On Jun 14, 2005, at 9:46 AM, Addams wrote: > The problem is that you call Turtledove the best from > a perspective of historical integrity relative to our > current timeline. Alternative history does not have to > have historical integrity relative to our current > timeline, only in relation to the timeline that is > created in the story.
But suspension of disbelief is still important. The more I think about it, the more I think the Star Wars analogy fits here. Physical reality has rules. Gravity operates a certain way here, and a certain way on the moon. Sound doesn't travel in a vacuum. Light travels at a certain speed...this speed changes depending on the circumstance...but there are very very few occasions in which light travels the speed of molasses. As a science fiction writer (or in this case film maker), there are three ways to deal with this. You can take this as a given, and work with it. You can come up with a reason why a certain rule doesn't work. Or you can just toss it out and not come up with an explanation. Now I KNOW that Barnes WANTED to write a plausible alternative history. Why? Because I read the book! And in talking about the book, Barnes talked about his desire to create a PLAUSIBLE alternative world. So it seems to me that he chose the second option. That is, he didn't black box it--write a book in which people CAN hear you scream in space, pass it off as science fiction, and not give a plausible reason why. He attempted to come up with a plausible reason why his history worked the way it did...and in my estimation he wasn't successful. > Unfortunately, white people are > far too used to writing Africans out of history > (especially scifi writers who tend to write Africans > out of future history) or distorting the Africans' > presentation out of ignorance of history as opposed to > mere artistic license. I know this. > Best is purely subjective and > there's no objective way to measure the levels or what > the next level may be. Yet, an interesting duel. Of course there is. Unless you want to take a relativist stance and say that the white boys who routinely wrote Africans out of history were OK. Is that what you're saying? Hell, i KNOW Barnes doesn't agree with this. He WROTE Lion's Blood to go AGAINST this trend...and I appreciate him for it. He should've done more work, that's all. Dr. Lester K. Spence Assistant Professor, Political Science and African Afro-American Studies Washington University Kellogg Scholar in Health Disparities 2004-2006 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/DtIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Community email addresses: Post message: SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe Digest Mode: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
