Well Palmer on the rise makes me want to vomit but I love Pirate Utopia.
Of Poets and Supermen Volume I - The Drums of War
- Thread starter Persephone
- Start date
It really is a great piece of alternate history, even if it ends on such an abrupt note. I read it for the first time last year after wanting to read it for years, and I can honestly say that it rekindled my interest in alternate history as a genre. The path that Italy goes down in this timeline is essentially an homage to Pirate Utopia, all the way down to the name of the fictional character that I mentioned there, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
And yeah, Palmer in this timeline will be more radicalized than he was in OTL, thanks to the 1919 Galleanist Anarchist Bombings being more successful than they were. Without giving too much away, Wayne B. Wheeler and the influence of the Anti-Saloon League will play a key role in events during the 1920 election. The consequences for the Democratic Party further down the line in the 20s will be huge, especially with the continued political career of a particularly vile individual from the Midwest who I will not name in order to preserve the suspense.
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Good to hear! So the First Red Scare will be even worse, Italy falls apart like a badly-made pizza, and that's just the start! I know that D'Annunzio will play a much more prominent role in politics, so what about Marinetti? Given how Italian politics will disintegrate worse then OTL, I'm pretty sure that he won't have his influence melt away until he becomes nothing then a simp for Mussolini OTL.
Great guess, your prediction hits it right on the money!
Marinetti and his Futurist Political Party will indeed have a role to play in the chaos to come, serving as the extreme/radical wing of the nationalist coalition headed up by D'Annunzio and co. (which says a lot about how bad things have gotten when you consider that D'Annunzio himself was viewed as something of a radical nationalist, even among his supporters in Italy), and the price paid for that cooperation will be a high one, to say the least. The thing that's especially interesting that I've found out over the course of my research for all of this is that while Marinetti did initially praise D'Annunzio and the Fiumans in OTL, he ended up leaving Fiume in disgust over the fact that D'Annuzio was collaborating with conservative officers such as Sante Ceccherini and Carlo Reina. In fact, Marinetti apparently both envied and feared D'Annunzio, and one quote refers to D'Annunzio as "An idiot with flashes of imbecility", while D'Annunzio called Marinetti "A phosphorescent jerk".
Well, those two were quite the personalities, to say the least. Given you've researched Italian Interwar politics, you obviously know more about them then me, yet I can't help but bring up their OTL achievements and beliefs (Although to me Marinetti was the crazier of the two, while D'Annunzio was crazy awesome). D'Annunizo, the dual wielding knife-in-mouth, harbour-raiding, pamphlet bomber of Vienna warrior poet who decided to just take a city because he thought it should be Italian is awesome, regardless whatever you think about his political beliefs or character . Meanwhile, Marinetti served as a war correspondent, went off to fight The Great War with his Futurist friends as volunteer cyclists, and kind of to me petered out into relative cultural and political impotence. The guy tried to create Futurist cooking, and guess how just about all of Italy reacted when he condemned pasta.
I definitely agree with you about their personalities being larger than life and both of them being varying degrees of crazy. As for their OTL achievements and beliefs, I'm glad you brought that up, since those achievements (D'Annunzio's at least) will be mentioned in the update itself! As for Marinetti, I'm going to be covering him and Futurism in a later update, including such things as the infamous Futurist Cookbook and Marinetti's attempts to implement the ideas talked about in the Manifesto of the Futurist Political Party after the conclusion of the Civil War.
So, let me give my two bits on these futures (We should have more of these future compasses on this site, they have potential), starting with the top left.Hey folks! This isn't really an "update" per se, because classes started up again last week, so my writing's kind of taken a hit while I readjust my schedule. The Italian update will hopefully be done this week in my free time, but don't quote me on that. In the meantime, I made this nifty little chart that shows some of the possible futures in PPM's timeline. I'm a big fan of the "future compass" meme format, so I decided to make my own for shits and giggles, as well as to give folks a glimpse at what I've got in store. None of this is "canon" yet and I obviously can't cover every single nation that plays a role in the timeline, so I'll probably be making more of these in the future. For now, feel free to speculate and guess at what each entry means and how blessed (or cursed) they are. I will note that "good" and "bad" in the chart are a bit misleading since PPM's timeline is firmly an example of the Grey-and-Grey Morality and Black-and-Grey Morality tropes (the former moreso than the latter) and no one's really that innocent in the long run. As always, please feel free to ask questions about anything you're wondering about my plans for the TL or let me know how things are so far! I love to hear constructive feedback!
Evolian Futurism: Julius Evola is the sort of insane villian you would see in Indiana Jones. Search him up, he just looks like a dime novel or pulp magazine villain. But enough about the poster boy for Aristocrats Are Evil and his looks, whats up with his beliefs? This guy was so esoteric that it hurt. He has been called many things, fascist intellectual, radical traditionalist, etc. Personally, the only thing this occultist far right "superfascist" should be called is" A nutcase whose amount of influence and followers should be the same amount as his current number of heartbeats per minute". The thing is though that the second part of that future adds to the concern. An Evola-Marinetti team-up will be the worst sort of crossover since bleach and ammonia decided to hook up and make some chlorine gas.
Petrosianist Third Internationale: Since Kamo is the first noticeable character in this timeline, and he is educating himself on communist thinking, he will obviously play an important role in the story. What his political philosophy will be is yet to be seen, but I believe he will be certainly more then a rehash of Stalin. So not much to go on yet.
Jungers Young Radicals: Ernst Junger was, from what I've read so far, a budding young Bohemian poet before going off to fight in the Great War, where he found both glory, wounds, and a talent for soldiering. He even was awarded an honored medal for legitimate reasons (The Pour Le Merite no less!), unlike another Bohemian we all know and loathe. His Wikipedia page states that during the Weimar period he "hated democracy like the plague", held a mystical fondness for the war and believed that it revealed the nature of existence, and it seems believed that a militarized society run by warrior-worker-scholars would work best. Liberal values (liberty, security, ease and comfort) were to be discarded, and the values of resilience and sacrifice are to be embraced. Pretty radical Nationalist stuff, although given that OTL he wasn't so radical to support the Nazis, he may be considered a slightly darker shade of grey.
Longist Democracy: Huey Long is whoever you wanna be. (If you wannabe my lover, you've got to Share our Wealth!) Golden boy for Hoi4 mods and alternate history (man wrote his own self-insert fan fic on what he would do in his first days as president, which is now alternate history technically), this guy had enough personality and intellect to forge a governorship like no other, create public works and expanded social programs, was a populist on either side of the spectrum, won good boy points for the future by being nicer then almost every other politician on racial issues (And insulting the KKK to boot), create his own political dynasty, and had built the tallest capitol building in the US even today, because he could. However, the guy ran his own state like a kingdom, most definitely had some dealings in the dirtier side of politics, and was the inspiration for It Can't Happen Here (Which says a lot about how some felt about him). A definite grey area, although how light or dark it is depends on the actions and circumstances those actions were taken in.
Deat's Revolution From Above: Marcel Deat knew how to play politics. He was noted by Charles De Gaulle ,who said of him:“Deat undoubtedly has great talent and high value. That's what we blame him for. But be patient, I think we'll see him come back up and go very high." The man was a Socialist, and then a Neosocialist. Neosocialism is based on the idea of "Revolution from Above". This is where a political elite changes and orders change to be implemented/imposed on the populace they govern (Usually urban areas or the capitol city) They also admired fascism, specifically the Italian variant of it. That's not helping Deat's case, although it should be noted that he actively protested both antisemitism and racism. He was also compared to his fellow collaborators less radically against the French Jews during his time as a collaborator OTL. His previous sentiments may have been corrupted though by his flirtations with totalitarianism.
The Brown Revolution: The Nazis, for all their bluster and shouting about being revolutionary, settled into being counter-revolutionary very quickly. I do spy however the Sturmabteilung insignia in the corner. May perhaps our favorite gay, independent minded Nazi make a name independent of his own? Well, they're Nazis, and probably not the Strasser kind of Nazi. They'll be Revolutionary National Socialists (With much more emphasis on the Socialist part)! Better then Hitler is still a bit of a low bar in this case.
The Cromwell Of The East: Now, I'll be honest,I don't know who the Japanese man in the nice uniform is. Olly Cromwell was a military man turned dictator. Sounds quite like a shogun to me. Now, the military cliques will likely still be around, and IJA and IJN didn't get their reputation as rivals for nothing. The Kodoha and Toseiha might still be around, and maybe probably some new ones. Ikki Kita sounds like an interesting enough fellow who may get popular and influential during his life rather then after it. That's just a suggestion though. My bet is a shogun in practice if not in name.
The D'Annunzian Dream: Now, I admit it, I don't actually know much about how the man thought a state should be run. I've seen the Wikipedia page on the Italian Regency of Carnaro, and it seems to take influence from proto-fascism, corporatism, and syndicalism. I can wait until the next updates come so you can elaborate on what Chartism is, since you said it will an expansion and reworking of the OTL Charter of Carnaro.
Rockwellian Christian Commonwealth: I see in the bottom left corner the blurred yet distinctive name of William Dudley Pelley and I know this is gonna suck. Pelley is most popularly known as the Evil American in any HOI4 alt-history mod. And for good reason. Guy believed in a "Perfected" form of Christianity (That was influenced by four "isms"), claimed he had a out-of-body experience and met God and Jesus who basically told him to evangelize America (like they needed any more of them), and through that claimed experience gained the ability to levitate, see through walls, and have out-of-body experiences at will. And this was before he founded the Silver Legion! Insane racist religious extremism is the macaroni to Far-right politics cheese. The only influential Far-right American with the last name of Rockwell I can think off is George Lincoln Rockwell (When I first saw the compass, I was confused and though that Norman Rockwell would go crazy). So we have the insane mystical fascist zealot joining forces with and possibly influencing the founder of the American Nazi party. Forget the Evola-Marinetti crossover, this is so much more cursed.
Integralist Patrianovism: The Brazilian Integralists are significantly more religious then most other fascist counterparts. They are fanatically Catholic and perceive Nationalism as a "shared spiritual identity". They, like many other fascists despise Jews, and they have their own color coded shirts (Green, in this instance). They dislike socialism and liberalism, seeing those two as examples of atheism, which is to be expected from angry zealots. I don't know what else to say about them, other then that they might be influenced by Chartism.
La Disperata Preserves Order: When I Google Translated it La Disperata means "The Desperate". The poster behind it shows what is most likely a Blackshirt. I don't know what this would be, other then the possibility of the status quo staying the status quo (As in the establishment somehow manage to hold on to power). That however is going to become very unlikely. Not much to go on for this one.
Hakko Ichiu: Hakko Ichiu means according to Wikipedia: "eight crown cords, one roof" i.e. "all the world under one roof. This means that Japan must unify the eight corners of the world. I take this to mean Japanese dominance. Military, political, or economic dominance in the Pacific would be most likely. The Co-Prosperity Sphere realized eh? It's not going to be easy, to achieve such a thing, if the suggestion I bring up is even remotely accurate for what will occur in the story.
The Red Scare Continued: McCarthyism is going to look like a game of Among Us. Anything leftist is going to beaten to death by either a police baton or a lynch mob. Italians and Russians are likely to get it worse then they had it OTL, with raids all over the nation. Strikes are going to become popular, as are other, more extralegal tactics if the situation escalates enough. In that case, who's ready to play some Counter-Strike! It's going to be one wild ride. Coney Island ain't got nothing on the roller-coaster the whole nation's going to get on.
The Conservative Revolution: The words "conservative" and "revolution" don't look like they should go together, yet some how the Germans did it. Instead of "traditional" conservatism, revolutionary conservatives tried to inject new life into right-wing German politics. A mixture of conservative and nationalist politics make this not quite mainstream conservatism and not quite fascist. They are most likely authoritarian and militaristic by nature, and disdain traditional conservatism and it's ethics, anything democratic, anything left-wing (That is to be expected), and the like. So, they aren't evil like the Nazis, but they also are unashamedly dictatorial and nationalist. They are just like their uniform colors, shades of grey.
A Bavarian Kaiser: The next most known region of Germany other then Prussia is Bavaria. We all know that Prussians are stoic pickelhaube wearing militarists who are all officers and members of the gentry, while the Bavarian past times are Oktoberfest and being independent from the other German regions. So, the idea of a Catholic, Bavarian Monarch reestablishing the German empire as its Kaiser sounds both odd and awesome. Course, who would've expected the nice beer-drinkers to be such capable political players? Won't be easy, considering that German politics are going to be put through the wringer (They're luckier then Italian politics, it's being thrown into the wood-chipper).
Nungesser's New France: Nungesser in alt-history is like Charles Lindbergh in a way. Both were accomplished pilots, and both go into politics. Controversial politics, what with Alt!Nungesser becoming involved with far-right wingers while Lindbergh was more moderate but still just as right-wing. I don't really know why they use Nungesser like that. Maybe the writers see him as a French Lindbergh? I mean, celebrity turned politician has happened before. Schwarzenegger, Reagan, He who must not be named. As for his politics, what will he align himself with? The Action Francaise seems to be an obvious choice, but they were monarchist. One of the many far-right leagues seems obvious, or maybe he just starts his own. We'll have to wait and see.
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Oh boy, I'm crowding this thread up! Might have to leave some space for other posters! Anyways, would you happen to know why Charles Nungesser is used as a French right-wing autocratic head of state in alt-history? Wikipedia doesn't make any mention of any political views he had. I suspect that the reason may be why he's similar enough to Charles Lindbergh in some ways, but that's a bit of a guess. Perhaps Nungesser is a bit of a blank slate in the historical records, so that people can put down their own characterizations of the man so he could play a pivotal role in their timeline. This was done in Weber's Germany: The Veterinarian Totalitarian. Could you state your opinions and knowledge on the matter?
So, these are all really great hypotheses and I'm glad someone actually interacted with that post! Some of your guesses are dead on the money, though I won't say which ones, for obvious reasons. That being said, after I made the second future compass (which I'm keeping under wraps as it concerns eventualities that are a long ways away), I felt increasingly dissatisfied with the original and ended up editing it with a few changes. It's mostly the same, just a few things that are outside the initial "arc" (or maybe storyline would be better, not sure) of the timeline, from the 20s to the 40s. Namely, I replaced Rockwellian Christian Commonwealth, Nungesser's New France, and La Disperata Preserves Order, since the possible events involved in each of those won't be relevant for a while. I was planning on revealing it alongside the update, but I don't mind revealing it now.
As for your question about Nungesser, I honestly couldn't tell you. You're right about the Lindbergh analogue, though I haven't read Weber's Germany so that's news to me! I didn't even know about Nungesser until I played the Red Flood mod for Hearts of Iron IV, looked him up, felt he was being done a disservice, and wanted to do right by him. As for viewing him as a blank slate, you're pretty much right about that one in this case, and the same can be said of Kamo, who ended up dying in 1922 after being hit by a truck in an accident (though it's widely believed to have been a political murder orchestrated by Stalin to ensure that Kamo's papers and records wouldn't embarrass him). You're also right about Kamo not being a rehash of Stalin, as we'll see further on. In fact, if I wanted to be clever (albeit derivative), I could've named the timeline to Kamo's Russia: Alliterative Name or something like that lol. But I'm a fan of Latin, and the Pro Patria Mori (literally "Die for the Homeland") name fits the World Half Full nature of the timeline. Even if Latin might be viewed as cliche for a title.
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Hey folks! While I put the finishing touches on this update, including finding the proper images to go along with it, I wanted to get some feedback from my audience. I know I haven't set up a whole lot just yet, but I've got a lot of things planned for this timeline, a lot of twists and turns that I think will surprise folks, and I'm curious to see some guesses or questions that people might have! I plan on using a lot of fringe historical figures in the events of the timeline, including some that might be recognizable to fans of KR and other such mods. While I personally don't care for KR nowadays, it was still an influence on this timeline and I've taken inspiration from it and reworked some concepts in ways that I feel are original to PPM. I've also taken some inspiration from work on this site, such as the excellent WMIT, A World of Laughter, A World of Tears, and The Footprint of Mussolini timelines. America's situation in particular draws off of the superb Home of the Brave submod for KR (and I'm even working with the gracious Dreadgrunt, who's allowed me to pick his brain for ideas for the US), while still being original and unique for this timeline.
As always, feel free to ask questions and speculate, even though there's a dearth of content so far. Furthermore, as I've written this next Italy update, I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the initial name I chose for D'Anunzio's movement, Chartism, especially since it was an actual historical movement in the United Kingdom. With that in mind, I've put up a new poll with a couple options for folks to pick from. Please please please participate in the poll and ask questions, I thrive off of answering questions and talking about this setting that I've labored over with love.
As always, feel free to ask questions and speculate, even though there's a dearth of content so far. Furthermore, as I've written this next Italy update, I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the initial name I chose for D'Anunzio's movement, Chartism, especially since it was an actual historical movement in the United Kingdom. With that in mind, I've put up a new poll with a couple options for folks to pick from. Please please please participate in the poll and ask questions, I thrive off of answering questions and talking about this setting that I've labored over with love.
The name change does make sense, when it comes to political movements a with the same name, the first example is almost always remembered first. Well, except for fascism, since the first thing people think of when the word fascist pops up is Nazi (Though that brings up the question of if the Nazis were fascist or instead should have themselves the separate subgroup of National Socialism, although that argument can wait another day). Sorry Mussolini, but Hitler and his gang just failed more spectacularly and insanely then you, although getting the Grand Council of Fascism to kick you out with a vote of no confidence is still a pretty epic fail as well. So yeah, Carnarism is my pick I guess. Although, how do you pronounce it? Is it pronounced Car-na (like the middle "na" in banana) rism, or Carna (like in "carnation") rism?
Edit: Now that I think about it, D'Annunzio was a poet and novelist, so wouldn't he come up with something he would see as fitting his (possibly) greatest work yet? That, or perhaps the need to collaborate with others on creating this new political philosophy would require some compromise on any name? I don't know, guy was a bit of a madman, so who knows what he would go with. My choice of Carnarism sounds like a logical one.
Edit: Now that I think about it, D'Annunzio was a poet and novelist, so wouldn't he come up with something he would see as fitting his (possibly) greatest work yet? That, or perhaps the need to collaborate with others on creating this new political philosophy would require some compromise on any name? I don't know, guy was a bit of a madman, so who knows what he would go with. My choice of Carnarism sounds like a logical one.
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As someone who really enjoyed studying Futurism in High School and that had a professor on his last year of High School who really wanted to do D'Annunzio in profondity, I love this. How are you going to solve their relationship? If I remember well, Marinetti thought D'Annunzio and estetism to be the epitome of the decadent traditional culture and society that he wanted to see destroyed. Also, how much do you know about D'Annunzio as a person? Because he was really hipster:
- He loved taking nude pictures, with his dick in the air, because they were a way to represent virility (my HS professor give us a photocopy with one of them in class once)
- He loved to have sex crossdressed, faking to be a women and hiding his dick between his legs. I don't recall pretty good, but I remember a quote by a prominent cultural figure that was active in the Parisian lesbian society that told something on the line of "you can't be a trendy lesbian in Paris without being able to say you've been in bed with D'Annunzio"
- A lot of his actions and psychology are based on the fact that he thought (remember: he's the main Italian thinker and artist of Decadentism, and he thought himself as an aesthete) that beauty was the purpose of human life and activity, and he knew he was pretty ugly, and so acted as if he wasn't with a lot of intensity.
LOL I remember that after reading the Manifesto I absolutely wanted to try Futurist Cuisine, then googling for more informations I've discovered how fucking terrible it was. Like, abolition of pasta? Strawberries with garlic? NOPE.
So, without giving away too much, the basic gist of what's going to happen is that Marinetti is going to be awarded his own decent area of land after the Civil War to govern to his heart's content, partially in order to placate him and partially to keep him away from the center of power and stirring up too much trouble. As for my knowledge of D'Annunzio, I know a fair bit, although it's mainly centered around his exploits in World War I and the Regency of Carnaro. I knew about the nude pictures and have seen a few of them as well as the numerous affairs he had throughout his life as an aesthete (particularly the one of him reclining on the beach and a semi-nude pic where he was only wearing a loincloth), though the crossdressing is news to me. When it comes to my characterization/interpretation of him, I'm mainly relying on three different biographies: Frances Winwar's Wingless Victory - A Biography of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Eleonora Duse, John Robert Woodhouse's Gabriele D'Annunzio: Defiant Archangel, and Michael Ledeen's D'Annunzio: The First Duce. I've been writing this current update using partial previews off of Google Books as well as information gleamed from Google Translated Italian Wikipedia pages, although I've bought all three of those books off of Amazon and should have physical copies to rely on within the next week or so. I'm gonna try to get Lucy Hughes-Hallet's The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer, and Preacher of War later on so I can see a more modern reappraisal of him. D'Annunzio really is my favorite Italian interwar figure, even if he was slightly mad, so I'm trying to portray him appropriately while not turning this into a D'Annunzio-wank.
Yeah, the Futurist Cookbook is absolutely bonkers. The recipes themselves are insane on their own, even if Marinetti wanted to utilize new technology as part of the culinary process. It's exactly what you'd expect from Futurists, especially since the Manifesto is equally insane.
So, I did a bit of digging and it seems like Carnaro is pronounced Car-NAH-ro, which leads me to believe that the name would be pronounced as Car-nah-rism, though the original Italian (Carnarismo) runs off the tongue a lot smoother than it does in English. As for the update itself, I'm still plugging along on it and hope to have it up today, though it's gonna be a pretty long one, in part because my propensity for Footnote Fever is going to be on full display, probably more than any other entry that I'll ever write for this timeline. As of this post, the number of footnotes is about 49, and is likely to be closer to 55 or 60 when I'm finished with it. Some of them are smaller, while others are more expansive, simply because there's a lot to condense and explain about Italy's early interwar period in order to give a complete picture of the situation leading up to the Civil War. The footnotes are optional to read, though they'll help explain things better.
EDIT: Oh, and just in case people are worried about the update being a massive wall of text, don't worry too much about it. Much like the previous entries, there will be visual aids and images in-between paragraphs to help break things up and keep things visually appealing.
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I see you have changed the title to "Of Poets and Supermen". I'm thinking that the "Poets" part is in reference to the influence that D'Annunzio and Carnarism will have in the world. The "Supermen"part is referencing to the general fascist and authoritarian need/desire for a strong dictatorial authority figure to lead the state, and the theory of ubermensch, or "superman". Than again, this is me guessing with what knowledge I know and have just searched up as I type. So, if it doesn't spoil too much, if at all, would you kindly explain why the title was changed from "Pro Patria Mori: A World Gone Mad" to this?
A Note on the Name Change and the Future of the Timeline
It doesn't spoil anything at all, thanks for asking! Now, while your analysis/speculation is actually really good (to be frank, I wish I'd come up with it, hah) it's honestly a lot simpler than that. I've been developing the concept behind this timeline for the better part of three years, as I stated in the OP. I was about 18 or 19 back then and I'm 22 now, and in the years since then this timeline has undergone a number of changes as I tweaked and fiddled with it on and off. I've been a fan of Latin for a while (honestly, I'm a Romaboo and a big Italophile, stemming from a childhood trip to Italy that had a profound effect on me) and at the time I liked the original name of Pro Patria Mori (taken from the Horace line "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", which translates as "It is sweet and fitting to die for the homeland/fatherland"), since the original concept was very much a grimdark multipolar Cold War. But lately, as I've written the timeline and developed it further, I've felt like the original name was increasingly generic and cliché, and wouldn't attract as much attention as I want it to.
While I still like the original name to an extent, I came up with the new title, Of Poets and Supermen, after some discussion with my friend Ottoman (who isn't particularly active on the site but is still listed as a collaborator in the OP because I frequently bounce ideas off him on Discord) about new titles yesterday. He said that it had a neat ring to it that didn't sound like a lot of other alt-history titles/stories, and I agreed with him. In fact, at some point in the future, provided I get a decent enough audience for OPAS, I'm planning on making an expanded universe thread for the timeline, in the style of What Madness is This? and A More Perfect Union. I want people to interact with this timeline, to come up with their own ideas and speculate about what might happen, and I'm willing to give people the chance to write content for OPAS and make it canon if it fits with my vision for the timeline.
Now, as for the meaning of the title, it comes from a portion of a speech given by D'Annunzio in the next update that's an analogue to Mussolini's OTL Sansepolcrismo speech in 1919, where he declares that the members of his movement shall be "poets and supermen, depending on the circumstances of time, place, and environment". D'Annunzio in OTL was very much a sort of Italian Nietzschean figure, embracing the concept of the Nietzchean Superman and proclaiming himself to be one, as he does ITTL. The movement he leads ITTL is very much influenced by his interpretation of the concepts of the Übermensch and the will to power, and that influence will be shown in the post on Carnarism that will be written in the future. Now, with regards to that update, I realize that I've taken a long time to write it and I'm hoping future updates will take a shorter time, but I really do try to make this as plausible as possible, while still telling an entertaining story.
In fact, contrary to what I stated in the OP, the timeline has gradually evolved from a Type II/Type III timeline on the Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility to closer to a Type I/Type II timeline as I thought more about how the butterflies would fly. With that being said, any help with research, particularly in regard to the subject of economics and military logistics (I am not an economist or particularly well-versed in economics and numbers/math/logistics was never really my strong suit), would be greatly appreciated, since my focus on history is more on the political/ideological/sociological side rather than the economic/logistical side. I've only got so much time on my hands to write for OPAS, since I'm currently taking online classes this semester for my university transfer degree at my local community college. I hope folks can understand that and be patient with me, though it wouldn't surprise me if they're not lol. Hopefully, this answers any questions you or anyone else might have about the name change and the future of this timeline.
Ayyy, no worries about time, we can wait! Quality takes time after all. The original title was nice enough, although I can understand how you would feel being an example of Gratuitous Latin. Well, this new one works just as well, if not better. Putting the word "Mad" or "Madness" in your title is somewhat unoriginal. When you see that word you immediately think "Oh, this timeline's going to be a dystopic one.". It's not a bad thing, just, somewhat overdone or unoriginal. Meanwhile, "Of Poets and Supermen" is still descriptive (to a point) while more subtle in saying where the timeline will go.
What I mean is that those with enough knowledge or do their research behind the words "Poets" and "Supermen" will find what they correlate to in the timeline itself. Here's an example by what I mean: (Poet-> Different Artistic Movements->Decadentism->Gabriele d'Annunzio->Involvements in proto-fascism and Italian Nationalism) alongside (Supermen->Ubermensch->Influence of Nietzsche on politics, notably far-right thinkers). Well, that or something else. I'm thinking these things up as I go along, y'know?
As for help in research, I'm afraid that as of now I am unable to help with things of those sorts. I'm somewhat interested in economic philosophies at the moment, if only because I've got to figure out my thoughts and beliefs so they can crystallize into something resembling an oh-so-beautiful, deep, 3-dimensional, flawed , and human personality. Currently Marxism has got my fancy. If I find something useful, maybe I can send a link or the like. Possibly post something on this site like facts or pictures and stuff like that.
Yeah, the original title was nice, but it lacked a certain "Je ne sais quoi", to be honest. I agree that "Mad"/"Madness" is a bit overdone and slightly derivative, especially with how popular What Madness is This? is in the AH.com community. While Of Poets and Supermen is certainly going to go to some dark places, it's not going to be as dystopic as WMIT. The best way to describe Of Poets and Supermen as far as I'm concerned, is that it's a world containing some Dieselpunk themes, but without the fantastical ASB elements that tend to be associated with that genre. It'll be plausible, but it's distinct enough from OTL for people to recognize the differences. For example, one of the major divergences from OTL in OPAS is that while the concept of nuclear power exists, it remains just that: a concept. It's one that scientists speculate on, for sure, but for the most part it's largely relegated to the realm of science/speculative fiction, for reasons that will become apparent later on. And that's the great part (at least, in my opinion) of alternate history in general, because for a good chunk of the 1930s, the idea of nuclear power (and especially nuclear weapons) was entirely speculative! Technology doesn't have to develop in the same way as it did in OTL, and that's exactly what's going to happen in OPAS. All because of the death of a certain Hungarian engineering student in 1919. While there are a number of deaths that didn't happen in OTL, I try to avoid or avert the cliché of the Conveniently sudden death and make sure that said deaths are plausible and not overdone.
Yeah, I get what you mean, and I agree tbh.
That's not a problem at all, really. I try to do my due diligence and do as much research as I can, but you can only do so much, y'know? This site has actually been a great boon to the writing of OPAS, since people tend to do their research and share knowledge rather freely. There's going to be a number of niche ideologies and economic philosophies that will arise over time that didn't come to prominence in OTL, as well as a couple alternate ideologies such as Carnarism and Petrosianism. It's gonna be a blast, and I hope that people will enjoy reading everything.
Another progress update while I work on the last couple of paragraphs for the next chapter (tentatively titled Garibaldi's Nightmare), but it's looking to be a pretty hefty update. The current word count is 4,831 and growing, and that's not even getting into the footnotes, which will vary in length. Expect Italian politics and society to get absolutely upended, and not in a good way. Full disclosure, some of the numbers that will be involved in the events that occur are going to be arbitrary rough estimates (particularly with regards to D'Annunzio and his supporters), since there's a veritable dearth of English language information and sources on numbers (and honestly a dearth of information in general). For example, I've yet to find any concrete numbers on the main base of D'Annunzio's supporters, the Italian Nationalist Association (the ANI), so I've been winging it with regards to the number of supporters flocking to Fiume. Another example would be the fact that I can't find a goddamn thing on the numbers of the Regio Esercito in 1918-1919, when they demobilized, and that's extremely important for the events in Italy. As I've said before, any assistance with numbers would be greatly appreciated, because right now I'm using a mix of arbitrary numbers that seem reasonable and RNG-based guesses.
Other than that, the most helpful stuff that I've found has been the total population numbers of Italy in 1919-1920 (35,960,000 in the former, 39,943,528 in the latter),the numbers involved in OTL's Red Biennium, and the total number of D'Annunzio's forces by November 18th, 1919 (it's 10,773 btw). After this next chapter, we'll have two more Italian chapters (POV ones, as I stated previously), before switching gears to 1919-1920 in the US. After that, we'll probably take a brief look at the state of Germany and Hungary in the 1920s, where we'll see the beginnings of the German political movement I've (again tentatively) named the Deutschnationale Volkssturmbewegung* (it's a mouthful, I know) and the bloody struggle between the Reds and the Whites in Hungary. After that, we'll head back to Russia and the rise of Kamo, including the beginnings of Petrosianism during the Russian Civil War and the power struggle after Lenin's death. It's gonna be a wild ride, so hold onto your butts!
*It's totally not ominous and bad, I swear!
Other than that, the most helpful stuff that I've found has been the total population numbers of Italy in 1919-1920 (35,960,000 in the former, 39,943,528 in the latter),the numbers involved in OTL's Red Biennium, and the total number of D'Annunzio's forces by November 18th, 1919 (it's 10,773 btw). After this next chapter, we'll have two more Italian chapters (POV ones, as I stated previously), before switching gears to 1919-1920 in the US. After that, we'll probably take a brief look at the state of Germany and Hungary in the 1920s, where we'll see the beginnings of the German political movement I've (again tentatively) named the Deutschnationale Volkssturmbewegung* (it's a mouthful, I know) and the bloody struggle between the Reds and the Whites in Hungary. After that, we'll head back to Russia and the rise of Kamo, including the beginnings of Petrosianism during the Russian Civil War and the power struggle after Lenin's death. It's gonna be a wild ride, so hold onto your butts!
*It's totally not ominous and bad, I swear!
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