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SLP is interviewing Harry Turtledove - what would you ask?

How would you reply to the criticism that your portrayals of figures like Robert E. Lee in, say, The Guns of the South play into the Lost Cause narrative – that is, how would you respond to someone who asked why you made the choice to make at least some Confederate characters heroic?

i was thinking about this
 
How would you reply to the criticism that your portrayals of figures like Robert E. Lee in, say, The Guns of the South play into the Lost Cause narrative – that is, how would you respond to someone who asked why you made the choice to make at least some Confederate characters heroic?
I would probably ask something similar to this but more along the lines of with decades of change in the historical discourse if he would have written those characters differently.

I guess I'd also ask about @Thande 's pet theory about if Southern Victory underwent some major rewriting of its outline part way though.
 
Excellent work @Gary Oswald !
I guess I'd also ask about @Thande 's pet theory about if Southern Victory underwent some major rewriting of its outline part way though.
There's two theories about TL-191 to my knowledge, the better-known one that originally it was the north that was going to lose the Great War and go fascist (which I am very sceptical of) and my one based on hints on Stephen Silver's site, that originally the American Empire/Settling Accounts continuation was just going to be one lighter-touch book called The Great War: Settling Accounts. I assume you mean the latter.

However, I'd be more interested in Gary asking about my theory that the early Worldwar books were meant to be a commentary on contemporary early 90s asymmetric conflicts like the First Gulf War (ie the 1991 one for clarity) or even the Soviets in Afghanistan, with the Race being like NATO/the coalition forces (more technologically advanced but inexperienced with warfare and more reluctant to escalate, underestimating their opponents, trying to solve things by bombing from a safe distance, etc).

I would probably ask something similar to this but more along the lines of with decades of change in the historical discourse if he would have written those characters differently.

I'd also agree this is a more tactful way to ask @Beata Beatrix 's question.
 
I do think it's important that note that what we have at this point is Harry saying 'I'd be happy to look at your questions, send me an email'. What we don't have is Turtledove signing a contract saying he'd do an interview. Nor do we have a pre-existing relationship we are building off.

So I suppose that limits how untactful you can be. In that if we send over questions that he looks through and goes 'these are hostile' he might just not answer them.

That doesn't mean the topic so much, he might be very interested in talking about things he wished he'd done differently as well things he's proud of but it's something I'll bear in mind in terms of phrasing the questions.
 
I do think it's important that note that what we have at this point is Harry saying 'I'd be happy to look at your questions, send me an email'. What we don't have is Turtledove signing a contract saying he'd do an interview. Nor do we have a pre-existing relationship we are building off.

So I suppose that limits how untactful you can be. In that if we send over questions that he looks through and goes 'these are hostile' he might just not answer them.

That doesn't mean the topic so much, he might be very interested in talking about things he wished he'd done differently as well things he's proud of but it's something I'll bear in mind in terms of phrasing the questions.
Yes, I was going to say I will trust your judgement if you feel we'd be better off with more generic questions rather than specific ones about parts of his work. Perhaps you could start out with the former and add a note asking if he'd be interested in the latter.
 
That doesn't mean the topic so much, he might be very interested in talking about things he wished he'd done differently as well things he's proud of but it's something I'll bear in mind in terms of phrasing the questions.
I don't know how to write interview questions, maybe something like: "Considering the many years you've been involved with alternate history writing and publishing, is there anything you've written that you wish you had approached differently, or any topics you've wanted to explore but haven't yet had the chance?"

I think that leaves it open for him to consider the question from a broader perspective as an author, and not just narrowly about politics.
 
you wrote the forward to Bryce Zabel’s Surrounded by Enemies, which won the Sideways Award and originally began as a collaboration between the two of you called Winter of Our Discontent. What led to the change of plans and did it effect the eventual novel much, to your knowledge?
 
A couple of questions off the top of my head:

  • "What advice would you give to folks aspiring to break into the writing industry (both alternate history work and regular fiction)?"
  • "Do you think alternate history as a genre has become more 'mainstream' in the decades since you first started publishing your work?"
  • "With regards to published alternate history, what ideas would you like to see more of in the future that you haven't seen in the past?"
  • "If you could have a drink named after you, what would it be?"
  • "What is your favorite work of alternate history (not by you) of the past decade?"
  • "Similarly, who is your favorite alternate history author of the past decade?"
  • "Do you think that there'll be an increase in alternate history works penned by ethnic, sexual, and gender minority authors in the coming decade?"
  • "Following on from that, what kind of stories would you like to see from said minority writers in the coming decade?"
  • "What are your thoughts on Woodrow Wilson?
  • "Additionally, what advice would you give minority writers who want to see their work published and their voices heard?"
  • "Finally, can I (Persephone) get your autograph?"
 
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Do you consider it possible that there is an alternate reality (which isn't present day america) which would be technologically more advanced?
 
The upcoming story about Amelia Earheart in the Battle of Britain has got me genuinely excited.
Didn’t he do the Ernest Hemingway against a uboat story as well? Is this the beginning of a mid-20th century figure, but doing something military in WWII shared universe from Turtledove?
 
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The Interview is now live.

My thanks to everyone who offered a question and my apologies if your question wasn't chosen.
Absolutely livid that my cocktail question wasn't chosen. /s

On a more serious note, this was a nice interview, and I'm pleased as punch my question (at least, I'm pretty sure it's my question) on his favorite work of alternate history from another author made it in, even if he answered it in the most Turtledovian way possible. A bit sad that my questions on alt-hist from minority authors didn't get in, since I'm sure he would've given a really thoughtful/insightful answer to them, but alas alack.
 
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