• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Pop culture and the butterfly effect

Max Sinister

Well-known member
Many AH authors completely ignore culture, but that's not the point here.

The question is: What would happen to the pop culture (because this one would be in bigger danger in ATLs than older culture), if you are strict about the butterfly effect?

Let's say, your PoD is in WW2, maybe the Nazis even win - what happens to pop culture then?

Take George Lucas and Star Wars. He was born post-WW2, so he's butterflied away. Sure, there will be geeky types with similar interests - but will they also put all of his influences together, and even if yes, in the same way?

So I imagined that the elements of SW would end up scattered over many parts of TTL's geek culture, often in new contexts. We might get something like this:

  1. Hans Solo, the cool rogue who steals stuff in the Nazi Reich and sometimes helps people, like a modern Robin Hood.
  2. Characters named Skywalker and Starkiller.
  3. Lightsabers.
  4. The mountainous desert planet which is the only source for the crystals for the laser weapons.
  5. That robot who looks like evil Maria from "Metropolis".
  6. Asteroid belt chases.
  7. Indofuturism instead of Japanese influences.
  8. A movie called "Space cowboys", which would be Exactly What it Says... here. Set on a planet looking much like Tattooine. (Call it Tattooa.)
  9. The phrase "May the force be with you!" - but in this world used for... Knights in space!
  10. The name "R2D2" - but it's used for the new Technology, which can save the World.
Geeks in such an ATL would grow up with SW missing, although the familiar elements would still be around. Would they feel as if something important in their lives was missing, unconsciously? ;-)
 
One influence on Star Wars was the Vietnam War (the popular view of it as little guys with not much tech beating the megapower) so a different of no Nam will change it. The goodies may not be Rebels, the Ewoks are definitely out.
 
Technothrillers basically needed the exact intersection of international tensions and advanced electronics being something new and novel that the OTL 1980s provided. Change those and the genre is much smaller.
 
Back
Top