On Fri, 5 Dec 1997 01:03:23 EST
AnnyMiddon <AnnyMiddon@AOL.COM> wrote:
> I meant it more as a general question: Alternative History stories are
> considered science fiction, instead of fantasy. Why is this so?
>
> Anny
> AnnyMiddon@aol.com
I suspect that this is because alternate histories are concerned with
time lines (science) rather than realities (fantasies).
It is very easy to create a new history by changing a single event.
Example: the Red Dwarf episode in which the assassination of JFK was
accidently prevented. Lister's craving for curry changed the world so
horrifically that Kennedy agreed to be the man on the grassy knoll.
(It's the only theory I've run accross that I can not find any holes in.)
Example: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and, uh, um... somebody
else. Babbage's calculating machine was completed, as a result of which
we had a steam driven IT revolution in the late 19th century.
Conversely, it is very difficult to change history by changing a single
event using fantasy elements. Sure, you can drop a dragon on an
Austrian cottage, but who cares. Apart, that is, from the Burghermeister,
who was waiting for Old Granny Hildegarde to knock up some more dried
frog pills. You see, the world in which the dragon grew up must, by the
very nature of the dragon, be a different world to ours, and therefore
it is not our history that you have changed.
The only way I can see to introduce fantasy to our earth and have it
affect history might go something like this: A meteor lands in a remote
area, causing much destruction and poluting the water table. The genetic
damage caused by the pollutant eventually breeds true, so that New
Zealand is now populated by sentient, ambulatory plants, talking frogs
and spell casting shape-shifters. Introduce them to history when and
how you will. It may still be called Science Fiction, though, because
the fantastic creatures were the result of well established scientific
principles.
Sorry, I'm wittering, aren't I.
Trust me, I'm a doctor.
Catweasel <pvbuckland@bigfoot.com>
Today's subliminal thought is:
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