This is something that's maybe hard to quantify. I'm wondering if anybody's thought about what effect technical or historical changes may have on literature.
Frex: say a space telescope is possible, & flown, in the 1930s. (How is irrelevant.) What books are likely not to happen as a consequence? IMO (to name a few), the John Carter novels are non-starters. So is Red Planet.
(Maybe Stranger in a Strange Land, too, tho maybe Mike can come from further away.) So is Martian Chronicles. And Ark of Venus, along with all the other "Venus as a jungle world" books. (Aside: Welles' "War of the Worlds", & the movies, are probably put paid, too.)
In a TL where Napoleon never happens, that would seem to butterfly away all the Sharpe novels.
No Korean War means no M*A*S*H, which might mean none of the sequels, either.
No Vietnam War means no Executioner novels,
& no First Blood.
Any other possibilities? Like, frex, earlier cars wiping out W. E. Butterworth's career.
(Maybe not...) Or maybe Louis L'Amour's.
Thoughts? Brickbats?
Frex: say a space telescope is possible, & flown, in the 1930s. (How is irrelevant.) What books are likely not to happen as a consequence? IMO (to name a few), the John Carter novels are non-starters. So is Red Planet.
In a TL where Napoleon never happens, that would seem to butterfly away all the Sharpe novels.
No Korean War means no M*A*S*H, which might mean none of the sequels, either.
No Vietnam War means no Executioner novels,
Any other possibilities? Like, frex, earlier cars wiping out W. E. Butterworth's career.
Thoughts? Brickbats?