.KEYWORD ppbookmonth1000
.FLYINGHEAD PALMPOWER BOOK CLUB
.TITLE The political scene in alternate realities
.DEPT
.SUMMARY This month, Ben Brickman takes a look at the alternate history genre of storytelling. He reviews two short stories by Pamela Sargent that take place in alternative timelines and finds two well-known political figures getting lost in space.
.AUTHOR Ben Brickman
The Republican and Democratic conventions are already fading memories, but this Fall will undoubtedly give us the best and worst of political fighting. It’s the American way.
The good news is that when politics is in full swing, so are the best political satirists. This month’s ebook recommendations are the acclaimed alternative history stories "Danny Goes to Mars," and "Hillary Orbits Venus," both by author Pamela Sargent. The two political satires are available in Palm Doc, Rocket eBook Reader, MS Reader, and Adobe Acrobat format at http://www.fictionwise.com.
.H1 Alternate history
Both of these are stories in the "alternate history" genre, which many of you may not be familiar with. In this relatively new genre, real past events are modified based on "what if" scenarios. These stories are not presented as "tongue in cheek," rather they use a deadpan style, as if this is the way things really happened. They illustrate how a slight twist in events could lead to bizarre changes in history.
I have to admit that before I read my first alternate history story, I was skeptical. I usually prefer hard science fiction, horror, fantasy, and an occasional mystery or action story. What I found was that alternate history can be very satisfying and that it actually owes a lot to both science fiction and fantasy. Some authors consider alternate history to be in the same category as science fiction, fantasy, and horror–the so-called "speculative fiction" genres. You can find good alternate history stories appearing on the ballots for the Nebula award and World Fantasy awards with increasing regularity as more authors test the limits of traditional science fiction and fantasy.
Some alternate history stories have a definite science fiction bent and get lumped into that category. You can see this in alternate history stories based loosely on time travel themes or parallel universe themes. Others, like the two highlighted here, involve science fiction only in passing (both involve space travel but are told as if this is just the way things happened).
.H1 Background
Pamela Sargent explained the relationship between alternate history and science fiction this way:
.QUOTE For some time now, I’ve had the feeling that we’re all living in a continuum that has branched off from the main historical line–that line where the Soviet Union still exists and there are moon bases and the first manned mission to Mars is underway. Or maybe the main line isn’t that one, but a world where anyone still alive is sifting through radioactive rubble after a global nuclear war. Imagine believing in 1975 that in less than two decades Ronald Reagan would become president of the United States, the Soviet Union would collapse, Nelson Mandela would lead South Africa’s government, and average people would have home computers more powerful than the ones NASA used to land on the moon. People who wonder about the plausibility of alternate history stories should remember how strange real history has been.
Indeed, if you think about it for a few minutes, you realize she has an excellent point.
.H1 Veep takes a leap
In "Danny Goes to Mars," former Vice President Dan Quayle, through several twists of fate, ends up becoming the first person to walk on the red planet. The story was inspired by a real life interview that appeared in Mother Jones magazine in which Dan Quayle gave his vision for landing on Mars, along with some stereotypically befuddled Quayle comments that made him a popular target for late night talk show humorists. (I think Letterman and Leno must have worn black armbands when Quayle withdrew from the primaries a few months ago.) An excerpt from that interview kicks off the story, which won the prized Nebula Award in 1992 as well as the prestigious Locus Award.
The story begins in a meeting between second-term president George Bush (yes, that’s a change to history), his advisors, and the title character. Sargent has said that a great deal of research went into portraying the personalities of advisors like John Sununu, and that comes through in this meeting. Quayle seems to be barely following what is going on and suddenly realizes (or rather is told) that what they’re discussing is whether or not to send him to Mars using a recently invented and vastly improved rocket engine (a second change to real history).
The motivation for this odd decision? Political, of course! You see, the primaries are about to commence, and nobody expects Quayle to put up a good showing. They want to ensure a Republican administration well into the 21st century. With no pressing domestic or foreign crises, they need some way to give Quayle an edge. It’s made quite clear he won’t have to actually do anything; professional astronauts will do all the real work. Meanwhile, he’ll get plenty of photo-ops while working in cool-looking space suits. (The parallel between this and what a vice president actually does was clearly on Sargent’s mind.) He won’t even land on the planet itself, but will remain within the orbiter.
Well, I don’t want to give anything away, but fate intervenes on these plans and forces him into far more action than he was counting on. The democrats even come up with some tricky business of their own, complicating the situation further, until the story comes to its entertaining conclusion. The plot flows along nicely. Just as everything seems to settle down, Sargent throws in a new twist that keeps Dan off balance. Okay, at one point I had the feeling that one of the plot twists was a stretch, but you have to give an author a little leeway when it results in the kind of payoff laughs this story delivers.
Throughout, we see a picture of Quayle that’s somewhat different from his common media portrayal as a pure buffoon. Sargent does, as you would expect, take some potshots and sets up some wildly comical conversations (not to mention one hilarious speech by Quayle). She also shows him as a man striving to do his best, a man who really does care about his family and his country, and even shows him as courageous under trying circumstances.
Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, this story is certain to bring a smile to your face and help you take the coming political fight a little less seriously.
.H1 Rodham rides a rocket
Lest you think Pamela Sargent thrusts her rapier wit only at Republicans, Fictionwise.com simultaneously released her story, "Hillary Orbits Venus," proving Sargent is an equal opportunity satirist. In this story, the current First Lady and Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the first astronaut to visit Venus.
Again, this story was inspired by a real life event. At age 15, young Hillary Rodham wrote to NASA asking how she could become an astronaut. NASA reportedly replied, "Females need not apply," which was the policy at that time. The rest is history, as they say. However, Sargent’s fertile imagination shows us how things might have been, had young Hillary been allowed to pursue her dream.
In Sargent’s alternative history view of this episode, the letter to Hillary still says, "The current policy does not allow females." However, unlike the real life letter, it continues on: "but that [policy] could change in years to come." The imagined letter then goes on to encourage her by suggesting which courses of study to pursue.
This story is, by design, not as comical as "Danny Goes to Mars," but it does have its moments. The crew of the space ship is composed entirely of women, and Sargent explores the comedic aspects of the different point of view such a crew of space explorers might have. For example, one of the astronauts comments on the strange planetary motion of Venus (its day is longer than its year) by saying "A seriously weird cycle
