ChrisNuttall
Well-known member
But those articles already exist- indeed, I wrote two of them: The Marble Man and The Borders of Genre.
I had something different in mind. I'll give it some thought.
Chris
But those articles already exist- indeed, I wrote two of them: The Marble Man and The Borders of Genre.
It's everywhere, regardless of the nominal subject - Dukes of Hazzard (TV version - can't speak for the film) and the films Sweet Home Alabama and Steel Magnolias come to mind.The Lost Cause was a dead letter in academia by the 1970s, arguably, but within popular culture? It persisted in mainstream representations into the 2000s and arguably is still a more mainstream view across wide swathes of the American populace.
Imagine, if you will, a group of aliens landed on Earth tomorrow, brushed aside all welcoming missions, set up a podium, and declared that iguanas are beautiful and are now a protected species, then without saying another word packed up and left. Some people, including most governments out of fear of orbital bombardment, would immediately move to protect iguanas. Some more, out of the belief that the aliens are obviously more enlightened than us, would begin obsessively doting on iguanas in the way some do on dogs and cats. Some more, enraged at the aliens for dictating what reptiles humanity should like and even more so at the politicians and sycophants upending everything in uncritical response, go on an anti-iguana crusade. But most of humanity would have the same basic reaction of “WTF just happened?”The Lost Cause was a dead letter in academia by the 1970s, arguably, but within popular culture? It persisted in mainstream representations into the 2000s and arguably is still a more mainstream view across wide swathes of the American populace.
Talking of the Lost Cause, it's not a good look that AH.com still has an award named after an unrepentant Confederate apologist. I thought they got rid of that years ago when the design of the award was changed to remove the stylised Stars and Bars.The Lost Cause was a dead letter in academia by the 1970s, arguably, but within popular culture? It persisted in mainstream representations into the 2000s and arguably is still a more mainstream view across wide swathes of the American populace.
Like, whether it can be taught that the Civil War was primarily about slavery is currently on the chopping block in multiple states.
Well you have the Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act, Immorality Act, Suppression of Communism Act all in 1950.Because I am a pedant I need to point out that the old SA flag was already adopted in 1928, it was not a creation of the NP regime. If it had been there would have been no Union Jack.
And I am not sure there was any material change in the living circumstances of black, coloured, and Indian South Africans after the 1948 election.
Well you have the Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act, Immorality Act, Suppression of Communism Act all in 1950.
Whilst you've got plenty of racist legislation going back decades before 1948, and apartheid was an expansion and refining od that, it's not like nothing changed
Oh, it's not a struggle. The creative writing area generates around 5% of the total messages on the forum; the political discussion area generates well over 90% of messages.
Snippy (the Alien Space Bat)
Given that, it's hard to come to the conclusion that it's not just entirely to be expected that most of the discussion here will be about modern politics, it is in fact just as inevitable and as logical and as necessary for the production of fiction that is in keeping with what people actually want to read, as that on a science fiction forum, a lot of the discussion will be about space travel and robotics and science and technology, as that on a fantasy forum, a lot of the discussion will be about medieval Europe, about the Norse Sagas and Celtic folklore.
All very true and insightful.
Not sure this should really be a surprise to anyone though, given that SLP as a forum community was founded specifically by politbrits and they still pretty much set the tone.
Very true-and I haven't even tried to write a TL or anything seriously AH-y in years.Agree with both, but just to add, creative writing requires more effort, and if I'm tired, it's easier to read The Pub than plug some paragraphs into a vignette...
On the other hand, the structuring of the vignette and other contests does force creative writing away from British politics, and get dozens of other topics out there. So does the blog which I've often found inspiring
I've only recently got into the creative writing side myself, after over two decades,Very true-and I haven't even tried to write a TL or anything seriously AH-y in years.
I do kinda feel like the vignettes have their own vibe but ofc the authors mostly overlap with the politbrits (as opposed to the good people of Graphics, who do sometimes seem like their own subgroup).
I was reflecting on this the other day, and I'm not entirely sure that I think that that necessarily is a bad thing.
Whether it's a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing depends, I guess, on whether one is hear primarily for the political discourse, the AH fiction, or something else.
Very true-and I haven't even tried to write a TL or anything seriously AH-y in years.
I do kinda feel like the vignettes have their own vibe but ofc the authors mostly overlap with the politbrits (as opposed to the good people of Graphics, who do sometimes seem like their own subgroup).
This is very true.Whether or not they form their own subgroup I feel myself unqualified to make a remark upon. I will however remark upon that the overwhelming majority of all graphics in the graphics section is thoroughly politics-related. 95% of it (or so it would appear) consists of electoral maps, wikiboxes of politicians and legislatures and countries and monarchs and other leaders. As for the rest, 95% of that is about flags for various polities. It too is all very politics-related.
I've thought a lot about this dichotomy myself, and I think it's complicated.The subject matters frequently mocked as belonging to the cliches of the genre, the American Civil War and World War II seem to be decidedly in the minority here. In the past ten years of reading alternate history, both here and in the Old Country, I've seen far, far, far more of Gordon Brown and David Cameron than I have of either Robert E. Lee or Adolf Hitler!
For better or worse, people aren't interested in stories about "What if the Byzantines had invented the printing press in the 13th century?", or "What if the Ming Chinese had reached California?", or "What if Hideyoshi had decided against invading Korea?"