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Can't think of a subject I'd less want him writing about.
Turtledove’s next book is due out in November.
I think there could be interesting, if grim, stories written about an earlier jump to humans by HIV. Given the social history of HIV, I think it would need to be done quite sensitively. I haven't read any Turtledove, so I can't say if that's within his wheelhouse. I suspect not.
If it was apparent, I think it would be through deaths from pneumonia, with other ADOIs present, particularly clustered in sex workers/those who use sex workers. In the time period of Turteldove's book (1500-1850) they're not going to be able to identify the cause as viral, but clustering around sex workers (and maybe around MSM as per OTL - I don't know enough about homosexual sexual patterns in the period to be able to comment at all) would allow them to connect it to 'degenerate sexual practice', much as was the case with syphilis.I'm not sure it would be so easy to detect before modern medicine. HIV isn't the common cold - IIRC, it doesn't manifest in a hurry. Doctors might not know what is really going wrong, at least not at first. They may not recognise the underlying cause of the problem.
He should have stuck with the magic. House of Daniel was good. This is gross."HIV in the 16th century" is maybe one of his more implausible PoDs, aside from the outright magical/extraterrestrial
an important thing I think a lot of writers need to ask themselves sometimes is "should I be writing this?" and Turtledove is nothing if not a man who has never asked himself thatHe should have stuck with the magic. House of Daniel was good. This is gross.
While I think writers should ask themselves questions like this, I’m always leery of the idea that writers should stay in their lane in regards to subject matters. If you’re looking for a reason not to do something you’ll always find one, after all. What I think matters more is how they go about writing it, and not the yes or no answer but what comes after “yes, because-“an important thing I think a lot of writers need to ask themselves sometimes is "should I be writing this?" and Turtledove is nothing if not a man who has never asked himself that
While I think writers should ask themselves questions like this, I’m always leery of the idea that writers should stay in their lane in regards to subject matters. If you’re looking for a reason not to do something you’ll always find one, after all. What I think matters more is how they go about writing it, and not the yes or no answer but what comes after “yes, because-“
Do I think Turtledove of all people is going to write a well-researched, sensitive and illuminating novel on this subject matter? Not holding my breath. Could anyone on a premise like this? Maybe.
Guns of the South is a niche out of print novel, and the idea of 'time travelling racists give the Confederates modern weapons to win the war' is not something Turtledove originated, considering the earlier A Rebel in Time, which even itself isn't really the origin of that trope, a trope that is- independent of both of those sources- currently a meme online.There’s also the simple fact that someone has to blaze a trail. The person who writes an updated “The Guns of the South” or a book addressing and/or answering issues raised by “Harry Potter” is following in the footsteps of the original author - something they couldn’t do if the original author hadn’t gone first. I think there are many older books that could be updated, and concepts that could be explored in a better way, yet this would be impossible without the original books. If you want to write a version of GOTS in which the AK-47s are given to Frederick Douglass instead, you could do so - but you would still owe a debt to Turtledove.
Guns of the South is a niche out of print novel, and the idea of 'time travelling racists give the Confederates modern weapons to win the war' is not something Turtledove originated, considering the earlier A Rebel in Time, which even itself isn't really the origin of that trope, a trope that is- independent of both of those sources- currently a meme online.
If a work is written explicitly in response to Turtledove, then yes there may be some argument for 'authorial debt', but really no more than Turtledove is 'indebted' to The Marble Man.
Also "if someone thinks they can do better … they can try" is just crude and dismissive- it's a gauntlet being thrown about as a way to silence criticism. Consider: people's issue with someone writing an alternate history in which one of the most devastating viral epidemics of the 20th century, which was used by Governments worldwide to eradicate gay populations they deemed undesirables and because they believed that the diseases was some act of god against sodomites, evolves a few centuries earlier isn't because they personally think they could do the premise justice, but because they find it tasteless and exploitative and don't have confidence that the writer can navigate the sensitivity of that topic.