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Alternate History General Discussion

Just got a great example of AH compartmentalization. People in the library I work at were talking about Whitehead and Underground Railroad, but it was worth noting they never once said anything like "Hey, it reminds me of/you should check out Harry Turtledove".
 
Coiler said:
Just got a great example of AH compartmentalization. People in the library I work at were talking about Whitehead and Underground Railroad, but it was worth noting they never once said anything like "Hey, it reminds me of/you should check out Harry Turtledove".
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You wouldn't tell someone who enjoyed Kindred to also try out Outlander. The alternate history content of Underground Railroad is probably secondary to the racial and societal themes, whereas a Turtledove novel is distinguished from straight historical fiction by the alternate history.
 
Coiler said:
I can understand the case against Axis victory stories, both morally and creatively. But if you don't want to be confined to an audience of history nerds AND want unambiguous alternate history you need something like that. (The pop AH big three are WWII, locally well known stuff like the ACW, and "World turned upside down" stuff like Rice and Salt or Noughts and Crosses that flip the balance of power completely.)

That being said, I'd love to see her interviewed for the site.
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I can't say that's true at all. Only in the context of our communities perpetual need to ignore successful AH that's different from what we do can it even be argued. For All Mankind is a hit show, there's a whole series of popular YA Romance about America having a monarchy. This stuff exists. Just because it doesn't pass the arbitrary litmus tests of niche forums doesn't mean that only Nazi or Confederate Victory sells.
 
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Those two examples fight into @Coiler 's framework IMHO - to do unambigious alternate history that everyone can grasp so they can make big money, they did a big historical event everybody knows about (the moon landing) and flips of how the world is (the Soviets did something that America did, there's a monarchy in the place that was founded on rebelling against a monarchy).
 
Time Enough said:
So this popped up my recommendations and it’s amusing to see a Leftie YouTuber dive into a discussion that we’ve had several times;

I do have to agree with the points, whilst it’s a shame that Mia doesn’t seem to have read Yiddish Policemen’s Union (the best Alternate History to use when pointing out the potential of the genre) I’m happy she’s taken the time to point out the flaws of the community that can appear.
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Does she think Turtledove, Stephen Fry, Robert Harris and others were nazi apologists? That'd be majorly stupid.
 


In a vid jabbing at less quality videos and a Hitler one he can't understand why he did it, Cody of AlternateHistoryHub admirably bollocks his younger self for having done a video of non-colonised Africa that glossed over slavery and was ignorant of the real history ("you aren't describing some crazy whacky scenario, that's just the history of the Congo")
 
Charles EP M. said:


In a vid jabbing at less quality videos and a Hitler one he can't understand why he did it, Cody of AlternateHistoryHub admirably bollocks his younger self for having done a video of non-colonised Africa that glossed over slavery and was ignorant of the real history ("you aren't describing some crazy whacky scenario, that's just the history of the Congo")
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Cody is what got me into alternate history as a whole, really cool to see that he’s still around.
 
I honestly wonder if something like the South winning the Civil War and remaining independent or something else which completely and permanently kneecaps American power would either lead to Russia taking America's place in the world, or if we never will get a unipolar world at all. In fact this asks an interesting question - if not America, then who?
 
lerk said:
I honestly wonder if something like the South winning the Civil War and remaining independent or something else which completely and permanently kneecaps American power would either lead to Russia taking America's place in the world, or if we never will get a unipolar world at all. In fact this asks an interesting question - if not America, then who?
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Actually this has piqued my interest... Southern victory TL leads to a Russia-dominated world (in the same sense that the US dominates the world today). Can you imagine Russian being the lingua franca?
 
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lerk said:
Actually this has piqued my interest... Southern victory TL leads to a Russia-dominated world (in the same sense that the US dominates the world today). Can you imagine Russian being the lingua franca?
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Or an Imperial Germany-dominated world?

Chris
 
Delta Force said:
Why doesn't France ever have its day in the sun in post-Napoleonic timelines?
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Because the French were increasingly overshadowed by Britain (at sea/colonies) and Imperial Germany. Once Prussia united the German states, the French found themselves increasingly constrained; their ability to oppose Britain overseas was always severely limited. The French didn't really understand their weaknesses - we do - which is why they blundered into a disastrous war in 1870.
 
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