Typewriter in The Sky - Influence

Influence

In a review of the book What Mad Universe (1949), Paul Di Filippo of Sci Fi Weekly posits that the book's author Fredric Brown may have been influenced by Hubbard's story. Gary Westfahl quoted Hubbard's work in a book of noteworthy science fiction quotations. In a fictional recounting of Hubbard's accomplishments, followers of Scientology cite Typewriter in the Sky among works which "inspired millions", in the Obie Award-winning satirical musical written by Kyle Jarrow, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant. In the book Harlan Ellison's Watching, by Harlan Ellison, Typewriter in the Sky is compared to Purple Rose of Cairo, "I bet if L. Ron Hubbard had written Purple Rose of Cairo they'd have given it a Hugo ... I mean, it is sort of a hip, updated version of Typewriter in the Sky."

Writing for Locus Online, Gary Westfahl compared the screenplay of the 2006 film Stranger than Fiction to Hubbard's story, and commented, "In taking its premise into this unlikely territory, the film provides a fascinating contrast to a classic fantasy novella with a similar theme, L. Ron Hubbard's 'Typewriter in the Sky' (1940). A lawsuit alleging that screenwriter Zach Helm improperly stole his story from Hubbard could accurately state that both works have the same basic plot." In a review of Stranger than Fiction for Cinematical, Jette Kernion also compared the film's plot to Hubbard's story, noting that the two stories share "some strikingly similar plot elements".