# Dan Burke — Short Fiction character guide

> Dan Burke in Short Fiction by Stanley G. Weinbaum.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Burke

**First appearance:** 0000-a-martian-odyssey

## Snapshot

A hard-drinking, skeptical everyman who lets a gnomelike professor strap a liquid-filled mask to his face and finds himself walking in a world that may be more real than his own.

## Who they are

Dan is the narrator of the Paracosma sequence, a man whose initial suspicion — 'A swindle!' — dissolves the moment the electrolyzed story floods his eyes with an unearthly forest, elfin music, and a girl named Galatea. The tension that defines him is the tug between the shabby hotel room he can still feel under his feet and the mossy, sunlit world he desperately wants to believe in. His willingness to trade a hangover for Paradise is what launches the story's central question: which world is the shadow, and which the substance?

## Relationships

### [Galatea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/galatea)

_romantic_

Dan Burke is deeply infatuated with Galatea, pursuing her with romantic intent and emotional intensity.

### [Leucon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/leucon)

_rivalry_

Dan Burke and Leucon are rivals, often clashing over Galatea's affections or conflicting goals.

### [Galatea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/galatea)

_romantic_

Dan Burke is deeply infatuated with Galatea, pursuing her with romantic intent and emotional intensity.

### [Galatea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/galatea)

_romantic_

Dan Burke is deeply infatuated with Galatea, pursuing her with romantic intent and emotional intensity.

### [Leucon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/leucon)

_rivalry_

Dan Burke and Leucon are rivals, often clashing over Galatea's affections or conflicting goals.

### [Leucon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/leucon)

_rivalry_

Dan Burke and Leucon are rivals, often clashing over Galatea's affections or conflicting goals.

## In the story

### [Pygmalion's Spectacles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/chapters/pygmalion-s-spectacles)

Protagonist who meets Professor Ludwig and experiences the immersive Paracosma.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters/dan_burke
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_51_se/characters