"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.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteAnd 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