THE HALL OF FAME

(or)

THE KINSOLVING'S PLANET IRREGULARS

(or)

FICTIONAL IMMORTALITY ON THE INTERNET

In HALL of FAME, John Grimes once again visits Kinsolving's Planet, a Rim World that has been abandoned as a colony because people who live there are just not comfortable. Grimes is asked by Admiral Kravitz of the Rim Worlds Navy to investigate the planet more fully, following Grimes' adventures there in The RIM GODS.

In The Rim Gods, Grimes is appointed as RWC observer aboard Piety, a survey ship outfitted by a Neo-Calvinist church in search of a new revelation. The Neo-Calvinists have brought Clarisse, daughter of Raul, a former (non-human, nearly human) inhabitant of Kinsolving's (and the artist responsible for the cave drawings written of in WET PAINT) in the hopes that the psionic talent Clarisse shares with her father will be able to draw the god of the Old Testament to Kinsolvings.

The experiment works in a manner of speaking. Clarisse draws the Greek Pantheon to Kinsolving's Planet instead of Jehovah and Zeus destroyes the ship and disappears most of its crew, leaving Grimes, Clarisse and a few others stranded on the planet, awaiting rescue.

In Hall of Fame, prior to leaving for Kinsolvings, Sonya (Grimes' wife) has just returned from a galactic tour holiday and gives Grimes a present - a meerschaum pipe purchased at a shop on Bakers Street in London, England. The pipe was represented to Sonya as Sherlock Holmes' original and Grimes is at great pains to appreciate the gift while explaining to Sonya that Holmes was a fictional characte; she was duped, despite the fact that she is a reserve officer in the Federation's Survey Service Intelligence Branch.

The second trip to Kinsolving's Planet is outfitted as a full survey; Grimes' beloved Faraway Quest is outfitted, a full crew of scientists is assigned, Sonya is appointed by the FSS to go along as an observer and Clarisse, now married to the Psionic Radio Officer Mayhew, is sent along with her husband.

Once on the planet, nothing much happens until Grimes suggests recreating the experiment with Clarisse. It works, except this time Clarisse ends up summoning the Devil, who promptly snatches Grimes, along with his pipe, back to a place that we are informed is called the Hall of Fame by its literary inhabitants.

Once at the Hall of Fame, Grimes is confronted by Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Holmes demands the return of his pipe. When it is explained toHolmes and Watson that they are fictional characters in Grimes' universe they depart with no ill feelings. Grimes is then met by Jeeves, the perennial English Butler, who explains that the Hall of Fame is essentially the retirement home for well-remembered literary characters. Grimes is shown around and encounters Lady Chatterly, Lord Greystoke and a host of others. He learns that those characters who diminish in popularity eventually fade from the Hall, going no one knows where.

Grimes finds himself fading and appealls to Jeeves who eventually takes him to visit with Doctor Faust; Faust, with a little arm-twisting by Jeeves, is encouraged to summon Mephistopheles who sends Grimes from the Hall.

Grimes then finds himself transported to a stateroom aboard the freighter Kantara, where his author - A. Bertram Chandler - is working on the very story in whcih Grimes was transported to the Hall of Fame. Grimes confronts Chandler and demands that he be returned to Sonya and his own time and place.

Chandler enjoys his moment of god-like power over his character, even asking Grimes how he would like to be killed off. Chandler confesses that he has gotten tired of Grimes, which offers an explanation for Grimes' dismissal from the Hall. Chandler, however, eventually relents and Grimes is once again transported elswhere, this time back to Kinsolving's where Sonya with Faraway Quest have been patiently waiting for him.

Hall of Fame is perhaps the seminal example of the ways in which Chandler played around with alternate realities. He uses three devices in this story to transport Grimes from place to place - the fact that Kinsolving's Planet resides at the weakest point on the outer rim of the galaxy, where time and space are already stretched thin, the use of Clarisse and her psionic 'drawing' abilities and the author's - or is it the character's? - own intervention in the tale.

Is the author we encounter the actual Chandler engaging in self-reference, or a fictional Chandler invented by the real Chandler as a convienent device for the story? If it is the actual Chandler, did he guarantee a place for himself, however fleeting, in the Hall of Fame? If not, is the 'fictional' Bertram Chandler the author responsible for the Grimes stories that don't quite fit with the rest?

If there is a fictional character Hall of Fame, there is no doubt in my mind that Grimes is still a resident, as Chandler himself must be. Unfortunately they're slowly and steadily fading. I hope that this website helps them retain their substantiability.

The images at the top of this page are of the actual Union Steam Ship Company's vessel Kantara. I've yet to find any references in Chandler's autobiographical material relating to his having served aboard her, but he must have, if only in his own stories.