Could it be that the recurring nature of Acheron Hades' henchman 'Felix Tabularasa', or at least the first part of his name, owes itself not to a literary source but to a cinematographic one? His apparent ability to return from fatal experiences (even if, in this case, it's due to brainwashing & a face transplant, rather than to true indestructability...) reminds me of another, earlier FELIX, specifically an old cartoon character (originating in the 1920s?) who was called 'Felix the Cat'... Here's that feline Felix's theme song:

'Felix keeps on walking, keeps on walking still;
With his tail behind him, you are sure to find him;
They blew him up with dynamite but him they couldn't kill,
Up into the air he flew,
He just murmured "Toodle-oo",
Landed down in Timbuktu
And keeps on walking still'.

(This song led to one group of British military personnel whose job during WWII was dealing with unexploded bombs adopting 'Felix' as their [radio?] codename...)

It's one of those nagging things at the back of my mind that somewhere in the Library is a work with a character called Felix who has some similarity to Felix9 and his ilk. It's one of those things that's hard to check, because 'felix' is such a common word, that googling just gives you a lot of cat-food.

Could be the cartoon though .... I didn't know F the C was indestructible (I knew Captain Scarlet was).



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

The only other Felix that springs to mind is 'Felix and his amazing underpants' from VIZ.

Re possible literary sources... Maybe somewhere in the works of kafka? It seems to me that the concept might fit into those. And the name 'Felix' was in use in eastern Europe in that period, e.g. Felix Dzerzhinsky _ a renegade Polish nobleman _ who organised the 'Cheka' (the organisation which later became the KGB) for our Earth's version of Lenin...

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Warning! Product may contain newts...

Okay - time out.

Felix is named after Felix Topolski, who was a very good friend of my grandfather, Joseph Retinger (who, it was said, wrote a 'now lost to posterity' play with Joseph Conrad.) Topolski was a Polish artist and a very good one, too - I have several of his sketches peppered around the house. 'Felix7' has a nice ring to it, too - and led on to the idea of people who change their names having numbers after them. (See Hathaway, Milton, DuChamp, etc)

Ooops - have I spoilt the speculative thread?

JF

Finished TN3 (!) and working on the adverts. Will be updating the site in a couple of weeks - lots of 'reader's nuggets' to be included...

well, at least Simon had the idea with Felix being Polish! LOL

To Panjandrum... Thanks for the explanation. So when can we expect TN3's arrival in the shops, will it now (he asks eagerly...) be a bit earlier than was previously announced?

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Warning! Product may contain newts...

Ah, good 'ol Felix(the cat). I've got a pic of him ironed on my jeans pocket.

I would hate to give away parts of books that on the off chance haven't been read yet, but the name Tabularasa also occurs later on in the series.
That is, unless it's merely similar and I failed to spot a crucial difference...



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Um? Game?

It is the same name, but it seems like a coincidence. The idea of a tabula rasa (blank slate) was just appropriate for both Felix and the Generics.

JFf mentions something in one of the chapter openings about several unrelated characters sharing the name Deane. He comments that it may be uncommon in the Bookworld, but it happens all the time in the Outland - so we probably shouldn't read too much into it.



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Metaphors be with you!