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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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 Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:59 am Post subject: Give History a Mulligan |
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Everyone knows what a mulligan is, right? I'm not a golfer, but as terms go it seems pretty damn apropos to translation into a non-sporting realm. For those of you ignorant of the term it translates to "do-over."
So, if you could give history a mulligan, to rewrite some event in history over to your ideal version of it what would it be? What would you change? |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:12 am Post subject: |
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Stew?
Flaming Cocktails?
Both deserve some history. |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:14 am Post subject: |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
I think the destruction of the Great Library is a pivotal moment in the turning of history. It is uncertain if the Library contained as much knowledge as we believe it did, but contiguous with the time would have been the first computer, a three dimensional abacus of sorts created by the greeks, knowledge how to generate electric light known by the Coptics, ancient religious and philosophical texts, mathematical and science knowledge known to the ancient world, etc.
Had the knowledge held in the library not been lost we might not have waited as long for the Rennaisance as we did, or perhaps the Rennaisance would have achieved more. Maybe the Muslim caliphates would have built on the knowledge only to have the Rennaisance add to that progression. We might be on the Moon and Mars now had we not had to relearn that knowledge. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:53 am Post subject: |
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Are you asking us to rewrite the past as we want people to believe it happened, or choose an event we would reset?
As far as libraries being destroyed, I'd say the Great Library of Baghdad was a greater loss. I know it's been over seven centuries, but that city hasn't been right ever since.
As for what I would have preferred to redo, we should've taken Tesla seriously when he was still around. If we had, we'd probably have flying cars today. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:53 am Post subject: |
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The greatest loss at the Great Library were the history books and the works of literature. Science couldn't progress until the hold the religious fanatics had over society was broken.
For a do-over: Somebody should hop in a time machine and go back and save Alexander's life. Had he not died so young, the Romans and Carthagenians probably would have been conquered, the Mediterranean world united under the Greeks and Alexander's kid could have been born and grown up to inherit the World. We'd all be better off. |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:57 am Post subject: |
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| Czarjorge wrote: |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
I think the destruction of the Great Library is a pivotal moment in the turning of history. It is uncertain if the Library contained as much knowledge as we believe it did, but contiguous with the time would have been the first computer, a three dimensional abacus of sorts created by the greeks, knowledge how to generate electric light known by the Coptics, ancient religious and philosophical texts, mathematical and science knowledge known to the ancient world, etc.
Had the knowledge held in the library not been lost we might not have waited as long for the Rennaisance as we did, or perhaps the Rennaisance would have achieved more. Maybe the Muslim caliphates would have built on the knowledge only to have the Rennaisance add to that progression. We might be on the Moon and Mars now had we not had to relearn that knowledge. |
I say you take that point in time and write a book ala "Harry Turtledove".
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/harry-turtledove/agent-of-byzantium.htm |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:14 am Post subject: |
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| cbclark4 wrote: |
| Czarjorge wrote: |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
I think the destruction of the Great Library is a pivotal moment in the turning of history. It is uncertain if the Library contained as much knowledge as we believe it did, but contiguous with the time would have been the first computer, a three dimensional abacus of sorts created by the greeks, knowledge how to generate electric light known by the Coptics, ancient religious and philosophical texts, mathematical and science knowledge known to the ancient world, etc.
Had the knowledge held in the library not been lost we might not have waited as long for the Rennaisance as we did, or perhaps the Rennaisance would have achieved more. Maybe the Muslim caliphates would have built on the knowledge only to have the Rennaisance add to that progression. We might be on the Moon and Mars now had we not had to relearn that knowledge. |
I say you take that point in time and write a book ala "Harry Turtledove".
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/harry-turtledove/agent-of-byzantium.htm |
I've considered it. I've only recently gotten over my obsession (not quite the right word but it seems somewhat apt) with originality, and/or fear of partial plagiarism. It seems to plague many of my peers, and I've always been much more accepting of tweaking existing ideas and characters than my friends due to my reading comics as a youth. That and a firm belief in the collective unconscious Comics have always been unpretentious when it comes to originality, just look at the big two and compare the number of shockingly similar characters, odd considering they still haven't exhausted all the archetypes.
My favorite theoretical historical revision is "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" by Orson Scott Card. The basic idea of the book being that Columbus is turned from the New World to crusading against Islam, preventing both the genocide of the peoples of the New World and the rise of a destructive, fundamentalist Islam. It's somewhat simplistic, but a good read. I do love that Mormon scifi.
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Another good historical mulligan would be a twist in the history of Britain. Had Cromwell and the Puritans won the war and sent the Loyalists packing to the New World the US might be a very different country. Perhaps all the Puritanical nonsense that seems foundational in our society would have been left in the UK. We would have nude beaches and a generally less uptight sensibility toward life. Then again maybe a more Puritanical England would have sided with Germany in WWII. |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject: |
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OSC has a new book Empire.
The Turtle dove books are pretty good but they never seem to have any kind of finality.
Newt Gingrich is even into writing some alternate history stuff.
The Alvin Maker series is an interesting take on an Alternate America.
IF your anywhere near Lexington Virginia on March 1 this is the place to be.
http://www.svu.edu/scheduling/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=38 |
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grnmle
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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If governments were quicker with their response to AIDS in the early 80's...
We would be getting it on like it was the 1970's!!! Of course, I would never want to go back to the bell bottoms. |
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