MOVIES
Last Year at Marienbad
This 1961 cinematic classic forms the thematic basis for Marienbad My Love, a novel about a filmmaker who commits himself to creating a science-fiction-themed tribute to the film. The book incorporates prose that reflects some of the narration and dialogue of the film.
Teenagers from Outer Space
Marienbad My Love features a filmmaker who believes he is either a prophet of God or the second coming of Jesus Christ, mirroring the real-life claims of Teenagers from Outer Space producer Tom Graeff. (After the release of Teenagers from Outer Space, Graeff announced that God had spoken to him and wanted him to spread peace and love throughout the world. Later Graeff announced that he was changing his name to Jesus Christ II.)
Eraserhead
Marienbad My Love includes a reference to the embalmed calf fetus that some sources claim Lynch used to create the baby in his film Eraserhead.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)
The film and director Nicholas Roeg are featured in Marienbad My Love. The protagonist is based in part on Thomas Jerome Newton, the humanoid alien of the movie.
The Lathe of Heaven (1980 film)
The alien in this film was one of the inspirations behind the creation of the Cicadians in Marienbad My Love. The novel also refers to a fictional movie titled The Revolution of Zion, which Leach says is a tribute to the 1980 PBS version of The Lathe of Heaven.
Charlton Heston's SF films
Marienbad My Love features several allusions to Heston and several of his science fiction movies, including The Omega Man, Soylent Green and Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
Drive-in theater
Leach says drive-in movie theaters are a recurring theme in his dreams. The fictional Armageddon Drive-in Theatre in Strangers Rest, Texas, is based on one of those dreams.
LITERATURE
Kurt Vonnegut
Marienbad My Love contains a portion of a novel titled “Let Me Love You,” which Leach attempted to write in the style of some of Vonnegut’s later works, most notably Timequake.
The Fall by Albert Camus
Walker Percy claims he employed the confessional structure of The Fall by Albert Camus for his novel Lancelot. The protagonist of Marienbad My Love states that he is creating a movie with a confessional structure based on both The Fall and Lancelot.
Longest English sentence
Marienbad My Love, marketed as the world’s longest published novel in English, features a sentence that contains about 510,000 words – about 20 percent of the 2.5 million-word book.
Collective Unconscious
Marienbad My Love features repeated references to Jungian ideas, including the collective unconscious. The novel treats the collective unconscious as an actual place that is easily accessed via an Internet-like tool called the Exogrid.
Anima
In Marienbad My Love, the protagonist delivers lengthy monologues to his anima, which occupies a real woman.
Wise Old Man
A character called The Stranger performs the role of the wise old man in Marienbad My Love, according to Leach.
Walker Percy
In Marienbad My Love, the protagonist states that he is making a movie based in part on themes explored in Percy’s Lancelot and the essay “Notes for a Novel about the End of the World.”
Left Behind
Leach incorporates several veiled references to the Left Behind series in Marienbad My Love, a satirical novel about the end of the world. The protagonist quotes from dust jacket notes for “Wicked Times at Antichrist High,” a youth-oriented book from a Left Behind-style book series.
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Marienbad My Love features a reference to a machine that converts people into film, mirroring a central element of The Invention of Morel. The machine is credited to a scientist named Dr. Adolfo Morel.
The Ticket That Exploded by William Burroughs
Marienbad My Love features the Nova Effect, a method of time travel based on the cut-up technique used by Burroughs in writing this and other novels.
Cut-up technique
Leach made extensive use of cut-up writings in Marienbad My Love. The cut-ups are a part of the plot of the story, which features a time travel procedure named after William Burrough’s Nova Trilogy.
HISTORY
John F. Kennedy assassinationMarienbad My Love includes an alternate history timeline in which Nixon wins the 1960 presidential election. He is assassinated during a state visit to Dallas to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Texas. The book includes an excerpt from a report generated by a committee similar to the Warren Commission.
Hitler
Marienbad My Love features an alternate timeline in which Hitler flees Germany at the end of World War II, escaping to Uruguay with a horde of gold bullion and a captured alien spacecraft. After suffering a stroke, Hitler is placed in suspended animation by an extraterrestrial race called the Cicadians.
Josiah WilbargerLeach states that Josiah Wilbarger, a 19th century Texas pioneer who survived an Indian scalping, was the inspiration for one of the characters in
Marienbad My Love.
Aurora Texas UFO IncidentThe circa 1896 story of a UFO crash in Aurora, Texas, plays a role in
Marienbad My Love and is the basis for a similiar incident in the fictional town of Strangers Rest, Texas.
William A. BlakleyIn
Marienbad My Love, Leach pays homage to the famous Texas businessman and politician by giving one of the characters Blakley's nickname of “Dollar Bill.”
CITIES
Duncanville, Texas
Marienbad My Love features several references to the south Dallas County city, specifically the old military installation and documented reports of alleged UFOs sightings. Leach was raised in Duncanville and is a graduate of Duncanville High School.
Corpus Christi, Texas
Marienbad My Love is set in part on a fictional island in Corpus Christi Bay. The novel features several references to the city, specifically its role in the Civil War and 20th century reports of alleged UFOs sightings.
Roanoke, Texas
Leach names Roanoke as one of the inspirations for the fictional town of Strangers Rest, Texas. Marienbad My Love features several Roanoke landmarks, including the circa 1880 rock saloon on Oak Street and the town cemetery.
Waco, Texas
Leach, a Texas writer born in Waco, incorporated into Marienbad My Love a variety references to the city and its history. It refers to the novel Sironia, Texas, by Madison Cooper; the Waco Horror in the early 1900s; a rash of UFO sightings in 1952; and the infamous 1953 tornado. The novel includes a character named after the author’s grandfather, Jewell Poe Rowan, who operated a photography studio in the city for many years.
OTHER
The Rapture
In Marienbad My Love, those chosen for salvation are taken to a drive-in movie theater. The chosen are all members of the United Methodist Church, a peculiar event as one of the chosen comments that as a Methodist he doesn’t “believe in the Rapture.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Leach was a reporter at Star-Telegram from 1985-88 and 1992-1998. He cites the paper as a real-life inspiration for the fictional Tarrant County Register.
Reverse chronology
In Marienbad My Love, the protagonist proposes a reverse chronology story of Moby Dick, Frankenstein and the Bible (titled El Bib aka Biblin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo).
Macintosh Portable
The protagonist of Marienbad My Love is attacked by a murderous Macintosh Portable, the first portable computer by Apple, that has achieved consciousness.
The Bellero Shield
In Marienbad My Love, Leach pays tribute to this episode of the 1960s Outer Limits TV show by naming one of the alien characters “Bellero Shield.”