Taking Names for the Purge
A ballsy title: Alternate Universe SF as a form of Intellectual Masturbation. Kinda sweet, thinking there’s still a Left in SF. Oh wait, they’re outside of the US. Maybe they have something other than Dead Center.
But forget the whole Left/Right thing. Doesn’t altH remind you of a bunch of teenage boys min- maxing their D&D characters into studly super jocks without actually ever getting around to playing the game? Is there a subtle acknowledgement of rampant boredom built into the whole idea of twitching history to one’s own amusement?
Its one of those things I’ll never under stand. History isn’t boring. How is an armchair bound, post middle-aged SF writer suppposed to make the fake thing more interesting than the real thing?
On the other hand, its one of the few slices of the spec pie that have pulled in good bucks and readers. Kinda makes you wonder. And me, ill.
Then Howard Waldrop reinvents altH by rewriting the missile crisis of the 1960’s in a way that will leaves non-Cons weeping over how far we haven’t come in the last 40 years. So maybe there is a purpose to altH besides 40 year old boys metaphorically wanking off.
Best regards,
Alan
[scribblingwoman]
April 21st, 2004 at 4:39 pm
Sheesh. Do you respond so stridently to every thing you don’t like?
Is there a reason in there that Alternate History lacks value? I heard you say it’s mastubatory and for 40 year old boys. I suppose that means, only people who can’t think, feel and behave like adults like it.
Frankly, that’s just a bald assertion of your distaste.
Why I should agree escapes me. Again, is there a reason or reasons you think this is so? Can you see no value in exploring history by showing what might have happened differently? What in fact makes a book valuable for you at all? Can you articulate that and show how AltH fails to meet your criteria?
On a different tack, what have you got against boyhood — or masturbation for that matter? Even if I agreed with your premises concerning AltH (which I’m not doing with this sentence), isn’t everyone entitled to an intellectual emotional vacation now and then?
Why are so up in arms?
April 24th, 2004 at 1:52 am
I’m sorry to have missed your comment. It deserved a prompt reply.
Who said I didn’t like it? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. There’s been some I’ve enjoyed. Some I haven’t. Big fat hairy.
It’s not my intent to condemn a sub-genre just because I haven’t liked everything I read. It’s not about liking or even not liking. What I’m really talking about here is jealousy, annoyance and frustration.
AltH blossomed and a number of writers–some quite talented–switched over from writing what had been straight SF. So I’m jealous: they got all the girls. Well, not all, but while closer-to-canon SF has been dead in the water, AltH has been merrily chugging along, cranking out tome after tome and minting money. Not that money is a bad thing.
Annoyance, in that AltH works regularly show up for SF awards, often edging out SF works. Just like horror and fantasy have their own awards, AltH probably should have its own award, too. But it’s not SF. Sometimes it feels to me like there’s a kind of protectionism going on in the field to include AltH because so many of the writers were or are SF writers.
Frankly, I suspect someone could start an AltH magazine and do quite well. And if all of the "SF" mags suddenly stopped publishing AltH, I wonder what would happen to their subscription level. Bet it would drop noticably, at least in the short run.
I’m going to slide past the rewards of light, entertainment reading. I like so-called "entertainment" reading. My shelves have more books like "The Compleat Enchanter" than "Dhalgren." If you enjoy it, power to you. I don’t intend to draw any conclusions about your reading pleasures. I hope you enjoy AltH–and everything else you read. Read it, enjoy it, and don’t let me get in the way. It is certainly not my intent to rob you or anyone else of the pleasures of reading interesting books well written.
But I am frustrated and concerned about the whole inward-looking focus of revisiting the past–writers as armchair generals with a fantasy team–and the extent to which it has dominated the field. If I think the field of fantasy is choked with Tolkienesque derivatives, I’m going to say so. If SF is swallowed by the Space Opera monster, I’ll pitch a fit about that, too. I’ve already squawked about the dominance of "literary" in short SF.
You have a good point–I shouldn’t call it masturbatory because my concerns run along the lines of health and masturbation ain’t unhealthy. Once again, I don’t mean for any one reader or any particular writer. When I last followed "Asimov’s," between two and four stories in each issue were AltH. That’s significant when an issue might have only seven or eight stories in it. F&SF has fewer AltH stories, but a higher percentage of AltH to SF since most of their stories are fantasy. I saw numbers for 2001 with 40% of new SF titles by imprint were AltH.
When such a large percentage of the output of the field is devoted to incremental variations on that which has already happened instead of the here-and-now or the soon-will-come, I get a little weirded out.
I’ve re-enacted Napoleonic campaigns with lead miniatures; I’ve argued who would have won if some things had been different at Vicksburg. The intellectual puzzle part of it is fascinating. But I don’t recall it resulting in anything but burning away summer afternoons and starting the occasional fist fight.
There’s where the "maturbation" arises: feels good, kinda fun, but is there something else than the cleverness of permutations? What have you found beyond the very real cool factor of "What if this other thing happened instead?" What draws you to AltH?
Is there anything substantive being written, works that leave you thinking a little bit past the last page? Maybe I’ve been reading the wrong stuff. If I took the shelves of the local Borders as representing the best of horror–or even median–I’d be forced to conclude that genre is a waste of time. At least with horror, I know better. If you have some suggestions for AltH that rise above "What if Custer felt indisposed?" I’d be happy to put them on my reading list.
Best regards,
Alan
April 26th, 2004 at 5:53 pm
To tell the truth, I’m not a big AltH fan. I’ve picked one up every now and then, but generally put them down bored. From a story perspective, the few AltH’s I’ve read are very predictable. For example, if it’s an AltH about Napoleon, I know he (or the French Imperium) wins. I know (or can reasonably guess) the ending before I pick up the book. Boring.
Rather, I was reacting to what I read as polemic without evidence. I’m pleased to see I was wrong, and I’m further pleased to learn something I didn’t know: percentages on AltH’s prevelance. I also like your suggestion of a separate AltH sub-genre.
I reacted to your polemic because it seemed a set-piece; specifically, the argument felt generic — as if one could apply it to almost any subgenre in the sci-fi/fantasy spectrum. In fact, it felt quite similar to critiques I’ve heard of sci-fi/fantasy in general.
But on reflection, I think I’d have to agree that it’s hard to see what relevant literary fruit the AltH tree can possibly bear. I suppose the form could be used to show that seemingly small or unimporant technologies, decisions — even people — can have an effect on our lives and political structures far in excess of what one might expect.
In this sense, AltH could serve as a sort of negative thought experiment. Take something out (change it) and see the far-reaching results. Add a decent story with interesting characters to rumble things along at a personal level and you’ve got, say, Harry Turtledove (of whose writing — AltH aside — I am a fan).
But I can also think of at least two better ways to achieve the same ends. Better, because they have broader application. These are: (1) historical fiction (McCullough’s Rome series, for example) or (2) strong historical analogs and/or references in closer-to-canon (are we really implying a canon?) sci-fi/fantasy.
By the latter I mean the (perhaps) undeveloped potential of military fantasy and sci-fi to explore difficult political issues by, say, distancing the reader from those issues.
For example, if as a writer I wanted to explore the question "Is terrorism ever a good thing to do?" or "Just what are the conditions under which it is just to wage a guerilla war…" These would be harder questions than usual to ask in today’s America, given the current political context. Or at least more difficult to get published. And understandably so.
But, if I cloak the topic in a story about fictional nations, fictional perceptions of marginalization and fictional tyranny then use the American Revolution as an historical analog — I may have something. Mix in good characters, pacing, narrative structure, etc — it seems I could do that exploration with integrity AND still get published (make money). Assuming it was well written.
These are just some ruminations, off the cuff. They come from looking at my reading list (at your prompting) and seeing that there isn’t really much in the way of AltH on it.
In summary, AltH does seem to me a bit of a sterile field. Or at least, it’ll take a better mind than mine to get the AltH soil bearing real literary fruit.
Now our question should probably be, "Why is it so popular then?" Because as an explanation the notion that so many (40%?) of sci-fi/fantasy readers are just aging, immature, unthoughtful people doesn’t feel adequate to me. Instead, it feels over-generalized and dismissive.
Maybe I’m too optimistic about the readership. But I consider it more likely that I have a failure of vision, and I’m just failing to see what others get out of AltH.
What do you think?
- Lou
PS While they’re not sci-fi/fantasy, if you haven’t read McCullough’s "First Man in Rome" books, I highly recommend them.
May 21st, 2004 at 12:15 am
I feel like the old computer on StarTrek (or is it the computer on the old StarTrek?): Working…
There’s still something that feels “stuck” to me about “What if the shoe was lost?” style AltH. As if the only requirement was cleverness or that what is really featured is the cleverness of the author.
Put that way, I don’t quite see my own beef. OK, so they’re being clever. So? I don’t require my reading to provide anything more than entertainment although I prefer it when there is a little more. Message, philosophy, whatever.
I’ll have to go back and think some more on it.
In the meantime, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, by all reports a stellar example of the “what if things had happened differently?” school of AltH, is on my desk.
I’ll be glad