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As far as New Alternate History is concerned, well, we've had New Labour and New Atheism. My answer to new AH would be the same as to the other two. What's wrong with the old ones?
Firstly I do think comparing a call for New Alternate History to a political movement and an atheist movement feels reductive. New Wave Science Fiction is probably a better analogy in this situation.As far as New Alternate History is concerned, well, we've had New Labour and New Atheism. My answer to new AH would be the same as to the other two. What's wrong with the old ones?
As far as New Alternate History is concerned, well, we've had New Labour and New Atheism. My answer to new AH would be the same as to the other two. What's wrong with the old ones?
however as a bonus, I can confirm that I have never photoshopped a pair of frantic-looking eyes onto a picture of Adolf Hitler, in line with the infamous New Labour, New Danger poster
I don't think so - Mew Wave Science Fiction was about importing different literary approaches, much more than it was a change of topic.Firstly I do think comparing a call for New Alternate History to a political movement and an atheist movement feels reductive. New Wave Science Fiction is probably a better analogy in this situation.
Well, I was being slightly flippant, but my basic point remains, that calling it, whatever 'it' is, New is not enough. You have multiple hurdles to get over for that to be effective. "New" has to be more than a marketing rebrand. The New stuff has to be written. It has to be published and, it has to be read. None of those are really controllable.Secondly, akin to New Wave of Science Fiction, the position that @Skinny87 is posisiting towards alternate history is that it has ossified towards the dominant stories being those showcasing Confederate and Nazi Victories. Whilst this isn’t to say there all the stories that appear in Alternate History but there is certainly an overwhelming amount for genre which it’s having trouble getting rid of and has a habit of being used by figures of far right persuasion to showcase there agendas. @Skinny87 is trying to promote trying to embrace more diverse cultures and varied styles within the community and stories.
Well I whilst I know that wasn’t entirely the point of @Skinny87 piece, I wouldn’t mind more experimentation for form, prose and style. I don’t know, I could see an Alternate History story done using cut-up technique as being an intriguing way of telling a story.I don't think so - Mew Wave Science Fiction was about importing different literary approaches, much more than it was a change of topic.
I will say that Alternate History has certainly attracted certain types of audiences since its existence, Newt Gingrich is probably the most famous example Pre-Charlottesville but there’s been many others. And whilst it’s not alternate history’s fault per se, I do think that serious examination of how it’s been utilised should be discussed and encouraged.More to the point, there is a growth of right wing and authoritarian attitudes across the world, not just in the west. The appearance of those ideas in AH is a symptom of that. The Nazi Confederate wing uses AH in furtherance of their ideas. The problem is not rooted in AH or the choice of POD, so rooting a response in AH is missing the point.
True, and maybe calling forth for something ‘new’ in such terms was a bit bold.Encouraging different subjects and POD is worth doing, but for its own sake. AH surely doesn't need a rebrand to do that.
Well I whilst I know that wasn’t entirely the point of @Skinny87 piece, I wouldn’t mind more experimentation for form, prose and style. I don’t know, I could see an Alternate History story done using cut-up technique as being an intriguing way of telling a story.
More experimentation in stories would also be good, I know Alternate History Romance has appeared a few times before etc.
A big chunk of the one I'm writing now, so big in fact it may end up as a separate novel, is a police procedural. The setting is ASB based, but after that, I'm trying to handle everything as realistically as possible.I feel there's a lot of different stylistic approaches already - though not the full New Wave - but less long-form experiments in subgenre. SLP has two romances, horror is shortform, no big sports dramas out there AFAIK, the main AH crime I can think of is Very Organised Crime by Polythemus on our Writing forum You can find things like AH Romances but, as Coiler and others have noted, often not marketed as AH.
My brutally honest opinions on this controversy:And whilst it’s not alternate history’s fault per se, I do think that serious examination of how it’s been utilised should be discussed and encouraged.
The original essay reminded me of a lot of activism I’ve seen over the last couple of decades, both in the real world and online. It suggests a certain degree of elitism, as mentioned above, but it also hints that there’s something wrong with enjoying supposedly problematic works. I can easily see the problems in a great many books and series, such as the original James Bond novels, yet I can still enjoy them. It does not help, not in the long run, to make people feel vaguely guilty about reading and enjoying such works – people don’t like being hectored, openly or otherwise, and it always backfires. It’s easy to point out the problems with the current state of affairs, but trying to do something about it too forcibly is very likely to provoke a backlash.
Are you the Chris Nuttall that ended the Twilight of the Gods series with an afterword about the 2016 US Presidential Election? Apologies if not but either way the person writing a piece of literature will always have a worldview and whether they feel the need to broadcast it or not it will end up on the page. Taking a critical eye to these things is always going to be important and to try to avoid making people question their own biases and worldviews via a self-critical eye is only going to encourage a fundamentally incurious and uncreative approach to media. It's a lack of curiousity which enables Wehraboos to blindly regurgitate the Clean Wehrmacht myth and for the modern far-right to valorise Joachim Peiper and deny the Holocaust.
Personally I can't say I agree with the motivations behind the concept for 'New Alternate History' but Skinny always has interesting things to say and this is no exception. No-one should be afraid of a bit of a critical theory and if you value accessibility then being open to other worldviews and interrogating your own is vital.