Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39704
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Alternative history can allude to history and make the reader think ‘this sounds a bit like the _Great War_’ but the names of the countries have been changed. That is fine, but you need not do that.

It can also not change the names and that can be better. Whatever works for your story, works.

In a couple of movies, history was altered significantly and the rest remained the same so that we could appreciate the changes. Inglorious Basterds changed the way Hitler died and how WWII ended. You either went along for the ride and enjoyed it or not, but it was Tarantino’s movie and no one thought that he believed it historically correct.

The film Fatherland had the world wars not happen, Kennedy was not assassinated and had Germany be a superpower based on its economic and political strength, never having gone down the path of war.

These are intellectual exercises, what ifs. What if JFK had lived and the wars never been fought? What might that world seem like? These worked because they were intriguing and consistent.

You say that you mention nations after changing everything else. That can certainly be jarring as one expects the paradigm to hold. If I am writing about characters on another planet and have one of them say, ‘When in Rome’ I have broken my paradigm and need to change that name.

You say that your characters are not patriots, that gives you freedom to use them to comment, as Liquid mentioned, on the issues of their day. You might have to explain why these non patriots are fighting for their country. Do they come from families with military traditions?

During time of war, the bad country is always the other country. The citizens of the other country are often dehumanized to render it more virtuous to enlist in the army and go kill them. That is the purpose of propaganda in such times.

The assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand was certainly a catalyst and could be something your characters think about. ‘Why am I here in a damn trench fighting strangers because a guy got killed?’

Original score: 4