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Discuss this article by @Gary Oswald here
Very interesting article and good use of Strata as an example.Discuss this article by @Gary Oswald here
It's been ages since I read Strata so I just went "Bloody hell how did I miss that even as a kid"
This is a delightful article, but also frustrating. I understand why @Gary Oswald doesn't name the films he alludes to - he says he won't, for sensible reasons - but it also makes things a bit vague in places.
This is a delightful article, but also frustrating. I understand why @Gary Oswald doesn't name the films he alludes to - he says he won't, for sensible reasons - but it also makes things a bit vague in places.
I was able to work out the 2009 film, but I've not been able to work out the other.
They both have the same director.
Strange and Norrell is unusual in that both history has always been different, and it has a POD that makes things start changing, even if it doesn't send history completely off the rails. The Napoleonic wars do basically play out like they did in OTL (S&N is also the rare alternate history that helps the winner), with some differences like different people living and dying. Of course, all this probably stands out to me because I edit a web serial that also does all those things.This piece also made me think of the wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which is technically AH, but largely uses it to keep throwing the reader off-balance: it was a book that had a very well-judged sense of how to play with your expectations for the setting and an individual scene.
I remember reading that and Temeraire around the same time and thinking "what are the chances of this decade producing two works of background-AH with distant PODs but which feature a familiar, but not quite the same, Napoleonic Wars?"Strange and Norrell is unusual in that both history has always been different, and it has a POD that makes things start changing, even if it doesn't send history completely off the rails. The Napoleonic wars do basically play out like they did in OTL (S&N is also the rare alternate history that helps the winner), with some differences like different people living and dying. Of course, all this probably stands out to me because I edit a web serial that also does all those things.
The Napoleonic Wars are a convenient intersection of old-timey and modern. It allows the authors to have relatively modern politics and issues while still being historical enough to not be urban fantasy. Or to put it another way, it falls between medieval fantasy and urban fantasy.I remember reading that and Temeraire around the same time and thinking "what are the chances of this decade producing two works of background-AH with distant PODs but which feature a familiar, but not quite the same, Napoleonic Wars?"
Indeed - whereas I found it a bit refreshing to find an example of it instead being done with the mid-1700s in "The Emperor of All Things" by Paul Witcover. Not sure if the sequel to that one ever materialised.The Napoleonic Wars are a convenient intersection of old-timey and modern. It allows the authors to have relatively modern politics and issues while still being historical enough to not be urban fantasy. Or to put it another way, it falls between medieval fantasy and urban fantasy.
Not being a film buff, I have no idea which films were referred to - not the 2019 one nor the 2009 one - and I haven't seen most of the others referred to either (Psycho and The Birds being the exceptions). But I understand why no-one wants to name them, so I'm just going to have to remain (only very slightly) frustrated!It also, amusingly, shows a problem with not naming names when matters of taste are involved. I spent far too long trying to work out which was the "major 2019 film (that) used that reveal to great effect" because I immediately thought of the answer and dismissed it because I thought the reveal had been a total, tasteless failure. Ah, the joys of subjectivity.
This piece also made me think of the wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which is technically AH, but largely uses it to keep throwing the reader off-balance: it was a book that had a very well-judged sense of how to play with your expectations for the setting and an individual scene.
But I understand why no-one wants to name them, so I'm just going to have to remain (only very slightly) frustrated!