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Analogues in Timelines

It's a shame these never took off as a concept - as writing exercises they struck me as a really fun way to explore multiple plausible-but-original divergences for historical characters.

My vignette about Ronald Reagan as a weird old tankie, based on his stint as a frontman for pro-Soviet peace groups, was supposed to be the start of a triptych, but I forgot what I was going to do for the other two. (Anyone have ideas?)
 
It's a shame these never took off as a concept - as writing exercises they struck me as a really fun way to explore multiple plausible-but-original divergences for historical characters.

That's interesting. Will be keeping this in mind for later stuff
 
I think a continued Hollywood career was going to be one of them - sliding downhill into B-fare after Bedtime for Bonzo but undergoing a nostalgic revival in 1980, of course.

Alternatively, one great New Hollywood role? Disagrees with the politics but needs the money? Something in either Godfather (Captain McLuskey or Senator Geary)? Or even Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now?
 
My vignette about Ronald Reagan as a weird old tankie, based on his stint as a frontman for pro-Soviet peace groups, was supposed to be the start of a triptych, but I forgot what I was going to do for the other two. (Anyone have ideas?)
I've written some stuff about Reagan becoming a kind of proto-Limbaugh type guy as the voice of the right-wing in America before AM Talk Radio really became a thing (inspired by his "healthcare is communism" recordings), but it never really went anywhere.
 
I've written some stuff about Reagan becoming a kind of proto-Limbaugh type guy as the voice of the right-wing in America before AM Talk Radio really became a thing (inspired by his "healthcare is communism" recordings), but it never really went anywhere.

This would be interesting because the ideological content would be the same but the style very different. Reagan could be cruel and conspiratorial but he was never screaming hatred like Limbaugh. I wonder whether it would have done as well.

Consider Air America vs Chapo - the bile seems to get more listeners
 
This was very interesting article and made me ponder quite a bit. Also the idea of Enoch Powell and JRR Tolkien as having a writers rivalry is quite amusing. That needs to be at least a vignette at least.
I think a continued Hollywood career was going to be one of them - sliding downhill into B-fare after Bedtime for Bonzo but undergoing a nostalgic revival in 1980, of course.
I could see Ronald Regan becoming a David Lynch mainstay in the late 80s/early 90s since he has a habit of 50s nostalgia and getting actors from that era to appear in his films/tv stuff.
 
Enoch Powell is one character crying out to be given the treatment suggested by @Kato above. Powell the Writer is incredibly easy to justify; Powell as one of the Cambridge Five is possible. He was at Cambridge at the same time as Blunt, MacLean, and co. And, for a third, during WW2, he was briefly in the same area (North Africa) as Spike Milligan. Imagining Milligan, Sellers, Powell, and Secombe as the Goons is hard, but a skilled writer could, I think, pull it off.

I am not that writer.
Don’t be like that.You’re a great writer who knows how to set your imagination wild.Your writing is fun,smart,good at deconstructing and something the site is proud to have it displayed and sold to the world at large.

Roem was gonna do The Three Enochs,but after a really good first part one it seems to have just stopped.It may be because of his work making him not able to complete them.I still have hope.
 
I know my limitations. I'm good at what I do; the Three Enochs I describe don't fall into what I can do. Powell the Spy, that I could do, as well as anyone. It would be early Le Carre in style, but I'm confident it's one I could do. Powell the Writer, with an Ivory Tower of his own? No, I couldn't do that. I simply don't know academia. I couldn't even fake it. Powell on the Goon Show; that's one I'm really not sure about. In principle, maybe.

The other aspect is that there are only 28 hours in a day, and beside earning a crust or two and other real-life stuff, I've got ongoing projects: Subsequent SEEB stuff (Tales 2, Apostles, Reports, Prequels, Sunny Hotel), and the Building Jerusalem series (Burning Gold, Arrows of Desire, Chariot of Fire, and others, plus spinoffs (Misadventures of Millicent, the Ripping Yarns of Commander Digvijaysinhji, plus others). Then there's the articles (Great War, Sporting Life, Writing) and spin-offs of that. Then I've promised to proof-read Andrew and Katya's Tastes of London (an AH travel guide/cookbook), add in the sequel to Return of King Arthur (provisionally entitled Return of King Martha), getting somewhere with Gentlemen of Leisure, maybe collecting my Sergeant Frosty tales and/or my WW3 tales, and that's just my urgent pile.

I am not able to write The Three Enochs. I've only got two pairs of hands.
Very well.I hope you manage to accomplish those projects and be happy with your creations.

Sorry if I sounded demanding.
 
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