I am wary to say the term "AH Fetishes" because clearly that has certain connotations that could make Google traffic fairly awkward. However, that is the topic. We all may pick up things in our alternate history interests that are rather niche or specific, but which we keep somewhere in our minds as a subject we are interested in. Even if we do not do anything with them in terms of writing, we revisit them and discuss them. For whatever reason, they appeal to us. Despite the title, I am more interested in those niches and oddly specifics that are personal to you, more so than if you are obsessed with Lincoln surviving or something. I'm interested in what you have interest in that is off the beaten path, which most other people do not have that interest in.
One of my own is a massively populated Alaska. I am fascinated by the idea of vast American metropolises in the snow. If you can make it cyberpunk, all the better. And I know that this comes from Mega Man 8. Another is the Beatles breaking up in 1966. I was interested in that to the point where I made a thread, forgot about it, posted another thread a few months later, ended up bumping the prior thread thinking it was the latter, and has two discussions going on simultaneously, confusing both myself and those posting. Another is the idea of humans evolving blue skin. I have no idea where that comes from. It may have been planted by Disney genies, smurfs and a love of blue foodstuffs. I have done threads on those and I reference those every now and then. It isn't an obsessive thing, but it is something subconscious which seems to pop up now and then.
It could even be something like the types of topics you seem to post. I know that for myself, when I think about it, I do a lot of collaborative topics that have some mechanism built in to induce response and have posters keeping the topic going. A lot of those have been things like AH story threads, where someone will post a bit, another person will post a bit, and the narrative unfolds into an AH story no one is controlling and everyone is watching. I seem to like community building exercises.
So what are any of your own AH fixations?
One of my own is a massively populated Alaska. I am fascinated by the idea of vast American metropolises in the snow. If you can make it cyberpunk, all the better. And I know that this comes from Mega Man 8. Another is the Beatles breaking up in 1966. I was interested in that to the point where I made a thread, forgot about it, posted another thread a few months later, ended up bumping the prior thread thinking it was the latter, and has two discussions going on simultaneously, confusing both myself and those posting. Another is the idea of humans evolving blue skin. I have no idea where that comes from. It may have been planted by Disney genies, smurfs and a love of blue foodstuffs. I have done threads on those and I reference those every now and then. It isn't an obsessive thing, but it is something subconscious which seems to pop up now and then.
It could even be something like the types of topics you seem to post. I know that for myself, when I think about it, I do a lot of collaborative topics that have some mechanism built in to induce response and have posters keeping the topic going. A lot of those have been things like AH story threads, where someone will post a bit, another person will post a bit, and the narrative unfolds into an AH story no one is controlling and everyone is watching. I seem to like community building exercises.
So what are any of your own AH fixations?
Dewey, Adlai Stevenson, Mo Udall, Llloyd Betsen... and then browse this forum and linked to every TL ever atempted, by election year and by candidate, plus OTL life through Wikipedia. A wiki about it. The total list would be more than a hundred of names.
