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copperbadge:
kweh-not-wark:
etraytin:
copperbadge:
kweh-not-wark replied to your post “AUs where the author writes from a source of deep knowledge are…”
My grandpa told me once that the only historical fiction he would ever read would be a book in which the Jewish people win WW2. Historically speaking, this doesn’t make much sense and the amount of research to sort of tackle a concept like that is boggling. Other times, I think about just throwing away all the depressing facts and just writing that fantastical story just for him.
Please tell your grandpa that I love this idea and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for like, days. I think actually it wouldn’t be too terribly hard to write – there were Jewish resistances and ghetto uprisings before and during the war, and if they had managed to get a stronger foothold (perhaps if they’d had better support) there’s a really interesting story to be told about Jewish resistance becoming an organized movement that then overtakes Germany and, per your grandpa’s stipulation that they win, installs a Jewish-led postwar government.
You’d have to be super careful about it. Especially about not implying that if Jewish people had just “done more” they could have prevented what was done to them. And suuuuuper careful not to trigger any weird conspiracy theory bullshit in general with the denoument. But I think it could be done, and with the right attitude it could be a brilliant flip-the-script on the generally creepy What If The Nazis Had Won subgenre that’s so popular with a very specific segment of the literary population. What If The Nazis Had Profoundly Lost.
And WWII is one of the most-documented wars with the least amount of censorship in basically the history of war, so there’s at least a lot of resources.
Or just write it for your grandpa and let it be fantastical and only make a small amount of sense, so long as it is COOL, and he will probably love it. A story doesn’t have to fit perfectly into history or even appeal to a large group of people to make it be exactly what one person wants. I wrote a fic once where a thinly veiled expy of my dad became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because he wanted me to. He then wanted me to make the same character president (this was a small part of a large ongoing multi-chapter fic). Though it wouldn’t work at all in the storyline or in, like, reality, I wrote an alternate, not-widely-shared chapter just for him where by a ridiculous confluence of circumstances, everyone decided that the Chief Justice ought to become the President. And he loved it! Never discount the power of a story made for just one person.
This is a good point and one I’m glad I saw when I looked through the comments on this post. Thank you.
It’s an excellent point! Like you say in your other post, I like the challenge of doing it “to spec” as it were in terms of research and plotting, but you could even just write the ending – write the winners reflecting on how they won and don’t make it too specific. It’s kinda what I did with the It’s A Wonderful Life sequel – I didn’t go into the details, I just wrote the aftermath.
this is super fucking awesome and I would definitely want to read this AND pay good money for it! And I mean both, the researched and the hand-waved what-then! If I have to suffer through ONE (1) more “but what if the Nazis had won?!” arent-I-special-for-asking-this shit-fest excuse for some asshole’s personal fetishization of well-dressed genocide I will go fucking spare. Speaking as a german: they won enough - and STILL win - with every fucking instance of legitimizing their fucking bullshit catastrophy of a “reign” as havin the barest chance of winning, and also FUCK YOU PROJECT PAPERCLIP!
AS IF YOU LOT HADN’T HAD ENOUGH OF THAT WHITE SUPREMACY GARBAGE IN YOUR OWN SYSTEM ALREADY YOU DIDN’T NEED TO IMPORT MORE! NOW CAN WE PLEASE STOP PRETENDING THIS FASHIST RUBBISH IS ANYTHING BUT THE WORST CODE FOR GETTING A DECENT WORKING SYSTEM OF A SOCIETY ARGH!
copperbadge:
kweh-not-wark:
etraytin:
copperbadge:
kweh-not-wark replied to your post “AUs where the author writes from a source of deep knowledge are…”
My grandpa told me once that the only historical fiction he would ever read would be a book in which the Jewish people win WW2. Historically speaking, this doesn’t make much sense and the amount of research to sort of tackle a concept like that is boggling. Other times, I think about just throwing away all the depressing facts and just writing that fantastical story just for him.
Please tell your grandpa that I love this idea and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for like, days. I think actually it wouldn’t be too terribly hard to write – there were Jewish resistances and ghetto uprisings before and during the war, and if they had managed to get a stronger foothold (perhaps if they’d had better support) there’s a really interesting story to be told about Jewish resistance becoming an organized movement that then overtakes Germany and, per your grandpa’s stipulation that they win, installs a Jewish-led postwar government.
You’d have to be super careful about it. Especially about not implying that if Jewish people had just “done more” they could have prevented what was done to them. And suuuuuper careful not to trigger any weird conspiracy theory bullshit in general with the denoument. But I think it could be done, and with the right attitude it could be a brilliant flip-the-script on the generally creepy What If The Nazis Had Won subgenre that’s so popular with a very specific segment of the literary population. What If The Nazis Had Profoundly Lost.
And WWII is one of the most-documented wars with the least amount of censorship in basically the history of war, so there’s at least a lot of resources.
Or just write it for your grandpa and let it be fantastical and only make a small amount of sense, so long as it is COOL, and he will probably love it. A story doesn’t have to fit perfectly into history or even appeal to a large group of people to make it be exactly what one person wants. I wrote a fic once where a thinly veiled expy of my dad became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because he wanted me to. He then wanted me to make the same character president (this was a small part of a large ongoing multi-chapter fic). Though it wouldn’t work at all in the storyline or in, like, reality, I wrote an alternate, not-widely-shared chapter just for him where by a ridiculous confluence of circumstances, everyone decided that the Chief Justice ought to become the President. And he loved it! Never discount the power of a story made for just one person.
This is a good point and one I’m glad I saw when I looked through the comments on this post. Thank you.
It’s an excellent point! Like you say in your other post, I like the challenge of doing it “to spec” as it were in terms of research and plotting, but you could even just write the ending – write the winners reflecting on how they won and don’t make it too specific. It’s kinda what I did with the It’s A Wonderful Life sequel – I didn’t go into the details, I just wrote the aftermath.
this is super fucking awesome and I would definitely want to read this AND pay good money for it! And I mean both, the researched and the hand-waved what-then! If I have to suffer through ONE (1) more “but what if the Nazis had won?!” arent-I-special-for-asking-this shit-fest excuse for some asshole’s personal fetishization of well-dressed genocide I will go fucking spare. Speaking as a german: they won enough - and STILL win - with every fucking instance of legitimizing their fucking bullshit catastrophy of a “reign” as havin the barest chance of winning, and also FUCK YOU PROJECT PAPERCLIP!
AS IF YOU LOT HADN’T HAD ENOUGH OF THAT WHITE SUPREMACY GARBAGE IN YOUR OWN SYSTEM ALREADY YOU DIDN’T NEED TO IMPORT MORE! NOW CAN WE PLEASE STOP PRETENDING THIS FASHIST RUBBISH IS ANYTHING BUT THE WORST CODE FOR GETTING A DECENT WORKING SYSTEM OF A SOCIETY ARGH!
