Honoré de Balzac beat me to it!

One of my pleasures is discovering new things having to do with parallel universes, increasingly referred to as multiverse. (Yes, I know: "Bill, for God's sake, get a life!)

Some of you may think my multiverse ramblings are about something relatively new. They are not. But I didn't know how not new they were until recently.

Hugh Everett, and his 1950's Many Worlds Interpretation theory, is often cited as one of the early champions of the existence of a multiverse. I have read much of that multiple times understanding very little of it. 

Early in the 19th century, French novelist, Honoré de Balzac, knowingly or not, placed the characters in his novels in situations we might refer to today as the multiverse. And not just once or twice. 

"Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine, written over a century earlier, already contained the seeds of multiverse storytelling. Comprising nearly 100 novels and short stories, it features thousands of characters who reappear across different works, creating a shared universe that allows for complex narrative interconnections." Harsh Trivedi, Associate Teacher, University of Sheffield, PhD 19th century French literature. 

Now that I understand.

The characters in The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn encounter each other in whatever storylines I chose to place them in. The French philosopher, Alain likely would have agreed with that, maybe even, Balzac himself.

"The French philosopher Alain wrote that Balzac’s literary universe can sometimes feel like a “crossroads where characters from La Comédie Humaine meet, greet each other, and pass”. This creates a sense of disjointedness, due to its lack of strict chronological order, allowing readers to enter Balzac’s universe from any of the nearly 100 novels or short stories." Harsh Trivedi, Associate Teacher, University of Sheffield, PhD 19th century French literature. 

However, Balzac may not have liked the word "disjointedness". I'm ok with it.

Raymond's story, and the sequel I'm working on now, are meant to feel disjointed at times. As I prefer to think of it, as though I've placed readers in a word "maze", forcing them to not just read words, but to also interpret their meaning.

Readers will occasionally end up in word maze "dead ends". If they wish to exit the maze having understood the story they must reread brief parts to find a new "thought path" to follow.

I had to be very careful writing Raymond's story to ensure I did not create a word maze with no exit. I have to be even more careful writing the sequel, because of occasional references to Raymond's story.

Balzac did that, I'm hoping I have, and will again with two sequels.