Apocryphal

Adj. Of questionable authorship or authenticity.

From the Greek word 'apokruphos', meaning secret, or hidden. The obvious, instinctual connection for most people when they hear the word 'apocryphal' are the apocryphal books of the Bible, like the Book of Tobit, the Book of Judith, or the Book of Wisdom. Defined as the 14 books included as an appendix to the Old Testament in the Septuagint and the Vulgate but not included in the Hebrew canon, and not printed in Protestant versions of the Bible, the Apocrypha (note the capital 'a',) have been referenced footnotes in much of my reading of late, which has brought the word to mind.

While in the process of properly defining the word for this blog, I came across an entry about apocrypha in the realm of fiction (thank you to The Free Dictionary.). Apparently, the word is sometimes used to describe works based on a fictional world or character that were not a part of the original piece (or pieces) of fiction, like all the Star Trek and Star Wars novels that exist (and of which I own more than I will here admit.) In thinking about this matter further, it occurred to me that, while bookstores are full of this type of fiction, it seems to be heavily concentrated to the real of science fiction and fantasy. It makes sense, new worlds and technologies and powers to explore and all, but I want to know- where is my West Wing apocrypha?

Sadly, as I mentioned in my other blog yesterday, a piece of my childhood is about to get apocryphized [I just made that up, probably not really a word, sorry - hk] in three months, when the new Alice in Wonderland movie comes out. I am really not too eager to add to my conception of Wonderland with an addendum by Tim Burton. And the quality of science fiction add-ons are a coin flip, at best. So maybe I should be careful about what I wish for with respect to The West Wing. Oh well...