The Wheels of If
E783091
The Wheels of If is a science fiction alternate history novella by L. Sprague de Camp in which a modern American lawyer finds himself transported into a parallel world where historical events took a different course.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Wheels of If canonical | 3 |
| The Wheels of If and Other Science-Fiction | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9184330 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Wheels of If Context triple: [L. Sprague de Camp, notableWork, The Wheels of If]
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A.
The Refusal of Time
The Refusal of Time is a multimedia installation by South African artist William Kentridge that combines film, sculpture, sound, and performance to explore the nature and perception of time.
-
B.
The Matter of Time
The Matter of Time is a monumental series of weathered steel sculptures by Richard Serra that creates immersive, maze-like spatial experiences for viewers, permanently installed at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
-
C.
Nick of Time
"Nick of Time" is a classic episode of the original The Twilight Zone series in which a superstitious man becomes obsessed with a fortune-telling machine in a small-town diner.
-
D.
Nick of Time
Nick of Time is a Grammy-winning 1989 album by American singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt that revitalized her career with its blend of blues, rock, and pop.
-
E.
The Child in Time
The Child in Time is a 1987 novel by Ian McEwan that explores the psychological and emotional aftermath of a child's abduction, blending themes of grief, time, and the fragility of family life.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Wheels of If Target entity description: The Wheels of If is a science fiction alternate history novella by L. Sprague de Camp in which a modern American lawyer finds himself transported into a parallel world where historical events took a different course.
-
A.
The Refusal of Time
The Refusal of Time is a multimedia installation by South African artist William Kentridge that combines film, sculpture, sound, and performance to explore the nature and perception of time.
-
B.
The Matter of Time
The Matter of Time is a monumental series of weathered steel sculptures by Richard Serra that creates immersive, maze-like spatial experiences for viewers, permanently installed at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
-
C.
Nick of Time
"Nick of Time" is a classic episode of the original The Twilight Zone series in which a superstitious man becomes obsessed with a fortune-telling machine in a small-town diner.
-
D.
Nick of Time
Nick of Time is a Grammy-winning 1989 album by American singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt that revitalized her career with its blend of blues, rock, and pop.
-
E.
The Child in Time
The Child in Time is a 1987 novel by Ian McEwan that explores the psychological and emotional aftermath of a child's abduction, blending themes of grief, time, and the fragility of family life.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
alternate history story
ⓘ
science fiction novella ⓘ |
| author | L. Sprague de Camp ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
contingency in history
ⓘ
cultural relativism ⓘ identity ⓘ political intrigue ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| featuresElement |
divergent historical events
ⓘ
legal and political maneuvering ⓘ religious differences in alternate world ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1940 ⓘ |
| genre |
alternate history
ⓘ
science fiction ⓘ |
| hasAuthorNationality | American ⓘ |
| hasFictionalUniverseType | alternate timeline ⓘ |
| hasHistoricalSubgenre | alternate religious history ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn | later alternate history fiction ⓘ |
| hasLengthCategory | novella-length work ⓘ |
| hasNarrativePerspective | third-person narrative ⓘ |
| hasPlotElement |
attempt to return to original world
ⓘ
modern American transported to parallel world ⓘ struggle to adapt to alternate society ⓘ |
| hasReceptionType | regarded as classic of early alternate history ⓘ |
| hasStructure | single continuous narrative ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
historical divergence
ⓘ
parallel timelines ⓘ personal responsibility in unfamiliar society ⓘ |
| hasTargetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| hasTimePeriodOfWriting | 20th century ⓘ |
| hasTitleCharacterRole | outsider in foreign culture ⓘ |
| hasWorkType | speculative fiction ⓘ |
| isIncludedIn | collections of L. Sprague de Camp stories ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryForm | novella ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Alister Park ⓘ |
| medium | print ⓘ |
| narrativeDevice |
body swap
ⓘ
parallel world ⓘ |
| originallyPublishedIn | Unknown magazine ⓘ |
| partOfGenreMovement |
Golden Age science fiction
ⓘ
linked to:
Golden Age of Science Fiction
|
| protagonistOccupation | lawyer ⓘ |
| settingType | alternate history version of Earth ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Wheels of If Description of subject: The Wheels of If is a science fiction alternate history novella by L. Sprague de Camp in which a modern American lawyer finds himself transported into a parallel world where historical events took a different course.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.