Who Is John Twelve Hawks?
John Twelve Hawks, a pseudonymous author of fiction, has quite a following behind his mysterious, novel-creating persona, resulting in not only “The Fourth Realm” trilogy of cyberpunk-meets-near-future-dystopia but also their upcoming film adaptations. While JXIIH has been the subject of much controversy since his written-word debut, the scrutiny has increased substantially with the involvement of Hollywood: who is John Twelve Hawks?
The trilogy starts out rather slow and dull, in The Traveler, but picks up halfway through the novel, and its subsequent sequels have a much smoother, more coherent writing style. Essentially, the series follows two brothers that have latent abilities to metaphysically travel into other dimensions and influence the real world upon their return, much to the chagrin of a secret cabal of “businessmen” who want to not only run the world, but control what its people do, think, read, and say. A comparison can be made to Orwell’s 1984, but only in the loosest sense: “The Fourth Realm” is a dystopian near-future, yes, but it’s far more Jason Bourne than it is Orwell’s Animal Farm or Stross’ Glasshouse – thanks in no small part to the violently protective individuals that wish to bring down the secret cabal.
While the books themselves are interesting, it’s far more intriguing to consider who the author really is – the subject of some debate. Voice changers, untraceable cellphones, stand-in representatives, and text-only interviews point to someone that has something to hide, and not necessarily that they truly live “off the grid”. Many have speculated that JXIIH might be Stephen King or others, but a new author should be considered as the creator of these works: Orson Scott Card.
Beyond the similarity of the three-part name, there are other striking coincidences: all of OSC’s science fiction novels have to do with living on/off/around a hyperlinked environment that’s often referenced to as a grid; “The Fourth Realm” is eerily similar to OSC’s well-known laidback, informative, and punchy style; there are religious under-/overtones in JXIIH’s novels that are addressed in the toe-the-line fashion that OSC uses inside the Enderverse and novels like Invasive Procedures; the list of comparisons goes on at considerable length. Why, however, would someone such as Orson Scott Card would write under a pseudonym?
OSC has a precarious literary reputation that straddles the difference between genius and crazy, with the Enderverse and “Alvin Maker” series existing as some of the most beloved science fiction novels in modern history, while his less-than-perfect one-off novels, political rants, and fundamentalist religious views swing the pendulum the other way. Perhaps he wanted to experiment with new subject matter in a slightly different style (modern-day borderline-cyberpunk instead of near-future science fiction) without worrying about his name boosting sales or credibility, or, at worst, bringing a set of bad marks to his bibliography. Interestingly enough, despite being a prolific writer, OSC’s recent novel releases have been strangely absent during the time period that “The Fourth Realm” has been produced.
Even if Orson Scott Card is not the author behind John Twelve Hawks, once fact is exceedingly clear: the individual writing these novels is not someone that lives “off the grid”, but instead seems to be right in the middle of it. The rampant use of technology both within the books and the methods used to publish them suggests a sharp intellect and an in-the-know modern sensibility that can’t be found out in the unconnected wilderness. Eventually, the pseudonym will be broken and the world will be able to see who is truly responsible for such an intriguing set of works – the sooner, the better.
Kyle can be found on his blog, on Facebook, via email, or on Twitter.
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[...] piece adheres to the Code of Ethics subscribe to Self posts: rss – email New column on Technotainment Revelations at True/Slant: John Twelve Hawks, a pseudonymous author of fiction, has quite a following behind his mysterious, [...]
Orson Scott Card is 58 now, and I can tell you first hand the older you get the less one cares what others think of them, especially if it’s off base, I don’t know why he would want to do that. Fascinating post Kyle, sharp mind!
Fair enough – I didn’t consider his age.
Although Stephen King is older too, and he’s considered a possibility.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »I’m going to have to disagree. I have a strange fascination with OSC, mostly due to the oddity of seeing a smart man and writer of one of the classics of my childhood go off on rants, and one of the things he’ll occasionally rant about is Cyberpunk.
To summarize (you can get a better picture by searching the man’s website), he feels that Cyberpunk got started as a mildly interesting literary experiment in the eighties, but then got blown all out of proportion as it was hailed as the savior of the financially dying Science Fiction genre. This in turn exposed a lot of the inherent flaws in the sub-genre, such as unsympathetic protagonists and a tendency towards poserism.
Overall, I highly doubt OSC wrote anything that could really be called cyberpunk.
I’m a big fan of OSC myself, at least for his rational scifi, but I didn’t know he was so anti-cyberpunk.
Good catch!
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »I didn’t know his views were anti- cyber either, but now that changes this mystery puzzle, that could be a motive for him to pen name in the genre indeed!
In response to another comment. See in context »I don’t much care if OSC wrote “The Fourth Realm” or not, but if it’s as lame as “Empire”, I don’t want to read it. (I could outlive Methuslah Long and Prince Corwin combined, and never understand how “Xenocide” walked off with a Nebula.)
Well, I’m not a fan of OSC’s Ender-gets-older series of books, since they’re kind of slowpaced and, for the most part, boringly detailed, but I haven’t read Empire yet.
I did read Invasive Procedures, a one-off technothriller set in the near-future, and it was fantastic – I suggest you take a look at it. I do, however, agree that it’s a crapshoot for his books that aren’t Enderverse-oriented.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »Thanks for the tip- I’ll add it to the mental post-it note that “The Fourth Realm” is on. Mostly, though, I’m waiting for whatever is is that Gene Wolfe does next.
In response to another comment. See in context »I’ll have to check out Gene Wolfe myself!
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »Look for the tetrology “The Book of the New Sun”, or, if you can find it, the short story anthology “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories” (yes, that is the correct title.)
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] – email “The Dark River” by John Twelve Hawks (2007) – 4/5 stars As a sequel to JXIIH’s first pseudonymous novel, The Traveler, The Dark River is the second in “The Fourth Realm” [...]
[...] Who Is John Twelve Hawks? (trueslant.com) [...]
Speculating as to J12H’s identity certainly is an good way to whittle away some time, but one needs to ask if one really needs to know.
How does the author’s identity inform or change the nature of their written work? The question I wonder about is will the celebrity-driven world give up on and forget about J12H as it becomes more obvious that s/he doesn’t intend to “come out”, or will the mystery drive the bus a little longer.
It seems to me that a few things are obvious about J12H. Hir desire for anonymity appears to have an ideological bent, and is not purely a marketing gimmick. Given the ideological framework, it seems to be someone inspired by Noam Chomsky’s distaste for celebrity culture.
I’m not sure that a hollywood-size ego could sustain the mystery this long. At some point something would have slipped out.
Initially I was caught up in the wanting to know who J12H is, but I don’t really think it matters any more. Mysteries are healthy, and I think discovering hir identity would be anti-climactic. Right now J12H could be one of my highschool buddies or anyone I already know….
Arkayik,
I’m not sure it matters either – but it’s fun to think about. You may have a point, though, about an already-famous person writing as an anon with a huge ego.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »