Harry Turtledove Message Board
Jack posts on 8/18/2007 12:18:26 AM
The Cuban resistance was overtly Socialist? I wasn't clear on that. Also, though your deliberately stupid scenario was, well, stupid, it did yield one wrinkle that tickled my imagination: The remaining native CS blacks have to choose between supporting their new neighbors against their longtime foes in a racial war, or supporting their longtime foes but coreligionists in a religious war.
Makkabee posts on 8/17/2007 3:10:08 PM
Castro as a Hooverite? Well, that works except for HT's pattern in the series of having historical figures hold more or less to their OTL ideologies. Oh, and the TL-191 Fidel's involvement with the socialist uprising in Cuba. Still, let's ignore piddling little details like that.
Oh, and in my deliberately stupid scenario the Christians are the terrorist insurgents. The Muslims are the brutal government-backed paramilitary counterinsurgents.
Jack posts on 8/17/2007 3:17:32 AM
If Gizzi's not posting, he's usually lurking. But maybe we can try out the Law of Attraction by imagining Gizzi going away and never coming back. Do we have to have a seance or something?
Stone By Day posts on 8/17/2007 1:27:36 AM
Makkabee, you can mock me all you want, but the fact is that we have no idea what's going to happen in the next series, and Turtledove has surprised us before. A religious war in the South would be interesting, though, and it would also be interesting to see Muslim terrorism become an issue decades early. Or what if the Muslims moved to Utah instead, and it became a Palestine analog?
Justin, I'm not sure what you mean by asking me what the joke is. I just thought having Castro be in the same position but with a completely different outlook on life would be interesting. It's the sort of irony Dr. Turtledove loves to tease us with, like how the USA pulled off a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the British called it a day that will live in infamy. Or how Truman and Dewey ended up on the same ticket. These sorts of ironies add humor to the alt hist genre.
And it is true that believing something will happen can have an affect on its outcome. It's called the Law of Attraction, and it's based on quantum mechanics. The idea about Turtledove reading reviews was just an example, though I know some of you have suggested that he put things in for the fans, like the cigarette reference at the end of IatD. But regardless, it is possible to change outcomes of events with what you think about them, which is why I choose to think positively about the upcoming series. What happened to Gizzi? Did you guys scare him off? I was looking forward to discussing my theories with him.
Justin posts on 8/16/2007 7:42:10 PM
Castro being a Hooverite? I don't get it; what's the joke, the catch? G. Gordon Libby on a scooter, your suggestion is yet another very stupid thing in a board chock full of them.
Makkabee posts on 8/16/2007 1:37:09 PM
Stone, you get an E for effort. You're trying (very trying), and everyone but Yoda approves of that. The line about Castro being a Hooverite was just a bit too much, though.
Here's a theory for you -- there are postwar colonial uprisings in Africa, which the European powers ruthlessly repress. Some of the rebellions succeed anyway, others lead to massacres. The US welcomes black refugees and resettles them in the south, restoring the racial balance to something more like it was in 1933, but now the blacks (mostly immigrant and many of them Muslim) are the dominant minority group. Southern whites continue a Christian/ nativist/ racist guerilla war against the new upper class, which is suppressed by US troops and mujahadeen auxiliaries. The next series is about a religious/ethnic civil war in the USA's occupied southern territories.
How's that sound? Pretty stupid, really? It ought to, since it's not gonna happen. Though I'd love to hear how Gizzi latches on to this one.
An Avid Fan posts on 8/15/2007 10:41:31 PM
Oh, man--you're right! I hadn't thought of that, Stone By Day. Come on, Jack, Mak, Justin, stop criticizing the books. You;re going to talk HT out of writing books he intends to do. That's so unfair. Everyone knows that authors don't write books if they receive negative feedback. Who would? Oh--This is so sad. I'm picturing Dr T at home in LA logging onto this board, becoming depressed, and hanging up his pen. Don't stop, Harry! Most of us still love the series!
Jack posts on 8/15/2007 9:27:14 PM
Readers saying this series has gotten lame have no more ability to compel HT to stop writing than readers saying they want more do to compel him to write more, but if I can play a role in keeping HT from continuing to abuse this poor series by writing more declining books with characters and plot elements that used to make a great story, I'm glad to do it. I'd respond to the rest if I thought you were being serious, but it's clear you're not.
Stone By Day posts on 8/15/2007 4:23:43 PM
I'm with Gizzi here- why do the naysayers have to bring us down? You guys keep saying that there won't be another series- well, there won't if you keep up that attitude. It's clear that Harry Turtledove wants to write another series- otherwise, he would have come to a more logical conclusion and not left so many loose ends. The reason he says he's not going to write another is because people don't appreciate the work he does anymore. The scorn of people like Jack is literally killing this series (although, Jack, I did like your theory that the Featherston who was shot was a body double- yet more support for a sequel series). Turtledove's hoping that claiming that this is the last book in order to rekindle excitement in the series and hopefully get people talking in a positive way again. Then, if he knows people really want more books, he'll make more. So remember: there can be another series, but you have to believe that it's coming. Gizzi and his friends on the pub board are doing the best thing possible for this series: saying good things about it.
So, what else is going to happen in the next series? I predict that LBJ will become president of the Republic of Texas- he's one of few national leaders who has yet to make an appearance. For his vice-president, I suggest Buddy Holly, another Texan (and if you think an entertainer can't be a leader, I have two words for you: Ronald Reagan). Fidel Castro will naturally become the leader of Cuba within a few years, although in this timeline he will be a strict free market capitalist in the mold of Herbert Hoover. And in the north, Flora Blackford is obviously going on to bigger and better things. Obviously we have yet to see a Kennedy play a major role, and while John Kennedy would be my choice, I can't see why Dr. Turtledove would have left Joe Kennedy alive unless it were for the purpose of setting him up as future president. With the Democrats being the conservative party in this timeline, what if Joe Kennedy were to run for president on a ticket with Richard Nixon? And in the Confederacy, clearly the unnamed noncom Potter talks to is there for a reason, but why would he not be given a name? My theory is that Turtledove has another surprise in store. I think the noncom is really Strom Thurmond in disguise. Think about it- he was a prominent Freedom Party politician who was believed to be killed, but Turtledove wouldn't introduce him just to kill him off later. So he joins the army under another name, and is last seen sleeping in a park in Richmond- the same park where Featherstone got his start. Clearly a deliberate parallel. I feel sure this is Strom Thurmond, and he'll later start a new Southern supremacist movement like the Freedom Party, taking orders from his leader in hiding: Featherston himself. So Featherston continues to plague North America from his secret base through his puppet, Strom Thurmond. Compelling, no?
Justin posts on 8/15/2007 5:53:21 AM
Norwich, I could see being bombed. Brighton -- isn't that a seaside resort town on the Channel? Portsmouth or Southampton or Bristol or Liverpool would have been much better. Maybe even Scapa Flow being struck from Norway.
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