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SCIENCE FICTION STORIES AND HUMOR

by Frank Wu

Stories from THE ENCYCLOPEDIA CAPRICCIOSA, my science fiction history of music.  The idea is to have stories every five years; music is constantly re-inventing itself and can be considered as a phoenix with a five year life cycle.  Here are the stories for 1915, 1965 and 1975...

Carlo Carra, Red Horseman, 1913

IF THE GESTURE BE BEAUTIFUL: A tale of those looking for beauty and love in the midst of war and confusion. Originally published in The Fiction Network (now-defunct) in serial form.  Reprinted on The Fiction and Poetry Society website.

"An absorbing story laced with stimulating ideas and unique images." R. Webster, TriQuarterly

"Most impressive were the performances by Frank Wu's 'If The Gesture Be Beautiful' ... which had the ... most monthly hit totals for an individual work of fiction.'Gesture' also now holds the first and second highest weekly hit counts in TFN's [The Fiction Network] history." David R. Mark, editor, The Fiction Network, where "If the Gesture Be Beautiful" was the #1 novel for both August and September, 1998

Illo: Frank Wu

THE GOLDEN DIVIDEND: Love! Time travel! Surf guitar! Published in Pogonip

"A powerful, thought-provoking work and an excellent sci-fi." LeRoy Webb, editor

Illo: Frank Wu

TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE: Bug-eyed soul! Published in The Morpo Review

"A musician has himself gradually turned into a cricket-morph, trying to get closer to his music. Very powerfully told. Recommended." --Phaedrus, Transformation Stories List.

SCIENTIFIC HUMOR

MICHAEL JACKSON GENOME PROJECT: Sequencing the Gloved One's DNA! Published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results.

A FORMULA FOR HAPPINESS: Published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results

HOW JELL-O KILLED THE DINOSAURS: Gelatinous Death from the Skies! Published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results

"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... You had me dying... Because Jell-O is my thing... It's like my favorite food... [Your page is] AMAZINGLY STUPID BUT FUNNY." Jennifer "JenniJiggler" O'Loughlin, age 15

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN TORNADOES AND TRAILER HOMES: Published in The Annals of Improbable Research and cited in The Atlantic Monthly

"A mass of compelling circumstantial evidence ... An open-minded reader can draw but one conclusion." Cullen Murphy, Atlantic Monthly

"Wußten Sie schon, daß ein direkter Zusammenhang zwischen dem Auftreten von Tornados in den USA und der Häufigkeit von Wohnmobilen einerseits sowie dem Absatz von Camcordern andererseits besteht? Diese epochemachende Erkenntnis verdanken wir Frank Wu von der Universität von Wisconsin." Publisher of the German edition of The Best of the Annals of Improbable Research.

Text of the German translation of "The Correlation Between Tornadoes and Trailer Homes": Click here.

This article has also been translated into Italian, in the Italian edition, La scienza Impossibile, Il meglio degli <<Annals of Improbable Research>>.

To read the Italian translation, click here.

LIGHT POTATO CHIPS: Published in Pogonip

SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS

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