Tales from Development Hell: A Confederacy of Dunces

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @RyanF here

 

[Charles EP M.]

That's a sobering thing hanging over pop culture AH's, "what if this was made? Some of YOUR FAVOURITE STUFF wouldn't be (or at least be massively different)"

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

That's a sobering thing hanging over pop culture AH's, "what if this was made? Some of YOUR FAVOURITE STUFF wouldn't be (or at least be massively different)"

My favourite pop culture AH is

1) a film of "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" escapes from development hell and is made in the early 1980s.

2) it is a massive flop at the US box office, on a Krull or Ishtar scale. US audiences just don't get it.

3) Douglas Adams disowns it, and it ruins the careers of the director and several of the cast. He doesn't write the paperback novelisation, Alan Dean Foster does.

4) it becomes a massive so-bad-it's-good hit on the video rental market and at SF conventions

5) it is re-made in late 1999, in an equally awful version with better SFX, and Douglas Adams dies during the promotion of it

 

[RyanF]

That's a sobering thing hanging over pop culture AH's, "what if this was made? Some of YOUR FAVOURITE STUFF wouldn't be (or at least be massively different)"

I've often found that with many of the pop culture AH timelines we used to see in the Old Country, because they're reflective and geared toward the tastes of the author it can feel jarring when your favourite stuff is just sort of handwaved away because it just doesn't interest them.

 

[Thande]

I've often found that with many of the pop culture AH timelines we used to see in the Old Country, because they're reflective and geared toward the tastes of the author it can feel jarring when your favourite stuff is just sort of handwaved away because it just doesn't interest them.

I remember when @Brainbin got more stick for the early death of Robin Williams than most people would for nuking an orphanage in a conventional TL.

 

[RyanF]

I remember when @Brainbin got more stick for the early death of Robin Williams than most people would for nuking an orphanage in a conventional TL.

Related to the subject of this article since Williams visited Belushi the day of his death, and it's very easy to imagine a TL where Williams died but Belushi lived. Or, just as easily, that neither lived past the early 80s.

That was a bit of a gut punch in TWR, but it didn't strike me as gratuitous given Williams's well documented history of substance abuse. There might be an element of it getting a bit heavy for a TL not focused on the more weighty subjects of politics and/or war. That's different to what I was driving at though, which is more akin to (for a theoretical example) a TL on 80s pop culture in the US which doesn't touch upon pro wrestling because it doesn't interest the author despite it being at the height of its mainstream popularity.

 

[Thande]

Related to the subject of this article since Williams visited Belushi the day of his death, and it's very easy to imagine a TL where Williams died but Belushi lived. Or, just as easily, that neither lived past the early 80s.

That was a bit of a gut punch in TWR, but it didn't strike me as gratuitous given Williams's well documented history of substance abuse. There might be an element of it getting a bit heavy for a TL not focused on the more weighty subjects of politics and/or war. That's different to what I was driving at though, which is more akin to (for a theoretical example) a TL on 80s pop culture in the US which doesn't touch upon pro wrestling because it doesn't interest the author despite it being at the height of its mainstream popularity.

Indeed, I was just agreeing with your point that AH changes to - or simply not covering - popculture phenomena can feel more 'visceral' to us in a TL than grand political/economic changes.

 

[RyanF]

Indeed, I was just agreeing with your point that AH changes to - or simply not covering - popculture phenomena can feel more 'visceral' to us in a TL than grand political/economic changes.

Ah I see, agreed on that certainly.

Sure, you can have Falkirk stand in for Nagasaki in your UK-as-Japan-alt-WWII and I wouldn't blink but if you butterfly away Jaws I'm coming for you.

 

[Brainbin]

I remember when @Brainbin got more stick for the early death of Robin Williams than most people would for nuking an orphanage in a conventional TL.

One of the reasons I was motivated to write about his early death from substance abuse in TWR was because he had emerged so triumphant from those struggles that I thought it would be intriguing to remind everyone how close he came to meeting an early end, once upon a time. I mean, the possibility of Robin Williams having a shocking and sudden early death was definitely a thing of the past by that point, so why not explore it?

 

[Time Enough]

I do have to say, a John Waters directed version of Confederacy of Dunce’s would have been fascinating, particularly with Divine in a leading role.

John Belushi living and continuing his acting career is interesting, though it would surprise me if his career follows a similar trajectory as Bill Murray or Robin Williams. Definitely could see Belushi in a Wes Anderson film.

 

[Redolegna]

Uh.

I only knew how hard it had been to publish the book in the first place, had no clue it extended way beyond it.