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Alternate History General Discussion

I swear, there has to be something in alternate history, maybe something that unlocks a secret compartment in your mind, because my god, some of the most left-leaning, anti-imperialist, generally anti-war folks I know suddenly turn into belligerent nationalists blowing the trumpets of war.

Suddenly, people are talking about setting up puppet states and exploiting the hell out of them with no sense of irony or self-awareness.

Do you mean writing about big wars & imperial, or going "YEAH!" about it in AH? The former shouldn't be too surprising, a story about war breaking out is more immediately exciting than one where the war doesn't happen and the tanks all go home
 
Not sure what thread I should put this in, but I think this is probably the best option:

If anybody would like me to look for any physical documents or information in Austin (e.g. the LBJ Presidential Library, the papers at the Ransom or Briscoe Center, anything public in the Texas Archives), let me know and I’m happy to help.
 
Which pop culture Paramount/Fox horror crossover would A: Be more likely, and/or B: Work better? Friday the 13th Jason vs. Alien , or Jason vs. Predator?

(Probably the latter IMO, since Predators are so much more versatile than xenomorphs)
 
It seems like, in alternate history, there’s this assumption that, if you just treat a people you just subjugated through conquest with kindness, respect their beliefs and customs, and ”modernize” them, then they’ll immediately be 100% on board with being conquered.

Yes, as if there isn’t many examples of that in history not going the way people thought.
 
Something odd about alternate history is that it seems really pro-monarchist.
In Alternate History, there tends to be a habit of people liking a system or country so much that they write a story where it perpetuates itself until modern day and possibly forever.
One thing I’ve noticed is that, in alternate history he writers tend to ignore the dark side of a historical figure of just make him not do those bad things for whatever reason. It feels like they want to stan for a character without seeming like an apologist for said figure if he didn’t do anything nearly as evil as he historically did.
In alternate history, the question of competency never seems to be raised. People just assume a good amount of it from people who, historically, bumbled quite a lot on many things.
I swear, there has to be something in alternate history, maybe something that unlocks a secret compartment in your mind, because my god, some of the most left-leaning, anti-imperialist, generally anti-war folks I know suddenly turn into belligerent nationalists blowing the trumpets of war.
It seems like, in alternate history, there’s this assumption that, if you just treat a people you just subjugated through conquest with kindness, respect their beliefs and customs, and ”modernize” them, then they’ll immediately be 100% on board with being conquered.

You don't seem to be reading very good alternate history, if I'm honest with you.
 
Oh, sorry if I seem whiny.

It's not whiny. This thread is for discussing alternate history, it's fine to do so.

It's just I read a lot of AH and I couldn't make a list like that accurately because the stuff I read doesn't do that.

It's difficult to avoid the opinion, second hand as it may be, that the stuff you're reading simply isn't very good.
 
I think there's a big gap in subject matter between serious published AH, and the Future History board. Christian seems to be exclusively talking about Pre and Post-1900 level alternate history. Which has a lot of problems, but they're not necessarily representative of all of alternate history writing.

I can personally attest to this. There are very few examples in actual published technothrillers of the specific annoyances of WW3 TLs that made me make the Iceland Scale.
 
Which pop culture Paramount/Fox horror crossover would A: Be more likely, and/or B: Work better? Friday the 13th Jason vs. Alien , or Jason vs. Predator?

Latter - you have two peers in a duel, who both have reasons to fight each other, have reactions to the other, and have similar power levels.

(A mate once threw out "Terminator VS Predator": a time-travelling Predator has gone back to stop the T-800 because the hunting grounds on Earth suck after Judgement Day)
 
Latter - you have two peers in a duel, who both have reasons to fight each other, have reactions to the other, and have similar power levels.

(A mate once threw out "Terminator VS Predator": a time-travelling Predator has gone back to stop the T-800 because the hunting grounds on Earth suck after Judgement Day)

@RyanF get me the chequebook

no, the big chequebook
 
Don't you just love it when you put in a lot of effort to write a character in a forum game as a nuanced depiction of how the Progressive politics of early 20th century America in a world where eugenicist practices carried on well into the 1960s would evolve over time into a form of authoritarian democracy/democratic fascism obsessed with achieving a utopian society by any means necessary and people incessantly complain about it and moan that it's "too evil"?

And then, after said character's achieved their goals and you ease off the authoritarianism in favor of a return to genuine Progressive ideas, some self-righteous moral absolutist who wears their political beliefs on their sleeve insults you to your face, tells you that your writing is pretentious fume-huffing, and has other people (including someone you actually respect) show their agreement through positive reactions?

Cause boy howdy, do I sure love it. Totally doesn't make me feel like shit about my writing and saps any interest I have in further participation in the community or even with alternate history as a genre.

Apologies for the rant, but this has been bothering me all week and I can't get over how rattled it's made me feel.
 
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Latter - you have two peers in a duel, who both have reasons to fight each other, have reactions to the other, and have similar power levels.

I'd have the Predator initially dismiss the batch of Crystal Lake yahoos as unworthy targets, but then see this superpowered, not quite right creature...
 
You really can drop Predator into many more things than Aliens and it works. You don't need to invent a reason he's there (he visits places to kill things), you don't need to mess with power levels most of the time (unless it's Superman VS Predator), and he's limited in the damage he's doing. Aliens is a weird balancing act because they have to be both A Big Deal but not And Then Everyone Died, and you need a reason they've turned up and then will be stopped.
 
I've beaten this drum before, but the Predator doesn't even need to crossover you can just drop them anywhere in human history where there is a combination of heat and conflict.

Climate change and political instability making the planet more attractive to Predators should have been the fucking plot of the latest film.
 
Don't you just love it when you put in a lot of effort to write a character in a forum game as a nuanced depiction of how the Progressive politics of early 20th century America in a world where eugenicist practices carried on well into the 1960s would evolve over time into a form of authoritarian democracy/democratic fascism obsessed with achieving a utopian society by any means necessary and people incessantly complain about it and moan that it's "too evil"?

And then, after said character's achieved their goals and you ease off the authoritarianism in favor of a return to genuine Progressive ideas, some self-righteous moral absolutist who wears their political beliefs on their sleeve insult you to your face, tells you that your writing is pretentious fume-huffing, and has other people (including someone you actually respect) show their agreement with through positive reactions?

Cause boy howdy, do I sure love it. Totally doesn't make me feel like shit about my writing and saps any interest I have in further participation in the community or even with alternate history as a genre.

Apologies for the rant, but this has been bothering me all week and I can't get over how rattled it's made me feel.

Tell me about it.

Chris
 
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