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* AlwaysLate: Dixon Wells is chronically late, so much that his father almost has a heart attack after Dixon seemingly arrives at the office before him (in fact, Dixon simply hasn't left the office since the day before).
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* CrushFilter: Lisa is a "skinny scarecrow" to Dixon, but a breathtaking beauty in the eyes of Carter, who's in love with her. Dixon tries to imitate Carter's personality to see Lisa as he does, and he just barely starts to succeed [[spoiler:when van Manderpootz tells him that Lisa is not worth losing your own personality and lets Carter and Lisa marry]].
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* ArtistsAreAttractive: Most of Dixon's crushes belong to the creative type – among the ones whose names are given, Whimsy White is an actress, Joanna Caldwell is a painter, Tips Alva is a dancer, and Denise d'Agrion is a writer.

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* ArtistsAreAttractive: Most of Dixon's crushes belong to the creative type – among the ones whose names are given, for example, Whimsy White is an actress, Joanna Caldwell is a painter, Tips Alva is a dancer, and Denise d'Agrion is a writer.
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* ArtistsAreAttractive: Most of Dixon's crushes belong to the creative type – among the ones whose names are given, Whimsy White is an actress, Joanna Caldwell is a painter, Tips Alva is a dancer, and Denise d'Agrion is a writer.
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* WeightAngst: In ''The Ideal'', Dixon is ashamed of being somewhat chubby.

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* WeightAngst: WeightWoe: In ''The Ideal'', Dixon is ashamed of being somewhat chubby.
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* StrongFamilyResemblance: Denise d'Agrion looks almost exactly the same as her mother de Lisle d'Agrion.

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* StrongFamilyResemblance: Denise d'Agrion looks almost exactly the same as her mother de Lisle d'Agrion.d'Agrion.
* WeightAngst: In ''The Ideal'', Dixon is ashamed of being somewhat chubby.

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* FailedFutureForecast: The stories are set in TheNewTens, but the Soviet Union still exists.



* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The stories are set in TheNewTens, but the Soviet Union still exists.
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* SerialSpouse: De Lisle d'Agrion has had seven husbands (at least as far as van Manderpootz knows), and in addition she and van Manderpootz came pretty close to tying the knot too.

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* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Denise d'Agrion marries [[spoiler:the psychiatrist who treats her]].



* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Denise d'Agrion marries [[spoiler:the psychiatrist who treats her]].

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* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Denise d'Agrion marries [[spoiler:the psychiatrist who treats her]].FormerlyFit: Dixon, watching his ForWantOfANail AlternateUniverse marriage to Whimsy White, sees Whimsy "obviously plumping out".
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* InsufferableGenius: Van Manderpootz is so conceited that he thinks Einstein can be ranked as equal to or ''just below'' himself, and in the idealisator, when he thinks of an ideal man, he sees his own unchanged reflection and thinks Dixon forgot to start the idelisator (just for comparison: Dixon, thinking of an ideal girl, sees a vision of young de Lisle d'Agrion with a heavy dose of AdaptationalAttractiveness and pines for days afterwards).

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* InsufferableGenius: Van Manderpootz is so conceited that he thinks Einstein can be ranked as equal to or ''just below'' himself, and in the idealisator, when he thinks of an ideal man, he sees his own unchanged reflection and thinks Dixon forgot to start the idelisator idealisator (just for comparison: Dixon, thinking of an ideal girl, sees a vision of young de Lisle d'Agrion with a heavy dose of AdaptationalAttractiveness and pines for days afterwards).
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* InsufferableGenius: Van Manderpootz is so conceited that he thinks Einstein can be ranked as equal to or ''just below'' himself, and in the idealisator, when he thinks of an ideal man, he sees his own unchanged reflection and thinks Dixon forgot to start the idelisator (just for comparison: Dixon, thinking of an ideal girl, sees a vision of young de Lisle d'Agrion with a heavy dose of AdaptationalAttractiveness and pines for days afterwards)

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* InsufferableGenius: Van Manderpootz is so conceited that he thinks Einstein can be ranked as equal to or ''just below'' himself, and in the idealisator, when he thinks of an ideal man, he sees his own unchanged reflection and thinks Dixon forgot to start the idelisator (just for comparison: Dixon, thinking of an ideal girl, sees a vision of young de Lisle d'Agrion with a heavy dose of AdaptationalAttractiveness and pines for days afterwards)afterwards).

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The unofficially-named Van Manderpootz stories are a cycle of three short stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum (famous for ''Literature/AMartianOdyssey''): ''The Worlds of If'' (1935), ''The Ideal'' (1935) and ''The Point of View'' (1936, posthumous publication). All three star InsufferableGenius, Professor Haskel van Manderpootz, and SerialRomeo Dixon Wells who acts as the narrator and TheWatson.

In ''The Worlds of If'', van Manderpootz invents the subjunctivizor, a machine that allows a person to see a ForWantOfANail version of their life that would have appeared had they made a different choice at some point. In ''The Ideal'', he invents the idealizator which allows one to see one's ideal version of... basically anything one thinks up. Finally, ''The Point of View'' features the attitudinizor, which allows to see the world from other people's perspective.

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The unofficially-named Van Manderpootz stories are a cycle of three short stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum (famous for ''Literature/AMartianOdyssey''): ''The Worlds of If'' (1935), ''The Ideal'' (1935) and ''The Point of View'' (1936, posthumous publication). All three star InsufferableGenius, Professor Haskel van Manderpootz, and SerialRomeo Dixon Wells who acts as the narrator and TheWatson.

In ''The Worlds of If'', van Manderpootz invents the subjunctivizor, subjunctivisor, a machine that allows a person to see a ForWantOfANail version of their life that would have appeared had they made a different choice at some point. In ''The Ideal'', he invents the idealizator idealisator which allows one to see one's ideal version of... basically anything one thinks up. Finally, ''The Point of View'' features the attitudinizor, attitudinisor, which allows to see the world from other people's perspective.
perspectives.


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* InsufferableGenius: Van Manderpootz is so conceited that he thinks Einstein can be ranked as equal to or ''just below'' himself, and in the idealisator, when he thinks of an ideal man, he sees his own unchanged reflection and thinks Dixon forgot to start the idelisator (just for comparison: Dixon, thinking of an ideal girl, sees a vision of young de Lisle d'Agrion with a heavy dose of AdaptationalAttractiveness and pines for days afterwards)
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* AmicableExes: Van Manderpootz and de Lisle d'Agrion broke up long ago but maintain a friendly relationship, with him being an HonoraryUncle to her daughter

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* AmicableExes: Van Manderpootz and de Lisle d'Agrion broke up long ago but maintain a friendly relationship, with him being an HonoraryUncle to her daughterdaughter.



* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Or rather "reports of my survival weren't checked up". In ''The Worlds of If'', Dixon sees that in his ForWantOfANail reality [[spoiler:Joanna dies]], so for two weeks he doesn't even check the ''actual'' lists of the collision's survivors.

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* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Or rather "reports of my survival weren't checked up". In ''The Worlds of If'', Dixon sees that in his ForWantOfANail reality [[spoiler:Joanna dies]], so for two weeks several days he doesn't even check the ''actual'' lists of the collision's survivors.

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* RescueRomance: Joanna Caldwell marries [[spoiler:Navigator Orris Hope who saves her during the rocket's crash]].

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* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Or rather "reports of my survival weren't checked up". In ''The Worlds of If'', Dixon sees that in his ForWantOfANail reality [[spoiler:Joanna dies]], so for two weeks he doesn't even check the ''actual'' lists of the collision's survivors.
* RescueRomance: Joanna Caldwell marries [[spoiler:Joanna Caldwell]] ends up marrying [[spoiler:Navigator Orris Hope who saves her during the rocket's crash]].
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* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Denise d'Agrion marries [[spoiler:the psychiatrist who treats her]].
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* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The stories are set in TheNew10s, but the Soviet Union still exists.

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* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The stories are set in TheNew10s, TheNewTens, but the Soviet Union still exists.
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The unofficially-named Van Manderpootz stories are a cycle of three short stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum (famous for ''Literature/AMartianOdyssey''): ''The Worlds of If'' (1935), ''The Ideal'' (1935) and ''The Point of View'' (1936, posthumous publication). All three star InsufferableGenius, Professor Haskel van Manderpootz, and SerialRomeo Dixon Wells who acts as the narrator and TheWatson.

In ''The Worlds of If'', van Manderpootz invents the subjunctivizor, a machine that allows a person to see a ForWantOfANail version of their life that would have appeared had they made a different choice at some point. In ''The Ideal'', he invents the idealizator which allows one to see one's ideal version of... basically anything one thinks up. Finally, ''The Point of View'' features the attitudinizor, which allows to see the world from other people's perspective.

[[RecycledScript Every time]], Dixon becomes the one to first try out the new invention, and it ''inevitably'' leads to romantic troubles.

!! Tropes featured in the stories:
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Whimsy White (it's a pseudonym, her real name is Marie).
* AmicableExes: Van Manderpootz and de Lisle d'Agrion broke up long ago but maintain a friendly relationship, with him being an HonoraryUncle to her daughter
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Dixon is chronically unlucky in love.
* ForWantOfANail: The very premise of ''The Worlds of If'' is exploring the possibilities of InUniverse WhatCouldHaveBeen. For example, Dixon finds out that had he made a successful financial operation several years earlier, he would have got stuck in AwfulWeddedLife with Whimsy White, and had he managed to board the ''Baikal'' before it departed, [[spoiler:both he and Joanna Caldwell would have perished in the crash]].
* GoldDigger: Whimsy White is an actress to whom Dixon even managed to get engaged, but when he lost all of his money during a financial crisis she dropped him like a hot potato.
* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The stories are set in TheNew10s, but the Soviet Union still exists.
* HiddenDepths: In ''The Ideal'', Dixon is amazed to discover that van Manderpootz has once had a romantic fling with an actress.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Haskel van Manderpootz tries to explain how modest he is:
-->I am too modest! That is the trouble. I undervalue my own achievements, and thereby permit petty imitators like Corveille to influence the committee and win the Morell prize!
* PrecociousCrush: Turns out Dixon Wells had one on superstar de Lisle d'Agrion early in his childhood, and all of his love interests resemble her in some way.
* RescueRomance: Joanna Caldwell marries [[spoiler:Navigator Orris Hope who saves her during the rocket's crash]].
* SerialRomeo: Dixon meets gorgeous girls of his dreams at least three times.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Denise d'Agrion looks almost exactly the same as her mother de Lisle d'Agrion.

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