"In 1984, the world was divided into three permanently warring super-states called Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia."
This statement is untrue - unless we are summarizing the plot and background of George Orwell's 1984, which was not so much a possible future as an oblique comment on the year in which it was written, 1948.
"Shakespeare's plays were true histories."
They were in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest which is a work not only of fiction but also of fantastic alternative history fiction.
"In 1917, Theodore Roosevelt was serving his second term as President of the United States and Mexico was a US Protectorate."
This statement has recently become true in the Black Chamber Trilogy, a work of realistic alternative history fiction by SM Stirling.
The possibilities receded to infinity. Anyone can imagine alternative histories but not everyone can set novels in them.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And one of my favorites "what ifs" history is wondering what might have happened if the assassination at Sarajevo in 1914 had been prevented. Stirling gives us a glimpse, but only that, of what otherwise might have happened in in his Time Patrol pastiche, "A Slip In Time."
Ad astra! Sean
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