Secret Histories of Fictional Worlds
"Retcon", alteration of the canonical account of past events in serial fiction, often employs aspects of secret history. A seeming continuity breach might be "revealed" to alter the truth of what readers were previously led to believe was a definitive story. A retcon might equally well convert an established history into a secret history. Such transformations occur with particular frequency in long-running superhero comic books.
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Famous quotes containing the words secret, histories, fictional and/or worlds:
“The secret to fencing consists in two things: to give and to not receive.”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)
“The histories of the lives and fortunes of men are full of instances of this nature,—where favorable times and lucky accidents have done for them, what wisdom or skill could not.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.... This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
“The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made:
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view
That stand upon the threshold of the new.”
—Edmund Waller (1606–1687)