Day 195: Alternate History Cont.

I've found so much about this genre in the past couple days that it kinda makes me nervous. How much of every genre is so cool and slipping right under my nose?! Well, I know the answer is a massive proportion of all that's written. Just another one of those things you know but don't think about until it slaps you in the face I guess. I've found several collections of alternate history titles, the biggest one being this collection from http://www.uchronia.net/. Thousands of alternate history stories are listed in their book, including one that caught my eye on the home page called 'The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History: A Handbook on Craft, Art, and History' by Jack Dann. From the description, it includes a walkthrough of an entire short story with author's commentary on each decision he made, which is just a spectacular idea that should be in every how to write book ever in my opinion. The book was published just this year, meaning that the genre must be booming if it has people writing about how to write it now. It's crazy to me that this book only has one review, I don't think I've ever stumbled upon such an unknown with such a cool idea.

Among other notable stories I found were 'Uchronia,' which was a book written by another Frenchman in the 19th century, Charles Renouvier, who was more widely known for his philosophical writings and his historical studies. The name of this one was the inspiration for the name of that collection I mentioned earlier. The main alteration to history in the story is way back during the rule of the five good emperors of Rome. Christianity was banned by the emperors. I can't find much about this one because it seems it was rather an obscure novel. It's biggest impact seems to be the use of uchronia has now spread to refer to the whole genre.

Of course I have to mention 'The Man in the High Castle,' mostly because anything Phillip K Dick touches turns to gold. Dick is an interesting character in this tale of alternate history, not only for his contribution to the genre, but because he claimed to have experienced visions of something he referred to as VALIS, or Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Essentially it is Dick's interpretation of God, a vast consciousness spread over the universe. It apparently gave him insight into alternate worlds and fueled his fiction writing. The dude was living an alternate history in his mind behind the scenes the whole time. He even wrote a semi-autobiographical series of novels by the same title, 'Valis.' I'm not sure I want to dig any deeper to be honest. Good luck if you do read it, sounds like a trip from hell.

From there, the genre has just exploded. There have been several reinterpretations of the High Castle alternate where Nazis won WWII, alternates where the confederacy split off from the union, where the US lost the space race, and countless other differences that then spiral into a whole new timeline. What interests me most though, is the appeal of this genre. Why is it so interesting to reimagine history? Is it the appeal of having one's own world be the basis for a story? Is it the idea that small differences could lead to great change? Or maybe it's just that it makes it so much easier to see yourself as a part of the story, living your life in the background as these changes take place. In a way, we currently live in an ever expanding history, with a constant stream of 'alternates' appearing and disappearing as decisions are made. Often times, I find fiction ends up feeling more real than reality itself. I think then, that the appeal of an alternate history lies not in the idea that history could be different, but that the future could be under our control. That making good decisions now does, in fact, make a difference later, and even if history is already set in stone, the future is still up for grabs.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley