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Maria Lynge Johansen Pedersen

Supervisor: Bent Sørensen

Master Thesis

2 June 2021

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Abstract

In this thesis, I examine how authors Weis and Hickman approach transtextuality

and possible worlds narrative in order to comment on the genre of fantasy and on 1990s

American social anxieties in their fantasy dystopian series The Death Gate Cycle. It is a

close reading genre study of all seven novels in the aforementioned series which I

analyze using Gérard Genette’s theory of transtextuality and Marie-Laure Ryan’s theory

of possible worlds. I analyze how hypertextuality and intertextuality are present in the

solidify my analysis on these points. Finally, I briefly comment on the reception that the

series has had on its readers to close up the examination of the reader effects of said use

of intertextuality and dystopian elements.

On the hypertextual level, The Death Gate Cycle parodies Tolkien’s work by

writing the series on the pretense that it is a scholarly document. Writing the series like

this also enhances reader immersion as it works with the pretense that this nonactual

world functions as its own actual world. Further, on the intertextual level, The Death

Gate Cycle references many pop culture phenomena through the character of Zifnab.

References to Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the Dungeons & Dragons

tabletop roleplaying game, Star Trek, Star Wars, James Bond, and the Dragonlance

is a way of commenting on the issue of superior versus inferior races, even alluding to

language that is drawing allusions to the idea of the Übermensch that was adopted into

Nazi ideology. Another dystopian social commentary narrative is the fact that the world

of The Death Gate Cycle, back when it was still the Earth, was changed by a nuclear

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holocaust. Additionally, global warming social commentary rears its head right at the end

of the series, another common trope in dystopian genre media, as well as another modern

anxiety. The world of The Death Gate Cycle has been destroyed many times over,

resulting in dystopia after dystopia until the point in time where the story of the series

begins. The narrative also involves a dystopian social commentary that takes the idea of

industrial indoctrination and takes it to its utmost extreme, in the form of religious

indoctrination. A warning not to worship false gods, and a mocking of industrial and

themselves. These narratives are not so much future predictions as they are social

commentaries on elements of the 1990s current American and Western issues and

tendencies.

The Death Gate Cycle did some extraordinary things with intertextuality and with

a fantastical dystopian possible worlds narrative. It uses these to comment on religion,

racism, slavery, industrialism, unionizing, science, war, and climate change from a 1990s

American point of view. The series also uses these as a genre commentary by subverting

the typical expectations for a Tolkienesque fantasy epic and turning it dystopian. But The

Death Gate Cycle is more a product of its culture, rather than having had any great

influence or impact upon it. It was not the next The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, in

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1. Abstract 2

2. Introduction 5

3. Theory 6

5. Discussion 53

6. Conclusion 64

7. Works Cited 66

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“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it.

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite

useless.” (Wilde 4) Sometimes, you come across a fictional work that leaves a lasting

effect on you, and you want to examine and discuss why that is. And sometimes, said

object of your attention remains in obscurity—so I cannot justify the writing of this study

on the basis of said work’s popularity or overall cultural significance. In fact, it seems to

Elven Star, Fire Sea, Serpent Mage, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The

Seventh Gate are the seven novels that make up the series, in that order. For those who

are unfamiliar: It is an epic fantasy dystopian story that follows a split Earth, divided into

a number of new worlds in an effort to rebuild it after it was ravaged by a nuclear

holocaust. The race that destroyed and rebuilt the world are called the Sartan, and the

event was dubbed “the Sundering.” The Sartan split it up into four realms based on the

four basic elements: the worlds of water, air, fire, and stone. They also created a fifth

world, The Labyrinth, in which to imprison their enemies, a race called the Patryns.

These five distinct fantasy worlds are the stage of this play, in which many characters

take part. Of these characters are the Mensch races, as they are called by the Sartans and

in hand strengthens the overall narrative, ideologies, and themes of The Death Gate Cycle

in an extraordinary manner. Firstly, the authors of The Death Gate Cycle make references

to other texts in the form of intertextuality and hypertextuality, which is both commenting

on the fantasy and dystopian genre while simultaneously working in duality with the

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authors’ social commentary. Which brings me to my second point of analysis: The way in

which the authors of The Death Gate Cycle have created a fictional future in order to

comment on the present day at the time of writing. These two, that being the intertextual

references and the possible worlds commentary, support each other in such a way that my

cultural text study needs the combined frameworks and philosophies of both Gérard

Genette’s transtextual theories and Marie-Laure Ryan’s theories of possible worlds.

I shall then further study this series’ epitext, such as interviews with the authors,

proof of my intertextual and hypertextual arguments, as well as a springboard into a

supporting analysis of the contexts of this series’ narratives—especially concerning

religion, hypertextuality, and intertextuality.

After which I will very briefly touch on the reader effects of the aspects of the

series that I have analyzed so far, such as the genre history and the intertextual references

of The Death Gate Cycle. For this, I have selected excerpts from a few community

reviews by readers on Goodreads to represent some of the tendencies found in the

readers' receptions.

The Death Gate Cycle comments on many modern anxieties such as

industrialization, class struggles, racism, fascism, slavery, religion, nuclear war, and

Transtextuality

I will be analyzing The Death Gate Cycle using translations of French theorist Gérard

Genette’s intertextual works, The Architext: An Introduction, Palimpsests: Literature in

the Second Degree, and “Introduction to the Paratext.” They are more colloquially known

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as The Architext, Palimpsests, and Paratexts. But first, I will briefly recount the history of

the term “intertextuality.”

Transtextuality incorporates intertextuality under its umbrella, but it also

encompasses so much more than just intertextuality, which is the reason it is the main

theory of choice for this particular thesis. Still, transtextuality has its roots in the history

of intertextuality. The core philosophy of intertextuality is commonly described as the

idea that all texts are connected to each other. We can prove this by finding the

intertextuality typically reference the same canon of intertextual theorists, who together

make up the philosophy of intertextuality: Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes, with the

help of Ferdinand de Saussure and Mikhail Bakhtin. (Allen 8-60, Bruce “Intertextuality”,

Cavanagh et al. 716, Friis 143-145, Klages 44, Orr 6)

Firstly, Saussure is credited as the forefather of linguistic theory, as he is the

originator of the idea of semiology, also known as the study of signs. (Allen 8-9)

Semiology birthed the idea that communication happens within a system of signs, and

that the meanings of our chosen words comes from this system of language, not from

within ourselves. We are simply birthed into this pre-existing system from which we

choose our words and meanings. (ibid. 9) “Signs […] only possess what meaning they do

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Bakhtin introduced the idea that “the word in language is half someone else’s. It becomes

one’s “own” only when the speaker populates it with his own intentions, his own accent,

when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention.”

(Bakhtin 328) It is Allen’s opinion that both Saussure and Bakhtin have influenced Julia

Kristeva in her invention of the term “intertextuality.” This is because these ideas already

blend and clash” (Allen 13, Barthes 52). He articulates this idea in his oft-referenced

essay “The Death of the Author.” The concept of intertextuality does indeed present the

author as unoriginal, as one who can only imitate and mix writings. Theorists have since

considered Barthes’ view of language an intertextual one. (Allen 14) The goal of Barthes’

essay was to argue that authorial intent and biographical context will result in a limited

analysis of a text, and that time had come for the reader to kill the author and connect the

duplicitous meanings of the text—that the text’s meaning is not found in its production,

but in its reception. (Barthes 53-54) Allen argues, as mentioned, that the theory of

intertextuality follows this idea of the text. Bakhtin’s work, however, centers on the use

of language in social situations, whereas Kristeva’s work is more focused on rather more

both the author, reader, and analyst in a continual process. The text can then go through

many ongoing transformations and may never stop being processed. (ibid.)

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meaning in the text itself and a meaning in what she calls ‘the historical and social text’.”

(ibid. 37)

Kristeva’s intertextual theory also centers around the idea of the ideologeme, that

is, the presence of social conflicts and tensions within the texts. This can be the whole

text itself or it can be specific words or parts of the text which are the subject of this on-

going cultural and social process of meaning-making. Words like “natural”, which we are

still to this day conflicted about the meaning of, present an ideologeme. (Allen 36-37)

Basically, an ideologeme takes readers outside the text to the ideological representations

of an idea. It makes it impossible for the reader to remain inside the novel. And it will

usually be part of a discourse in society or culture that the author did not invent. So, the

term of transtextuality, Genette has formulated a list of five terms with which you may

conduct a structural transtextual analysis: intertextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality,

hypertextuality, and architextuality. Before I describe them in more detail, note that all of

them can be understood simultaneously as aspects of any textuality and as textual

that the text is a negotiation between its creators and the institutions and practices of

society.

I also believe there to be a lot of other types of evidence of a connection from the

text to the historical context that its creators lived through. Other than the epitext, the text

itself directly indicates nonfictional phenomena, such as historical events, issues, topics,

or ideas that were present or known of at the time of writing. In which case, it is fairly

easy to prove—or to assume—that the creators must have known about said context. The

unquestionable connections between text and context. Or, at least, not enough evidence to

prove whether the creators intended said connections. The thing is, in order for a new

historicist analysis to work, I ideally ought to be able to prove that the creators knew of

the historical contexts I am claiming must be the context that the text is negotiating.

There will be examples of this in the analysis, where I make a connection to a historical

event, group, or idea based on my analysis of the text, which neither Weis nor Hickman

have yet admitted having known of as they wrote the series. Hence, why this analysis is

only inspired by new historicism, not truly new historicist.

Analysis

Intertextuality Analysis Begins

now, I shall establish that The Death Gate Cycle is filled with hypertextual and

intertextual references to popular fantasy media—as well as briefly touch on how that

affects the reader.

Architextuality: Fantasy

The Death Gate Cycle is loaded with hypertextual and intertextual references to popular

fantasy media, such as Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, the

Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying franchise, including the associated

Dragonlance series. The purpose of these for the overall narrative may not be

immediately clear, but the parodying and references do serve many purposes,

architextually, narratively, and thematically.

Much like The Lord of the Rings, The Death Gate Cycle is written as if it is a

same idea is true for Weis and Hickman’s fantasy dystopian series: The Death Gate Cycle

is also an epic fantasy story whose world is that of the earth that we know, but in an

imagined period of history. I shall further prove that this is likely an intended

hypertextual parody of Tolkien later on in my analysis, under the heading of Epitext, but

the fact of the matter currently is what I said in the opening statement: The Death Gate

Cycle is written as if it is a scholarly document, much like the pioneering fantasy trilogy

by Tolkien.

The Death Gate Cycle has many footnotes much like a scholarly document would,

such as on page 8 of Dragon Wing: “

2

The barl is the main standard of exchange in both

elven and human lands. It is measured in the traditional barrel of water. An equivalent

the Rings, serve the purpose of further fleshing out the lore and details of the world in a

way that fits the narrative of these books that are pretending to be “scholarly documents.”

Another purpose for mimicking scholarly footnotes like this is to create a narrative of

credibility for the story. This should, ideally, affect and heighten reader immersion.

Every book in the series, save for the last two books (Into the Labyrinth and The

Seventh Gate), also feature maps of the world, its kingdoms, and prominent vehicles. The

Lord of the Rings also features a map of Middle-earth (Tolkien The Fellowship of the

Ring 409). Every book in The Death Gate Cycle, bar none, features musical scores of the

featured songs in the appendices after the epilogue has concluded. Tolkien’s work often

featured songs, and characters were wont to break out into singing often. And all of the

books in The Death Gate Cycle, as mentioned, feature appendices. Page 418 to 430 of

Gate likewise has two appendices. (Weis and Hickman) Once more, The Lord of the

Rings also contain appendices, such as the aforementioned prologue “Concerning

Hobbits” (Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring 1). Again, the purpose of these is to flesh

out the fantasy world—not outside the narrative but inside the narrative, yet still in a way

that is paratextual. This communicates to readers that the parts of the nonactual world

that they are privy to through the storytelling is only a small part of a bigger nonactual

world, which aids the reader in pretending that this world is its own actual world, despite

being a work of fiction. It also communicates the genre very clearly, it being a Tolkien-

like fantasy epic.

These appendices invite the reader to suspend their disbelief. They are written by

Tolkien’s fantasy trilogy, which I will bring up again later. For now, I cannot prove that

this hypertextual relation is anything other than a random similarity I, as the analyst, has

found. In fact, for now all I have really proven is that it is a hypertextual imitation of the

epic fantasy subgenre rather than a parody of Tolkien specifically. I will need more

evidence for that, such as intertextual references to Tolkien’s work and author interviews

with Weis or Hickman (see analysis chapter named Epitext). Indeed, I can provide both,

once of which I can provide immediately.

There are many other hints in The Death Gate Cycle to the fantasy genre in

general, though they are more intertextual than they are hypertextual in nature: The

character of Zifnab makes many pop-culture references to other fantasy media, such as

mentions of Gandalf and Smaug from the aforementioned Tolkien works. First, Gandalf.

The first line, spoken by Zifnab, is a direct quotation of Gandalf from The Fellowship of

the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien: “Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle

and quick to anger.” (Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring 84) Besides, Gandalf’s name is

jokingly only partially spelled out as “Gand-something or other…” (Weis and Hickman

Elven Star 114) as an allusion. Not to mention, him knowing “a lot about jewelry” (Weis

and Hickman Elven Star 114) is another allusion to the One Ring, and Gandalf had made

a firework show for Bilbo’s 111

th

birthday (Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring “A Long

Expected Party”), hence why Zifnab says Gandalf was “not bad at fireworks, either.”

(Weis and Hickman Elven Star 114) The crazed wizard character of Zifnab makes many

between this series and Tolkien’s work, as was mentioned before. Readers who go into

reading The Death Gate Cycle with intertextual foreknowledge of The Hobbit and The

Lord of the Rings will recognize the references and likely appreciate the parody.

Other intertextual references to popular fantasy works made by the mad wizard

Zifnab also include magic spells from the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying

game. Zifnab often tries to remember the spell “Fireball” from Dungeons & Dragons.

First, he misremembers the name of the spell as “Fire bell,” “tire sale,” “Eight ball,” and

“Fire… extinguisher!” (ibid.) Here, you may be excused for not immediately

understanding the reference, since it appears in the form of allusion. Next, he makes a

direct quotation to the spell as it is described in the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s

Handbook, when he mentions the need for a “ball of bat guano and a pinch of sulfur”

(ibid.): The spell “Fireball” in the game of Dungeons & Dragons requires a material

component consisting of “a tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur” (Mearls and Crawford 241).

There is a reason Weis and Hickman make references to Dungeons & Dragons other than

Again, as with the previous intertextual reference, this allusion is only understandable to

readers who have a preexisting knowledge of the tabletop roleplaying game of Dungeons

& Dragons. I can practically hear the Dungeons & Dragons fans applauding; Because I

am one, and I am doing that. But to stay within the realm of textuality, and to provide

evidentiary support: “hit points” is a concept used in the game:

seen in “Chapter 3: Classes” (Mearls and Crawford 45). Although Dungeons & Dragons

uses a rulebook that I was able to connect the reference to, this type of reference is

slightly more of a gaming reference than a literary one. In conclusion, the Dungeons &

Dragons references are in abundance, and establishes an intertextual connection between

this series and the popular tabletop roleplaying game—this will also be relevant later on

in the section called Epitext.

The authors of The Death Gate Cycle furthermore make a few references to

characters and phenomena from their previous fantasy series, Dragonlance. When asked

for his name, Zifnab first says “Fiz—No, I can’t use that.” (Weis and Hickman Elven Star

69) This is a reference to a character by the name of Fizban from Margaret Weis and

even if that work was officially set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, and therefore

the intellectual property belongs to TSR, Inc.. It is a reference that, jokingly, highlights

the legal issues of writing as a profession.

Zifnab makes other references to Dragonlance as well, in that bit where he

mentions Gandalf and Merlin:

references on purpose, since they authored the first six novels in the Dragonlance novel

series. It is yet another intertextual reference to the greater textuality of fantasy media, as

well as being a “self-reference,” so to speak.

So, The Death Gate Cycle is loaded with hypertextual and intertextual references

to other popular fantasy media, such as Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings,

the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, and the Dragonlance series, but for

what purpose? Well, it serves as a cheeky genre commentary for the more seasoned

fantasy readers, who carry their share of intertextual knowledge of the genre—and of

Weis and Hickman’s previous work. Of course, the novel series can still be read and

understood without having read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, and

subgenre of a scholarly document enhances reader immersion and credibility, which aids

the suggestion that this nonactual world pretends to be its own actual world, which I shall

further discuss later.

Architextuality: Dystopia

The Intertextual Analysis continues here until I move into the Possible Worlds

Analysis, and the dystopian genre commentary continues into that. We stay with the

character of Zifnab a little while longer, as he weaves together both of these parts of the

analysis rather well on his own in the narrative of The Death Gate Cycle. This is the

chapter where I slowly move from a structural analysis of Zifnab’s intertextual references

and into an interpretation of the purpose as to why Zifnab makes these references in the

first place. Once I get further into the possible worlds analysis, we will be leaving behind

Star Trek.

“Apollo” and “Gemini” are the names of real NASA spacecrafts (Loff “Apollo”, “Gemini

– Bridge to the Moon”), but the “Enterprise” and “Millenium Falcon” are the names of

fictional spacefaring vessels from the aforementioned Star Trek and Star Wars. Zifnab

later shows up to save the day on dragon back, pretending to be Luke Skywalker from

Star Wars:

These references are intertextual in the sense that they refer to a greater textuality found

outside the world of books—though, of course, I could also find any number of novels

and comic books that are based off of the originally small screen series Star Trek and

originally big screen series Star Wars. The point is that this is still intertextual, but it

refers to the second genre that The Death Gate Cycle occupies, the science fiction and

dystopian genre.

Furthermore, Zifnab often references James Bond, also known as double-o-seven

(007), the fictional British Secret Service agent.

“You!” He scowled.

“Who?” The old man brightened.

“Zifnab!” Xar spat the name.

Labyrinth. He also makes one final Bond reference in The Seventh Gate, while magically

disguised as James Bond to hide his real identity (65). One of these James Bond

references, specifically on page 275 of Into the Labyrinth, happens right after a big

emotional moment, where he reveals his backstory and how he came to lose his sanity.

This moment, where Zifnab’s backstory is revealed, is dystopian.

Intertextuality Analysis Ends

Zifnab not only mentions fantasy media but science fiction media in general as well, such

as Star Trek and Star Wars. He also mentions James Bond fairly often; one memorable

instance actually being interwoven with one of his more plot-relevant and tragic

moments, where Zifnab reveals his backstory to the reader—which I shall discuss very

just made as an in-joke between the authors and reader. I wish to further elaborate upon

the purpose and use of intertextual references in The Death Gate Cycle in the following

chapter of analysis, the Possible Worlds Analysis. However, this is where the

hypertextuality and intertextuality analysis ends, and the Possible Worlds Analysis

Begins—though we will be staying within the realm of the dystopian genre history and

architextuality commentary. The beginning of the Possible Worlds Analysis shall

elaborate on my interpretation of why these intertextual references matter so much to the

narrative and themes of The Death Gate Cycle, not only on an architextual level but as an

addition to the social commentary aspect of the series.

Possible Worlds Analysis Begins

The Possible Worlds Analysis is where the analysis truly delves into the why of all of

Architextuality: Dystopia chapter. After which we will focus more specifically on the

social commentary of the Kicksey-winsey, Racism, and Religion in The Death Gate

Cycle. Many ideologemes will here present themselves.

Zifnab uses references to other texts because his character remembers what the

world looked like before it was destroyed and reshaped, in other words, before it was

“Sundered.” Excuse me for inserting such a lengthy quote in my close-reading analysis,

but this whole scene is quintessential to Zifnab’s narrative role in the story:

dangled a long, pronged tail”—on which, “A bulbous ball affixed on top of the stick

hissed and sputtered alarmingly for an instant, then sullenly began to flow with a bluish-

white light.” (Weis and Hickman Dragon Wing 71-72) As mentioned, this is a description

of a lamp that details all the properties of a lamp from the actual world without actually

calling it by its name—were it intertextual, it would be an allusion. It is a part of the

possible world proposal; In the world of the story, this lamp is used in a religious ritual,

but it also serves the purpose of subtly alerting readers to the theoretical fiction and

slaves to a machine known as the “Kicksey-winsey”:

nose for actual world parallels. And this is a theoretical fiction that looks at some sort of

industrial indoctrination which effectively makes the dwarves of this world into willing

ignorant slaves.

The narrative of the Gegs (dwarves) who work on the Kicksey-winsey machine is

a slavery narrative. The dwarf character Limbeck, one of the series’ protagonists, is

attempting to liberate them all from their indoctrinated servitude to the machine.

This is all reminiscent of the history of African American slaves who made many

unsuccessful attempts to free themselves before slavery was abolished (Vendelbo 20).

The language Limbeck uses here is also reminiscent of the racist rhetoric that has been

used against real life slaves in the history of the actual world, that is, the rhetoric that

black people are hierarchically “lesser” than white people. This is further illustrated in

how the elves view the Gegs, the dwarves who they have tricked and indoctrinated into

serving the Kicksey-winsey: “The elves cared nothing about the Gegs. Humans were

beasts. The Gegs were insects.” (Weis and Hickman Dragon Wing 288) Again, racist

winsey’s birthplace, but it was in the Factree that the Gegs’ most hallowed icon was

located” (Weis and Hickman Dragon Wing 70). The word for this “holy place” is the

word “factory,” only written more phonetically as “Factree.” There is a narrative

amalgamation of industry and religion here, one that criticizes both of those individually

and mutually: It is a criticism of industrial indoctrination which turns workers into slaves

and a criticism of religious indoctrination which profits off of justifying said slavery. It is

a dystopian social commentary that takes the idea of industrial indoctrination and takes it

to its utmost extreme, which is a form of religious indoctrination. The narrative here is

clearly against religion and industry taken to such an extreme, perhaps due to working

class anxieties in our actual world post-industrialization society. Especially in America,

where unionizing is, to this day, heavily and illegally discouraged by major corporations:

Thus, the narrative ideologeme of Limbeck forming his own union and fighting for truth

and equality for all.

Inside this factory, or “Factree”, they worship a statue of their gods, who are

who know exactly what this social commentary and dystopian narrative is trying to tell

them by mocking industrial power structures like this.

Furthermore, building onto this religious aspect of slavery and industrial

indoctrination, only religious leaders can and are allowed to read the religious texts, and

building further upon the capitalist aspect of this religious slavery indoctrination scheme,

the religious text is called the “Struction Manal” (Weis and Hickman Dragon Wing 74).

Many religions are based on religious texts; The Bible, for example, used to be written

exclusively in Latin, a dead language which also used to be exclusively taught to priests

only, because the Catholic Church forbade the populace from reading The Bible by

themselves. This was before it was translated into other languages for wider accessibility.

(Starr “Why Christians Were Denied Access To Their Bible For 1,000 Years”) In

with the idea of an instruction manual.

Electricity and light are also seen as divine in this dwarven society, and they pray

to their gods, the “Mangers,” before they insert plugs into outlets. (Weis and Hickman

Dragon Wing 70-72) Weis and Hickman decided to do this with something that we, as

readers from the actual world, would know as a phenomenon that can be explained by

science. This is narratively used as an example of something the enslaved and unwillingly

ignorant dwarves see as a divine thing. Of course, we know the lights in the “Factree”

would still work even if the dwarves did not pray to the gods before they plugged it in.

The dwarves do not.

And, finally, to top off this combination of slavery, industry, and religion, the

also a word that is reminiscent of the word for “clergy,” and inserting it into this social

commentary narrative of slavery, industry, and religion.

On the topic of the “froman” and the “head clark,” these two characters actually

have a very telling conversation which I believe is an excellent example of what Weis

and Hickman believe to be the core issue in industrial and religious indoctrination and

slavery overall. It is a private conversation between these two leaders who are discussing

the validity of Limbeck’s claims that the dwarves are being lied to by their slavers, the

elves who pretend to be gods in order to use the dwarves:

I truly believe the statement, “We wouldn’t be punishing him for being right, we’d be

punishing him for spreading it around” (ibid.), is the most succinct quote to illustrate the

main ideology of Weis and Hickman’s social commentary on American industrial and

religious indoctrination. And, clearly, Weis and Hickman are right to fear that, in a

dystopian world, should these be taken to their extremes, the result will be another form

of slavery. American employers sabotaging workers’ attempts at unionizing is, in this

indoctrination for the benefit of dwarves higher on the social ladder, such as leaders and

religious leaders, and for the benefit of the elves, who take advantage of the water supply

that is produced by the machine and the labors of the dwarves. The narrative of Limbeck

forming his own union in order to combat the indoctrination of the enslaved dwarves and

fight for truth and freedom is very reminiscent of the issues that American workers face

by trying to organize and unionize. American employers today sadly still use intimidation

tactics to discourage American workers from unionizing (Lafer and Loustanau “Fear at

work: An inside account of how employers threaten, intimidate, and harass workers to

stop them from exercising their right to collective bargaining”, McNicholas et al.

“Unlawful: U.S. employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5% of all union

election campaigns”), and it is that kind of employer intimidation which The Death Gate

what topics they tackle in The Death Gate Cycle, always retain a distinctively American

viewpoint. More on that in the following.

Racism. Fantasy racism is further used in The Death Gate Cycle to create a theoretical

fiction version of racism that highlights discussions of race from our world. By which I

mean, there are other examples outside the one I just mentioned in the subchapter on the

Kicksey-winsey. Allow me to elaborate.

First, there are a few instances where the fantasy racism in The Death Gate Cycle

mirrors the discourse of the Civil Rights Movement of America. The most glaring

example is when the dwarf Limbeck, leader of the rebel group that fights against the

aforementioned slavery, who forbids the use of the word “Geg” to describe dwarves. The

This, as I said, is reminiscent of the way the American Civil Rights Movement shifted

from using the word “negroes” to the word “black” to the phrase “African American” to

refer to themselves. It signaled a new form of racial awareness that has since stayed in

use (Ringgaard “Hvorfor må man ikke sige neger?”, Martin “From Negro to Black to

African American: The Power of Names and Naming”). The narrative of an oppressed,

For the record, Weis and Hickman are both white, so that is likely affecting their

perspective on how to write a narrative like this; Their stance is that the dwarves are right

to seek mutual respect and liberation, but not through violence (see the above quote).

This stance is reminiscent of some people’s more moderate opinions on movements like

the Black Panther Party. “Like Malcolm X, the Black Panthers believed that nonviolent

protests could not truly liberate black Americans or give them power over their own

lives.” (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture “The

Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change”) The Black

Panther Party has protested against police brutality since its founding in 1966. Evidently,

Weis and Hickman are opposed to this style of protest, much like other white Americans

the second world, the world of fire—a different world from this multiple world narrative,

in Elven Star.

world, and this fantasy version of it is likely more specifically influenced by American

and Western histories of slavery. I say this because no matter if it is the dwarves who are

enslaved or if it the humans who are enslaved, it is always the type of slavery that is

based on race, not the type of slavery where a people of the same race or ethnicity

enslave each other. This American Westernized view of racism centers on the issue of

slavery rather than other sources of racism, such as immigration.

The fantasy racism in The Death Gate Cycle definitely mirrors the discourse

surrounding the American Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther movement.

Weis and Hickman’s ideology on said discourses are very evident in the writing of the

narrative in The Death Gate Cycle: They believe in freedom and equality and that it

forms on many of the possible worlds in the series. It is intimately tied to Weis and

Hickman’s own religious beliefs.

The villains—that is, the main villains, of the Sartan and Patryn races—of the

overarching story of The Death Gate Cycle do not believe in God and, in fact, believe

themselves to be gods, which the narrative admonishes them for.

Alfred also begins to believe in a God, and in the ending of the final book of the series,

The Seventh Gate, his and Zifnab’s thoughts on God mirrors Tracy Hickman’s own

beliefs on the matter—which I will elaborate on further in the analysis chapter Epitext.

All the other characters mentioned in this scene are also on the heroes’ side, Haplo being

another of the main protagonists of the series. The core belief here is that God, with a

capital G, is inside all of us, according to The Death Gate Cycle.

Weis and Hickman especially wish to make a statement on the idea of life and

death. For example, with the character of Hugh, who is indoctrinated into a death cult

known as the Kir monks in The Death Gate Cycle.

healing be forgiven you. Pray for death—” (Weis and Hickman Dragon

Wing 38)

Kir monks do not laugh. They see nothing funny in life (ibid. 185).

I also know that Hickman has mentioned Tolkien’s Middle-earth directly before. (Weis

and Hickman Dragonlance: The Annotated Legends 458) As was mentioned in the

chapter on Architextuality: Fantasy, The Death Gate Cycle is written as if it is a

scholarly document, and so is Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring and other such works

in that franchise. Though, the many intertextual references to Gandalf and to Smaug that

connection between The Lord of the Rings and The Death Gate Cycle. Had they, my

proposal would just have been a fact and not an interpretation. For now, I only propose—

albeit strongly—that Weis and Hickman have found themselves inspired—though

perhaps not consciously—by Tolkien’s famous work. Admittedly, Weis did not mention

any direct attempts to parody Tolkien’s work when she was asked how the classics

influenced her writing style.

On that note, I would like to briefly touch on the point of hypertextuality in regard

to that same interview with Margaret Weis, seeing as, as mentioned, Weis did most of the

writing while Hickman did the background work:

This is a direct admittance of Weis’ attempts at hypertextuality in her writing. I did not

Gate Cycle are memorable, there is a definite blend of tension and humor where you will

read Haplo’s secret undercover mission in one chapter and in the next chapter you read

Zifnab’s seemingly incompetent bumbling around, and the female characters have their

own distinct flaws that make them special and diverse from one another.

My study of the epitext surrounding The Death Gate Cycle has been very

informative. Hickman is very open about his religious beliefs and how he views the

hero’s journey and incorporates it all into his writing. Which explains some of the

biblical references made by Zifnab in the novels. On that note, Zifnab is an archetypal

character that Weis and Hickman like to insert into all of their stories. When asked why

Zifnab makes so many pop-culture references, Hickman replied: “I like to think that

attempted to parody in her own writing—Dickens, Dumas, and Austen—in order to

create her own personal combination of what she considers good writing.

Reception

Finally, I would like to briefly comment on the reader reviews of The Death Gate Cycle

with the intention of further discussing the reader effect concerning these aspects of the

series that I have so far analyzed: the reader effect of the genre discourse (architextuality)

and the intertextual references. I am going to be looking at a few select reader reviews on

Goodreads as representative of the general reader effect of this series.

There is a recurring theme of readers who describe the series as breaking away

from the usual fantasy genre norms in the four- and five-star reviews of Dragon Wing on

to see a dystopian subversion of the fantasy genre.

Zifnab’s first appearance is in the second novel of the series, Elven Star, and the

reviews become a lot more divisive on his character. I looked at different reviews, from

one to five stars. There are readers who absolutely love him:

And there are readers who strongly dislike him:

the things that a reader will consider annoying and the types of things that a reader will

find annoying vary from person to person (Brandon Sanderson ibid.). The reader effect

here is that readers who had previously read and enjoyed the Dragonlance novels were

more likely willing to give authors Weis and Hickman more leeway with the Zifnab

character. And then there are readers, like me, who had not previously read any of

Dragonlance but had read The Lord of the Rings and played Dungeons & Dragons, who

therefore still had the intertextual foreknowledge to find Zifnab funny. The divisiveness

on the character of Zifnab seems to be borne out of individual readers’ foreknowledge of

the fantasy genre and, naturally, individual readers’ personal tastes. Which is not all that

surprising, but I felt it needed to be addressed, as banal as the explanation seems.

like Zifnab who makes constant intertextual and real-world references in your story. The

risk is that to fantasy newcomers, his character will be more likely met with annoyance.

And if you do not already suspect that the world of The Death Gate Cycle is a dystopian

version of our world, you will not be likely to see Zifnab as a nod towards that idea. So, if

you are lacking in intertextual foreknowledge of the fantasy and sci-fi genres and you do

not expect this character’s madness to get a rewarding payoff in the story later on, you

will most likely hate this character and these references. That is a risk that Weis and

Hickman took when they included him. But it is a risk that has paid off for the readers

that do in fact come into the series with the foreknowledge needed to understand Zifnab’s

jokes and references, and for the readers who suspect that the references to our culture

from the actual world may be something of an oblique hint to the dystopian aspect of the

discovered obsession with a fantasy dystopian series of novels that I found sitting on a

dusty bookshelf inside a thrift store. I had been reading a number of frankly difficult and

boring literary books for my university classes, and I was beginning to wonder if I even

enjoyed reading anymore. Maybe cinema, television, social media, and video games truly

were killing the book industry, and maybe elitist academics were just too stubborn to let

it die. Then I read Dragon Wing for the first time, and I rediscovered my love of books.

Dragon Wing had wit, excitement, intrigue, and it had sections that actually made me

laugh out loud for several minutes. It was actually entertaining. I had not even finished

reading the first book before I ordered a shipment of the other six novels in the series.

And so, I made it the object of my study in this, my final paper, my Master Thesis. Here I

series approaches genre history using transtextual references. Now that the analysis has

examined these in relation to The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy

Hickman, it is time to finally discuss the overall findings of my study. What did my

examination of the dystopian and fantastical social commentary in The Death Gate Cycle

find? And what did my analysis of the transtextual references in The Death Gate Cycle

conclude? And how do these two things intersect with each other? First, a brief overview

of my findings, before I get into the finer details of my analysis.

The combination of these twofold research questions has connected the analysis

chapters and the theory application thusly: The Intertextuality Analysis spans over both

an analysis of the architextuality of the fantasy genre references and science fiction genre

references, and the conclusion I came to as to why the intertextuality in The Death Gate

that I felt had very strong connections to the actual world. I found that no matter what

topic Weis and Hickman tackled through the lens of fantasy and dystopian storytelling,

they always retained a uniquely American or Western point of view—and, in some cases,

a uniquely white American point of view. My examination of the Epitext that surrounded

the text also concluded in much the same way that their point of view on these topics also

seems heavily influenced by their religious backgrounds, for instance. And finally, for a

bit of further examination of the reader effect concerning the architextuality of the

combined fantasy and dystopian elements, as well as the reader effect concerning the

intertextual references made by Zifnab, I briefly looked at some reader reviews on

Goodreads. In Reception, I looked at some 5- and 4-star reviews and found that they

On the hypertextual level, The Death Gate Cycle parodies Tolkien’s work by

writing the series on the pretense that it is a scholarly document that details how these

split worlds are connected and later how the worlds are then altered by the events of the

series. It pretends to be a reconstruction of the events based on journals written by the

series’ main characters. Both Weis and Hickman have read Tolkien’s work, further

evidencing that the hypertextual similarity The Death Gate Cycle bears with Tolkien’s

writings are likely intentional, as I mentioned in Epitext. Further, writing the series like

this enhances reader immersion as it works along with the pretense that the reader is

under while reading, which is that this nonactual world functions as its own actual world.

We simply pretend that it is real, according to possible worlds theory. This is linked to

the series’ dystopian nature, as writing the series in the past tense under the pretense that

culture phenomena through the character of Zifnab. References to Tolkien’s The Hobbit

and The Lord of the Rings, the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, and the

Dragonlance series are mentioned in the analysis chapter Architextuality: Fantasy. This

presupposes that the target audience is somewhat familiar with fantasy literature, fantasy

movies, and fantasy gaming—a high risk high reward choice made by the authors, as not

all readers are as amused by these references as others, due to personal tastes but also due

to a lack of devotion to the fantasy genre (see Reception). These fantasy references are

also linked to the series’ dystopian nature. Though they may break the reader immersion

in the first book that Zifnab appears, they are supposed to foreshadow a greater reveal

about the nature of the world of The Death Gate Cycle later on. A payoff that may come

that hurled the world into an Age of Dust which destroyed all science and brought back

magic). The experience of having watched the Earth be destroyed and living on with that

memory for so many years has driven Zifnab mad. In Epitext, I found that, according to

Hickman, the reason Zifnab makes so many references is because he is “well read” in

popular Earth culture from our time—at the time of publication, around the 1990s.

(Hickman “Fizban/Zifnab/Paladine complaints”) In the beginning of my Possible

Worlds Analysis, I discussed how Zifnab makes references to the old world, which to

the reader would be the real world. It is a beautifully complex use of intertextuality that

weaves it together with the series’ greater narrative, worldbuilding, and also with its

themes and social commentaries—while still being a nod to readers who are as well

versed in popular fantasy and science fiction media as Weis and Hickman are. As such,

So, my analysis moved on to the Possible Worlds Analysis of the series, which

mostly used Ryan’s theory of how possible worlds theory relates to how a reader

contextualizes the stories they read by seeing it as a fictional world that is possible but

not actual. The worlds of The Death Gate Cycle have then been analyzed as such: As

narratives that, using fantasy and dystopian genre tropes, comment on American and

Western society at the time of publication. This analysis begins by ending the analysis of

Zifnab’s character and his jokes about the old Earth—that is, that some of his jokes are

not intertextual but simply mentions of real-world events, ideas, and phenomena such as

all-you-can-eat buffets, planes, NASA, breathing exercises, nuclear reactors, bread boxes,

Texas, Berlin 1948, cigarettes, and Jeopardy. These add to the foreshadowing of the

the same word that exists in both English, German, and Yiddish, but is also drawing

allusions to the idea of the Übermensch, the idea of the superior race that was adopted

into Nazi ideology. The next social commentary narrative is the fact that the world of The

Death Gate Cycle, back when it was still the Earth, was changed by a nuclear holocaust.

A very recent anxiety in human history is the fear that came from the invention of the

atom bomb, which science fiction and dystopian fiction is known to comment on. It is

also a fear of science itself, of a science that continually evolves with no thought or care

as to the consequences. Additionally, global warming social commentary rears its head

right at the end of the seven-novel series with the concept of “Kicksey-warming.”

Another common trope in science fiction and dystopian genre media, as well as another

very recent anxiety that humanity is still faced with. The world of The Death Gate Cycle

and Western society’s anxieties.

The Possible Worlds Analysis moves on to further discuss the narrative

surrounding the Kicksey-winsey and the dwarven oppression surrounding it. The text

alludes to the actual world by having objects from our world, such as lamps, described as

they would be in the world of The Death Gate Cycle. Descriptions like that prime the

reader to the possible world aspect of the narrative. Readers will begin to ask themselves

what relationship this world has with the actual world. The narrative of the Gegs

(dwarves) who work on the Kicksey-winsey machine is a slavery narrative. The language

used is reminiscent of the racist and religious rhetoric that has been used against slaves in

the history of the actual world. It is also a dystopian social commentary that takes the

industrial and religious power structures in this narrative of unionizing against slavery

and oppression. The same narrative also warns against educational oppression because

this is the type of power structure that profits off of withholding education and language

from a group of people. “We wouldn’t be punishing him for being right, we’d be

theories of analysis as well as in the value of The Death Gate Cycle as a byproduct of its

culture.

I recommend following studies to remember the purpose of intertextual references

in narratives such as this: To what ends do they serve? Are they an in-joke for fans who

have the intertextual foreknowledge, and do they serve to foreshadow the overall

narrative of the story, just as they did in The Death Gate Cycle? I also recommend

following studies to remember that architextual discourse on genre is only possible with

way to organize the human experience. (Ryan 647)

Conclusion

The goal of my analysis of The Death Gate Cycle was twofold: To examine the

“future”—and therefore the “now”—that the novels are commenting upon, and to

examine how this series approaches genre history using transtextual references. I have

therefore made a genre study of The Death Gate Cycle with a combination of Gérard

Genette’s transtextual theory and Marie-Laure Ryan’s possible worlds theory in my

analysis. Firstly, the authors make references to other texts in the form of intertextuality

and hypertextuality, which is both commenting on the fantasy and dystopian genre while

simultaneously working in duality with the authors’ social commentary. Secondly, the

Possible Worlds Analysis began in the middle of the chapter on the analysis of the

dystopian nature of the novel series. Here, I examined and discussed various topics of

social commentary that are brought up in the series as a whole, though mostly the ones

that I felt had very strong connections to the actual world. I found that no matter what

topic Weis and Hickman tackled through the lens of fantasy and dystopian storytelling,

they always retained a uniquely American or Western point of view—and, in some cases,

a uniquely white American point of view. Additionally, I studied the epitext surrounding

the series, such as author interviews, as further proof of my intertextual and hypertextual

arguments, as well as a supporting analysis of the contexts of this series’ narratives. My

examination of the epitext that surrounded the text also concluded in much the same way:

The authors’ point of view on these topics also seems heavily influenced by their

4-star reviews and found that they tended to favor the subversion of fantasy genre

conventions with the inclusion of dystopian worldbuilding. I also looked at reviews

ranging from 1 to 5 stars with regards to Zifnab’s first appearance in the series, which

affected readers in two divisive ways; it was either love or hate, high praise or

annoyance. See my Discussion for a more in-depth summary of the results and

implications of the findings of my analysis—as well as how my study connects to related

genre studies.

So, what is the main conclusion of my study, now that I have thoroughly

examined the “future”—and therefore the “now”—that the novels are commenting upon,

and how this series approaches genre history using transtextual references? The Death

quoted Oscar Wilde in my introduction to this study: “We can forgive a man for making a

useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing

is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.” (Wilde 4) I chose this quote

because The Death Gate Cycle is more a product of its culture, rather than having had

any great influence or impact upon it. It was not the next The Lord of the Rings or Harry

Potter, in that it did not change public perception of fantasy literature in any way. It is

considered by fans to be an underrated fantasy series—an obscure 1990s gem in an

oversaturated market that pumps out fantasy series after fantasy series. It was not The

Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter; It was The Death Gate Cycle. And I admire it

intensely for what it is.

I must pause here for cheering.

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