Posted by Rodger Whitlock on August 06, 1997 at 13:14:28:
In Reply to: Re: 'Jan Holberk Vaenz' posted by Mick Scannell on April 10, 1997 at 02:38:51:
: : Reading 'Star King' for the thousandth time today, I noticed that the headpiece to Chapter 6 purported to be by 'Jan Holberk Vaenz LXII'. Clearly this is a play on Vance's real name, John Holbrook Vance.
: : Do other readers find this in-joke as amusing as I do? There must be many other such throwaways in Vance's work: can other fans think of any?
: An obvious really, but I'll say it anyway : in Nightlamp there's repeated references to Robert Palmer's Star, in tribute to the rock musician who admits being Addicted to Vance.
After reading Nightlamp, I had the distinct feeling that it is
something of a roman a clef, at least in regards to the names
of people and places. One wonders if this is true of other Vance
works as well. Are some of his fanciful names actually anagrams,
for example?
But who or what, then, is "Araminta", a name which turns up more
than once in Vance's oeuvre?