunk (or turned into ice cream).ingested(either in liquid form or as an ingredient in something else). Without callowmilk, no human could survive out of Earth's atmosphere very long - it repels radiation and builds up bone density that would otherwise be lost.
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The States are definitely mentioned.
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to either be much smaller or not exist at all, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest.
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to either be much smaller or not exist at all, smaller, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest. The Romanovs of Russia are still alive - Czar Nicholas II is seem briefly as an old man.
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* AlternateHistory: In addition to a pulp-fiction-esque solar system and spaceflight, the nations of earth look somewhat different--America is implied to either be much smaller or not exist at all, for example, since Cythera Brass is from a country formed by a coalition of Native American tribes that apparently takes up most of the Midwest.
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* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: People who live on the Moon long enough turn blue - it's something in the water. It's harmless, but for a long time Lunar actors and actresses painted their skin so that they wouldn't alarm the rest of the solar system when they showed up on film.
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* BiTheWay: Mary Pellam likes "a bit of each," but it becomes important to her plot that Thaddeus Iriguay only prefers men. Additionally, Erasmo describes Severin's mixed-gender crew as this, saying they've all fucked each other, cried over each other, and gotten right with each other.
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* {{Unobtanium}}: Callowmilk. It has a huge variety of uses, including use as an industrial lubricant, coal substitute, fertilizer, and building material, but its most common use is being drunk (or turned into ice cream). Without callowmilk, no human could survive out of Earth's atmosphere very long - it repels radiation and builds up bone density that would otherwise be lost.
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* {{Unobtanium}}: Callowmilk.Callowmilk, which can be gotten ''only'' from the callowhales of Venus. It has a huge variety of uses, including use as an industrial lubricant, coal substitute, fertilizer, and building material, but its most common use is being drunk (or turned into ice cream). Without callowmilk, no human could survive out of Earth's atmosphere very long - it repels radiation and builds up bone density that would otherwise be lost.
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* FantasticDrug: Af-yun, whose use is widely acceptable, and the much more dangerous and scandalous baleen. Both contain callowmilk, and are ingested in solid form.
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Anchises' first appearance, he mentions that he always, ''always'' wears gloves. Later on, we learn there's something [[MarkOfTheSupernatural weird]] about his hand...
** Also [[ConversedTrope conversed]] in Percival's first conversation with Vincenza, fittingly, as they are talking about a movie he wants to make:
--> "And of course in stories there is always fate. It goes by the name of foreshadowing and is the emperor of everybody."
** Also [[ConversedTrope conversed]] in Percival's first conversation with Vincenza, fittingly, as they are talking about a movie he wants to make:
--> "And of course in stories there is always fate. It goes by the name of foreshadowing and is the emperor of everybody."
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* RedFilterOfDoom: Not literally, but in description: Venus is described as being swathed in a perpetual twilight, and its oceans reflect scarlet.
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* CosmicHorror: Shades of it develop as the novel goes on, particularly the story of what the crew encounters on Venus, among the ruins of Adonis.
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** [[spoiler:Severin's desire to swim with a callow whale]] was so opposed by the rest of the crew that one of the members punched her to try to convince her otherwise. [[spoiler:She did so anyway and it ended up vaporizing her.]]
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** [[spoiler:Severin's desire to swim with a callow whale]] was so opposed by the rest of the crew that one of the members punched her to try to convince her otherwise. [[spoiler:She did so anyway anyway, and it ended up vaporizing her.]]
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: The planets are described as marvels to behold, but there are also riots, starvation, unfair laws, and more than one have been destroyed or vanished mysteriously.
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: The planets are described as marvels to behold, but there are also riots, starvation, unfair laws, and more than one colonies have been destroyed or vanished mysteriously.
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* MeaningfulName: All over the place with the names of the colonies and locations on the different planets, and many of the characters. Keep a mythology dictionary handy. At one point Mary [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this by pointing out that every blessed location on the Moon ''has'' to be named after some moon deity from some Earth culture or another. [[hottip:note: Except for Tithonus, or Grasshopper City - that's the name of a lover of Eos, goddess of Dawn, who turned into the first grasshopper.]]
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* MeaningfulName: All over the place with the names of the colonies and locations on the different planets, and many of the characters. Keep a mythology dictionary handy. At one point Mary [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this by pointing out that every blessed location on the Moon ''has'' to be named after some moon deity from some Earth culture or another. [[hottip:note: Except another, and most are named after someone associated with the Classical lunar deities. (Except for Tithonus, or Grasshopper City - that's the name of named after a lover of Eos, goddess of Dawn, who turned into the first grasshopper.]]Dawn.)
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* AmbiguousSituation: The scene in the hotel, when [[spoiler: Anchises somehow holds a summation gathering that includes people who were already dead, in order to find out what happened to Severin.]] While the whole thing is done as a scene from Percy's movie, [[spoiler:the end of the book suggests that the conclusions reached about Severin's fate and the role callow whales play in the universe were all correct, despite there being no way for that to be known.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Nobody ever does find out what happens to Severin, but Percy does find some consolation in making a movie about it to give himself closure. [[spoiler:The readers learn that Severin was vaporized by a callow whale, which means she can never return to her old life, but now can explore the countless dimensions open to her.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Nobody ever does find out what happens to Severin, but Percy does find some consolation in making a movie about it to give himself closure. [[spoiler:The readers learn that Severin was vaporized by a callow whale, which means she can never return to her old life, but now can explore the countless dimensions open to her.]]
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* AmbiguousSituation: The scene in the hotel, when [[spoiler: Anchises somehow holds a summation gathering that includes people who were already dead, in order to find out what happened to Severin.]] While the whole thing is done as a scene from Percy's movie, [[spoiler:the end of the book suggests that the conclusions reached about Severin's fate and the role callow whales callowhales play in the universe were all correct, despite there being no way for that to be known.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Nobody ever does find out what happens to Severin, but Percy does find some consolation in making a movie about it to give himself closure. [[spoiler:The readers learn that Severin was vaporized by acallow whale, callowhale, which means she can never return to her old life, but now can explore the countless dimensions open to her.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Nobody ever does find out what happens to Severin, but Percy does find some consolation in making a movie about it to give himself closure. [[spoiler:The readers learn that Severin was vaporized by a
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* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Melancholia knows full well that Anchises, a DefectiveDetective still messed up from [[spoiler:a decade-long jaunt in another dimension]] isn't going to focus on [[spoiler:finding what happened to Severin]] like she wants, so her employee, Cynthia Brass, is assigned to follow him and make sure he actually does his job. Melacholia even tells Anchises that she knows he needs a nanny to keep him in line. Cynthia's not very happy about it.
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* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Melancholia knows full well that Anchises, a DefectiveDetective still messed up from [[spoiler:a decade-long jaunt in another dimension]] isn't going to focus on [[spoiler:finding what happened to Severin]] like she wants, so her employee, Cynthia Cythera Brass, is assigned to follow him and make sure he actually does his job. Melacholia even tells Anchises that she knows he needs a nanny to keep him in line. Cynthia's Cythera's not very happy about it.
* FemmeFatale: Cythera Brass, as she appears in Anchises' FilmNoir storyline. Played with - in her first scene she's dangerous and sexy as hell, but later comes off as more like a PunchClockVillain who doesn't like holding Anchises' leash. And Percy remarks, as he puts this film together, that the ''real'' Cythera Brass, head of Oxblood Films security, probably won't be amused.
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* MeaningfulName: All over the place with the names of the colonies and locations on the different planets.
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* MeaningfulName: All over the place with the names of the colonies and locations on the different planets.planets, and many of the characters. Keep a mythology dictionary handy. At one point Mary [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this by pointing out that every blessed location on the Moon ''has'' to be named after some moon deity from some Earth culture or another. [[hottip:note: Except for Tithonus, or Grasshopper City - that's the name of a lover of Eos, goddess of Dawn, who turned into the first grasshopper.]]
** To give just ''three'' examples, "Adonis" is the most famous of Venus' mortal lovers, a man divided between her and Proserpine (goddess of the Underworld); "Anchises" was another lover of Venus, most famous as [[Literature/TheAeneid the father of Aeneas]]; and "Cythera" is an epithet for the goddess - you guessed it - Venus.
** To give just ''three'' examples, "Adonis" is the most famous of Venus' mortal lovers, a man divided between her and Proserpine (goddess of the Underworld); "Anchises" was another lover of Venus, most famous as [[Literature/TheAeneid the father of Aeneas]]; and "Cythera" is an epithet for the goddess - you guessed it - Venus.
* {{Unobtanium}}: Callowmilk. It has a huge variety of uses, including use as an industrial lubricant, coal substitute, fertilizer, and building material, but its most common use is being drunk (or turned into ice cream). Without callowmilk, no human could survive out of Earth's atmosphere very long - it repels radiation and builds up bone density that would otherwise be lost.
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* WickedStepmother: Referenced by Mary in her last letter to Severin, but subverted - she was a good stepmother and even, after divorcing Percy, continues to worry about Severin's well-being. Severin's other stepmothers were also shown as being decent, if not the most loving of parents.
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* WickedStepmother: Referenced by Mary in her last letter to Severin, but subverted - she was a good stepmother and even, after divorcing Percy, continues to worry about Severin's well-being. Severin's other stepmothers were also shown as being decent, if not the most loving attentive of parents.
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* AffectionateNickname: "Rinny" (or occasionally "Rin") for Severin.
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* AffectionateNickname: Severin is called "Rinny" (or occasionally "Rin") for Severin.by her father and her boyfriend.
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* BreakTheCutie: Poor Anchises goes through a lot by the time Severin finds him.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Cynthia Brass is assigned to follow Anchises and make sure he actually does his job. She's not very happy about it.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Cynthia Brass is assigned to follow Anchises and make sure he actually does his job. She's not very happy about it.
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* BreakTheCutie: Poor Anchises goes through starts off as a lot by child who wants nothing more than to see a callow whale and innocently wishes for his family's happiness. By the time Severin finds him.
him, he's the only person left in Adonis, walking in circles, blinking in and out of existence, and so incoherent that he screams when Severin hugs him. Things don't get much better from there, as [[spoiler:he's beat up by one of the film crew members, when he tries to prevent the only footage of Severin's last document from being destroyed]]. He spends a lot of his life leaving his adopted father to run around the galaxy and, by the time her reaches his thirties, is withdrawn and tired.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Melancholia knows full well that Anchises, a DefectiveDetective still messed up from [[spoiler:a decade-long jaunt in another dimension]] isn't going to focus on [[spoiler:finding what happened to Severin]] like she wants, so her employee, CynthiaBrass Brass, is assigned to follow Anchises him and make sure he actually does his job. She's Melacholia even tells Anchises that she knows he needs a nanny to keep him in line. Cynthia's not very happy about it.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Melancholia knows full well that Anchises, a DefectiveDetective still messed up from [[spoiler:a decade-long jaunt in another dimension]] isn't going to focus on [[spoiler:finding what happened to Severin]] like she wants, so her employee, Cynthia
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* DoorstopBaby: How Percy took in Severin.
to:
* DoorstopBaby: How Percy took in Severin.found Severin left on his doorstop. True to form, he filmed his finding and bringing her inside, requiring several takes before he was satisfied it went perfectly. [[spoiler:The last chapter has Severin see film footage of Penelope Edison - her birth mother - leaving her on the doorstep.]]
Changed line(s) 32 (click to see context) from:
* ParentalAbandonment: Percy feels he did this to Severin.
to:
* ParentalAbandonment: Percy feels he did this to Severin.Severin, after he [[spoiler:distanced himself from her following his confessing to shooting Thaddeus.]]
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* ParentalNeglect: While Percy tried to be a good father to Severin, he admits that he wasn't always there for her.
to:
* ParentalNeglect: While Percy tried to be a good father to Severin, he admits that he wasn't always there for her. Part of this is due to his being so absorbed in film making that he insists on treating even real life as a movie, having him tend to treat Severin more like an actor in one of his films than his child. Mary writes at one point that it's rather unsettling to see Severin do several takes of opening her Christmas presents and treat it as perfectly normal.
Changed line(s) 37,41 (click to see context) from:
** Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] one.
* RuleOfThree: Adonis is the third colony destroyed in mysterious circumstances.
* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
* TheIngenue: Parodied by Mary, who writes an entire handbook based around her starting her career playing this character.
** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] one.
* RuleOfThree: Adonis is the third colony destroyed in mysterious circumstances.
* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
* TheIngenue: Parodied by Mary, who writes an entire handbook based around her starting her career playing this character.
to:
** Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
life. In the movie, Melancholia hires him to [[spoiler:find out what happened to Severin]], and his chapters are written as a homage to old fashioned detective films.
** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]]one.
one as her most famous character, Madame Mortimer. While Anchises is based on the HardboiledDetective trope, she seemed to be more of an armchair detective in the vein of a younger Literature/MissMarple.
* RealityEnsues: Mary tries to treat [[spoiler:Thaddeus's]] murder like it was taking place in one of her Madame Mortimer movies, locking the doors and trying to suss out clues and motives. It ends abruptly when [[spoiler:Percy simply confesses and orders everyone to cover the crime up to avoid a scandal.]] Even though Mary's certain [[spoiler:Percy didn't do it]], there's nothing she can do.
* RuleOfThree: Adonis is the third colony destroyed in mysteriouscircumstances.
circumstances, along with one on Mars and one on Pluto. [[spoiler:These events are not unrelated.]]
* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a space soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
* TheIngenue: Parodied by Mary, who writes an entire handbook based around her starting her career playing this character. Her [[DeadpanSnarker dry wit]] about getting into showbusiness that way takes all the charm and romance out of the character type.
** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]]
* RealityEnsues: Mary tries to treat [[spoiler:Thaddeus's]] murder like it was taking place in one of her Madame Mortimer movies, locking the doors and trying to suss out clues and motives. It ends abruptly when [[spoiler:Percy simply confesses and orders everyone to cover the crime up to avoid a scandal.]] Even though Mary's certain [[spoiler:Percy didn't do it]], there's nothing she can do.
* RuleOfThree: Adonis is the third colony destroyed in mysterious
* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a space soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
* TheIngenue: Parodied by Mary, who writes an entire handbook based around her starting her career playing this character. Her [[DeadpanSnarker dry wit]] about getting into showbusiness that way takes all the charm and romance out of the character type.
Changed line(s) 43 (click to see context) from:
* UsedToBeASweetKid: While Severin isn't a bad person, she lost much of her childhood warmth and sweetness, along with her close relationship to her father.
to:
* UsedToBeASweetKid: While Severin isn't a bad person, she lost much of her childhood warmth and sweetness, along with her close relationship to her father, after [[spoiler:he told her he shot and killed someone]]. As an adult, she only is affectionate towards her boyfriend (and later Anchises) and is still angry towards her father.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
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* DontTouchItYouIdiot: The end of the book reveals that [[spoiler:one of Anchises's childhood friends actually told him not to touch the callow whale frond. Percy left that part out of his movie because he thought it was too on-the-nose.]]
to:
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: DontTouchItYouIdiot:
** The end of the book reveals that [[spoiler:one of Anchises's childhood friends actually told him not to touch the callow whale frond. Percy left that part out of his movie because he thought it was too on-the-nose.]]
** The end of the book reveals that [[spoiler:one of Anchises's childhood friends actually told him not to touch the callow whale frond. Percy left that part out of his movie because he thought it was too on-the-nose.]]
Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
* PrivateDetective: Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
to:
* PrivateDetective: PrivateDetective:
** Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
** Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
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Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/radiance.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:A tale may have exactly three beginnings: one for the audience, one for the artist, and one for the poor bastard who has to live in it.]]
--> Endings are lush and lascivious, Vince; they call to me. All spread out on satin inevitabilities, waiting, beckoning, promising impossibly, obscenely elegant solutions-if you've been a good lab and dressed the house just so, for its comfort, for its arousal. All the rest of the nonsense a story requires is must a long seduction of the ending.
''Radiance'' is a decopunk science fiction alt-history novel by Creator/CatherynneMValente.
Taking place in an AlternateUniverse where space travel and colonization on other planets are an everyday part of life by 1986, the story tells about Severin Unck, the adopted daughter of a famous Gothic filmmaker. Severin herself made a name for herself filming documentaries until she vanished without a trace while doing a film about a lost colony on Venus. What follows is a series of [[ScrapbookStory documents, transcripts, letters, diary entries, and newspaper columns]], all detailing Severin's life from her childhood to her disappearance as well as the lives of those closest to her.
----
!! ''Radiance'' provides examples of:
* AdultFear: The transcripts of Percy trying to plan a movie to give himself closure over Severin's disappearance show just how much he misses her and wishes he'd done better caring for her.
* AffectionateNickname: "Rinny" (or occasionally "Rin") for Severin.
* AmbiguousSituation: The scene in the hotel, when [[spoiler: Anchises somehow holds a summation gathering that includes people who were already dead, in order to find out what happened to Severin.]] While the whole thing is done as a scene from Percy's movie, [[spoiler:the end of the book suggests that the conclusions reached about Severin's fate and the role callow whales play in the universe were all correct, despite there being no way for that to be known.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Nobody ever does find out what happens to Severin, but Percy does find some consolation in making a movie about it to give himself closure. [[spoiler:The readers learn that Severin was vaporized by a callow whale, which means she can never return to her old life, but now can explore the countless dimensions open to her.]]
* BreakTheCutie: Poor Anchises goes through a lot by the time Severin finds him.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Cynthia Brass is assigned to follow Anchises and make sure he actually does his job. She's not very happy about it.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: The planets are described as marvels to behold, but there are also riots, starvation, unfair laws, and more than one have been destroyed or vanished mysteriously.
* DaddysGirl: As a child, Severin was devoted to her father. This changed when [[spoiler:he told her he killed a man.]]
* DomesticAbuse: Penelope Edison is suppressed and denied the right to work by her husband.
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: The end of the book reveals that [[spoiler:one of Anchises's childhood friends actually told him not to touch the callow whale frond. Percy left that part out of his movie because he thought it was too on-the-nose.]]
** [[spoiler:Severin's desire to swim with a callow whale]] was so opposed by the rest of the crew that one of the members punched her to try to convince her otherwise. [[spoiler:She did so anyway and it ended up vaporizing her.]]
* DoorstopBaby: How Percy took in Severin.
* ForegoneConclusion: The story makes it clear from the start that Severin is never found.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: One of Severin's stepmothers kept a large number of exotic pets that were all hurt or defective in some way.
* MeaningfulName: All over the place with the names of the colonies and locations on the different planets.
* MissingMom: While Severin had plenty of stepmothers to raise her, the identity of her birth mother was always a mystery. [[spoiler:It was Penelope Edison.]]
* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Invoked. Severin is aware that as the daughter of a famous filmmaker, she's already guaranteed money and fame. She doesn't want that though, and in one interview states a desire to make documentaries so great that she could say she made a name on her own merit.
* NotBloodSiblings: Severin and Erasmo, who are in a deep enough relationship that he considers himself to be her husband all but on paper, were once stepsiblings through his mother and Severin's father. Neither are terribly bothered by it, since Percy had gone through so many wives and had divorced Erasmo's mother by the time they hooked up.
* ParentalAbandonment: Percy feels he did this to Severin.
--> I abandoned her. It's the one capital crime of fatherhood. Mothers can fail a thousand different ways. A father's only job is: do not abandon this child.
* ParentalNeglect: While Percy tried to be a good father to Severin, he admits that he wasn't always there for her.
* ParentalSubstitute: Mary was a significant mother figure in Severin's life and continued to watch out for her even after divorcing Percy.
* PrivateDetective: Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] one.
* RuleOfThree: Adonis is the third colony destroyed in mysterious circumstances.
* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
* TheIngenue: Parodied by Mary, who writes an entire handbook based around her starting her career playing this character.
* TheSummation: A rather unusual one takes place when [[spoiler:Anchises deduces Severin's fate, bringing together all the relevant characters including some that were dead and several that are ''animated''.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: While Severin isn't a bad person, she lost much of her childhood warmth and sweetness, along with her close relationship to her father.
* WickedStepmother: Referenced by Mary in her last letter to Severin, but subverted - she was a good stepmother and even, after divorcing Percy, continues to worry about Severin's well-being. Severin's other stepmothers were also shown as being decent, if not the most loving of parents.
* WouldHitAGirl: One of Severin's crew members attacked her on Adonis. [[spoiler:It was to try to stop her from swimming with a callow whale.]]
[[caption-width-right:330:A tale may have exactly three beginnings: one for the audience, one for the artist, and one for the poor bastard who has to live in it.]]
--> Endings are lush and lascivious, Vince; they call to me. All spread out on satin inevitabilities, waiting, beckoning, promising impossibly, obscenely elegant solutions-if you've been a good lab and dressed the house just so, for its comfort, for its arousal. All the rest of the nonsense a story requires is must a long seduction of the ending.
''Radiance'' is a decopunk science fiction alt-history novel by Creator/CatherynneMValente.
Taking place in an AlternateUniverse where space travel and colonization on other planets are an everyday part of life by 1986, the story tells about Severin Unck, the adopted daughter of a famous Gothic filmmaker. Severin herself made a name for herself filming documentaries until she vanished without a trace while doing a film about a lost colony on Venus. What follows is a series of [[ScrapbookStory documents, transcripts, letters, diary entries, and newspaper columns]], all detailing Severin's life from her childhood to her disappearance as well as the lives of those closest to her.
----
!! ''Radiance'' provides examples of:
* AdultFear: The transcripts of Percy trying to plan a movie to give himself closure over Severin's disappearance show just how much he misses her and wishes he'd done better caring for her.
* AffectionateNickname: "Rinny" (or occasionally "Rin") for Severin.
* AmbiguousSituation: The scene in the hotel, when [[spoiler: Anchises somehow holds a summation gathering that includes people who were already dead, in order to find out what happened to Severin.]] While the whole thing is done as a scene from Percy's movie, [[spoiler:the end of the book suggests that the conclusions reached about Severin's fate and the role callow whales play in the universe were all correct, despite there being no way for that to be known.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Nobody ever does find out what happens to Severin, but Percy does find some consolation in making a movie about it to give himself closure. [[spoiler:The readers learn that Severin was vaporized by a callow whale, which means she can never return to her old life, but now can explore the countless dimensions open to her.]]
* BreakTheCutie: Poor Anchises goes through a lot by the time Severin finds him.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Cynthia Brass is assigned to follow Anchises and make sure he actually does his job. She's not very happy about it.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: The planets are described as marvels to behold, but there are also riots, starvation, unfair laws, and more than one have been destroyed or vanished mysteriously.
* DaddysGirl: As a child, Severin was devoted to her father. This changed when [[spoiler:he told her he killed a man.]]
* DomesticAbuse: Penelope Edison is suppressed and denied the right to work by her husband.
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: The end of the book reveals that [[spoiler:one of Anchises's childhood friends actually told him not to touch the callow whale frond. Percy left that part out of his movie because he thought it was too on-the-nose.]]
** [[spoiler:Severin's desire to swim with a callow whale]] was so opposed by the rest of the crew that one of the members punched her to try to convince her otherwise. [[spoiler:She did so anyway and it ended up vaporizing her.]]
* DoorstopBaby: How Percy took in Severin.
* ForegoneConclusion: The story makes it clear from the start that Severin is never found.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: One of Severin's stepmothers kept a large number of exotic pets that were all hurt or defective in some way.
* MeaningfulName: All over the place with the names of the colonies and locations on the different planets.
* MissingMom: While Severin had plenty of stepmothers to raise her, the identity of her birth mother was always a mystery. [[spoiler:It was Penelope Edison.]]
* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Invoked. Severin is aware that as the daughter of a famous filmmaker, she's already guaranteed money and fame. She doesn't want that though, and in one interview states a desire to make documentaries so great that she could say she made a name on her own merit.
* NotBloodSiblings: Severin and Erasmo, who are in a deep enough relationship that he considers himself to be her husband all but on paper, were once stepsiblings through his mother and Severin's father. Neither are terribly bothered by it, since Percy had gone through so many wives and had divorced Erasmo's mother by the time they hooked up.
* ParentalAbandonment: Percy feels he did this to Severin.
--> I abandoned her. It's the one capital crime of fatherhood. Mothers can fail a thousand different ways. A father's only job is: do not abandon this child.
* ParentalNeglect: While Percy tried to be a good father to Severin, he admits that he wasn't always there for her.
* ParentalSubstitute: Mary was a significant mother figure in Severin's life and continued to watch out for her even after divorcing Percy.
* PrivateDetective: Anchises was one for awhile, in both Percy's movie and real life.
** Madame Mortimer is a [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] one.
* RuleOfThree: Adonis is the third colony destroyed in mysterious circumstances.
* ShowWithinAShow: Several pop up, including a few commercials for callowmilk and a soap opera, ''How Many Miles to Babylon?''
* TheIngenue: Parodied by Mary, who writes an entire handbook based around her starting her career playing this character.
* TheSummation: A rather unusual one takes place when [[spoiler:Anchises deduces Severin's fate, bringing together all the relevant characters including some that were dead and several that are ''animated''.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: While Severin isn't a bad person, she lost much of her childhood warmth and sweetness, along with her close relationship to her father.
* WickedStepmother: Referenced by Mary in her last letter to Severin, but subverted - she was a good stepmother and even, after divorcing Percy, continues to worry about Severin's well-being. Severin's other stepmothers were also shown as being decent, if not the most loving of parents.
* WouldHitAGirl: One of Severin's crew members attacked her on Adonis. [[spoiler:It was to try to stop her from swimming with a callow whale.]]
