Elegance in alternate history

[lachlan]

Maybe 'elegance' isn't the right word. Maybe it's 'economy'. Or 'scope'. Either way, I find that I am more impressed by an alternate history that doesn't use a big battle as its point of change (double points if it doesn't use anything that happened during the Civil War or World War II -- I am sick to death of both types of AH stories), in favour of a smaller or more discrete difference.

Example of economy: although not technically an alternate history (more of an alternate society), Wen Spencer's A Brother's Price envisions a different set of gender roles resulting from an increase in male infant mortality (or possibly fewer successful impregnations that result in males...Spencer is a bit vague here). It's an 'economical' change because it's a tweak to something that's already known -- that male infants have a lower survivability than female (we get more males than females only when prenatal care is good) -- which completely changes the society in believable ways (to oversimplify Spencer....if there's only one man for every 10 to 12 women, there's no way in heck that the women are going to let that man out of the house, and certainly are not going to let him fight, or carry a weapon).

What else can we change in an 'economical' fashion? More (but still sporadic) European contact with North America? Earlier discovery of penicillin (or, conversely, much later)? The 1949 Newfoundland referendum goes the other way?

[FOTSGreg]

Well, gee...

Colonization of North America by the Chinese (or Japanese) pre-1500s,

Unification of the Mayan or Aztec empires (rather than constant inter-city warfare) so the Conquistadors actually encountered a culture sophisticated enough to engage them,

Success of Tenskwatawa and victory by Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers so that the Indian Confederation held Ohio against the United States.

Ascendancy of the Egyptian culture and religion over the Mediterranean before the rise of the Roman or Greek Empires

Ascendancy of the Songhai empire to rule over all of Africa and to extend its influence and culture through Egypt and the rest of the Mediterranean,

Origination of Mankind in China, South America, North America, Europe, or Russia rather than Africa,

...the list goes on...

[lachlan]

Any smaller ones? :) Hmm. I'm thinking about alternate science, I realize, when I'm thinking of penicillin. Howzabout proper sewage? The Romans knew, then everyone forgot, but the technology is simple (albeit labor-intensive) to implement years or even centuries before (or after) Joseph Bazalgette was commissioned to save London's ass.

So to speak. :)

[Kateness]

Jonas Salk having never existed. Polio for another couple of decades.

How about famous documents being destroyed. What if the Bible had been lost at some point in time? Or the Arabs hadn't preserved the works of Europeans during the Dark Ages?

[Smiling Ted]

You might want to check out the Paratime stories of H. Beam Piper. Some of them are even online at the Gutenberg Project.

[lachlan]

H. Beam Piper is in Gutenberg??? Suddenly I feel very old...

:)

[Liosse de Velishaf]

H. Beam Piper is in Gutenberg??? Suddenly I feel very old...

:)


Haha. Probably doesn't make you feel any younger that John Scalzi is doing a cover of the Fuzzy series.

[dirtsider]

JFK survives his assassination? The first person in space was actually American instead of Russian? Gore wins the 2000 election?

[Zoombie]

Take any situation and add dragons.

BAM!

Okay, that's not super elegant, but it IS awesome.

[Bartholomew]

What if another major religion had prevailed instead of Christianity?

What if Antartica had never drifted south?

[Kateness]

What if the Vikings had decided to properly colonize North America, so that when Columbus wandered over, he didn't just have the Native Americans to deal with.

Actually, hmm...

*wanders off to think*

[Zoombie]

What if the Greeks had supported Aristarchus rather than Plato, leading to a scientific revolution rather than the Dark Ages, kicking us 500 years forward, easily.

I'm totally stealing that from Carl Sagan's Cosmos

:D

[IdiotsRUs]

I'm sure I've read some of these already - can't think where / by who though


What if....

Harold had shot William through the eye

Elizabeth the First put through a law saying only female children to be rulers

America had lost the War of Independence

What if Ethelred had been ready? Well okay, better advised.

[waylander]

What if Henry VIII's son by Catherine of Aragorn hadn't died after 52 days

[IdiotsRUs]

What if Henry VIII's son by Catherine of Aragorn hadn't died after 52 days


History lessons would have been way easier

Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, died. Married.

He might have been slightly less pissed at the church too :D

[Zoombie]

What if Hitler could actually paint worth a damn?

[Ambri]

What if Genghis Khan (and/or his successors) had successfully annexed all of Europe?

or

Rome had never fallen to the Visigoths

or

Japan successfully conquered Korea, Vietnam, and parts of China

or

The 5 Nations whupped the colonists/ Americans' collective arse and were recognized as their own country (and the Americans actually upheld the treaties)

[Kateness]

History lessons would have been way easier

Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, died. Married.

He might have been slightly less pissed at the church too :D

Until Catherine of Aragon's son died at 56 days :D

[IdiotsRUs]

Until Catherine of Aragon's son died at 56 days :D

After Henry realised it looked suspiciously like Cardinal Wolsey

[Kateness]

After Henry realised it looked suspiciously like Cardinal Wolsey

Would that be a problem, ya think?

I mean, Henry did really want a kid. :D

[FOTSGreg]

What if the US government had funded NASA to the extent that they were actually able to establish a lunar colony by 1975 and land men on Mars by 1982?

What if Einstein had discovered that there was no speed of light barrier?

What if the Mongols had not stopped their harassment of Hungary and eastern Europe after the death of Subatai Khan?

What if the Ottoman Empire hadn't been stopped at the Gates of Vienna?

What if Robert E. Lee had won at Gettysburg? What if George Meade had been elected President in 1864?

What if George A. Custer had won at the Little Big Horn? What if he'd been elected President?

What if Atlantis had been real and had not been destroyed as described by Plato?

What if the Minoan culture had not been destroyed by the eruption of Thera in pre-1600 BC?

[lachlan]

You do realize, these are all going in my idea file, don't you? ;)

[Kateness]

Yeah, but if you and I picked the same scenario to write about, you do know that the two stories that came out would be just ridiculously different, right? :tongue

[IdiotsRUs]

Yeah, but if you and I picked the same scenario to write about, you do know that the two stories that came out would be just ridiculously different, right? :tongue

Precisamally

What if Remus founded Reme rather than Romulus founding Rome.

[Kateness]

I've actually thought that that would be pretty neat; to find a buddy and start from the same premise and then compare afterwards. :D

[lachlan]

I've actually thought that that would be pretty neat; to find a buddy and start from the same premise and then compare afterwards. :D

And then make it all the same multiverse, with crossover episodes! And maps! And...oh, too much caffeine. :)

But the shared starting point would make a very neat exercise. I recall an anthology "Five Fates" from the 70's, where 5 authors took the same first page and wrote 5 radically different novellas.

Edit: found it: http://www.islets.net/oddities/fivefates.html

[Smiling Ted]

H. Beam Piper is in Gutenberg??? Suddenly I feel very old...

:)

Well, it's not *quite* as aged as all that. Piper died intestate, without any family interested in maintaining the legacy, so his works migrated into the public domain a little more quickly than they might have otherwise.

[Kateness]

And then make it all the same multiverse, with crossover episodes! And maps! And...oh, too much caffeine. :)

But the shared starting point would make a very neat exercise. I recall an anthology "Five Fates" from the 70's, where 5 authors took the same first page and wrote 5 radically different novellas.

Edit: found it: http://www.islets.net/oddities/fivefates.html


well..erm...if anyone does want to do something like that, rep or PM me and we'll find a mutually agreeable starting point? *shady glances*

[Albedo]

What if Governor Bligh had brutally repressed the Rum Rebellion? What if the nascent Australian middle class had been exterminated before it got off the ground?

What if Western Australia had rejected federation? Would there be two independent nations on the Australian continent?

What if the Austronesians had settled Australia long before Europeans turned up to disposess the Aboriginals?

What if the White Australia policy had never been introduced? What if it was never abolished?

[dirtsider]

What if Hitler was a pacifist? What if he had been born 5 years earlier or later? What if he had died in WWI?

What if Columbus had found a passage to India by traveling West?

What if there was no Civil War and America was made up two countries (the US and CS)?

What if Lincoln had lived after Booth shot him? What if he never got re-elected?

[Maxx]

Maybe 'elegance' isn't the right word. Maybe it's 'economy'. Or 'scope'. Either way, I find that I am more impressed by an alternate history that doesn't use a big battle as its point of change (double points if it doesn't use anything that happened during the Civil War or World War II -- I am sick to death of both types of AH stories), in favour of a smaller or more discrete difference.



Apparently I tend to think in "Dieselpunk" terms. Without the dark and gritty punk side. Just the deisel side. Dieselfunandsunnypunk or maybejust FunandSunnypunk. Anyway, alterations in the historical flow happening in dieseltime (1930s to 1950s, or even 1920s to 1960s) seem to interest me. Any number of minor shifts in computer technology could have had impacts, as could shifts in nuke-building and testing. The Cold War could easily have taken various courses and perhaps fewer proxy wars might have resulted. Just shifting Stalin's death a few years earlier could have in interesting impact.

[kappapi99]

What if Nixon had not resigned? Not even been caught?

What if the Maine had not exploded?

What if the Mayflower sank on its way over?

What if the Egyptians never enslaved the Hebrews?

KP

[Tanydwr]

What if Anne Boleyn had married Henry Percy?

What if Elizabeth I had got married?

What if it was Mary, Queen of Scots who died in her teens and not the French Dauphin?

What if Charles I had been sensible enough not to piss off Parliament?

What if a baker had remembered to turn off his oven in 1666? (Alright, put out the fire properly.)

What if Jane Austen had got married and never published her novels? (Sorry, I think I've just given myself nightmares...)

What if someone who died, someone entirely inconsequential except that he or she was always supposed to die, didn't? (Argh, Reapers!)

[Sue-proof Armour]

Anna Commena is crowned empress of the Rhomaioi instead of her younger brother.

Something sets back the rise of air power thus prolonging the life of the battleship.

[reiver33]

Generally speaking most major military conflicts directly shape the post-war society which results/survives. Moorcock has a recurring theme in which World War One never happened and what 'modern' (generally the 1970's) society would grow out of that; a delayed Russian Revolution (put down with Interventionist support), no Nazi Party, no WW2, fully developed lighter-than-air travel (big helium airships spanning the globe), social conservatism/repression.

Alternatively, the French don't assist you damn Colonials and the 1776 'Revolution' is stamped out by the British Empire; no influx of 'huddled masses' from Europe (and thus social unrest in Europe instead), no great westward expansion from the original 13 colonies (native Americans treated more like sub-continant Indian states), a strong Spanish-speaking western seaboard.