Look to the West Volume V: To Dream Again

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

At the time this was regarded as a bold claim: biochemists were discovering more megalins[8] and the vagonics[9] that composed them all the time, not to mention the huge diversity of sugars.


.....
[9] Amino acids (the OTL term only dates from the end of the nineteenth century). Derived from the Greek word for train carriage, by the analogy that a megalin/protein made of a chain of vagonics/amino acids just as a train is of carriages.

Oops. "Greek word for train carriage"??? Clearly a borrowing from the German Wagon (or even the French, same word for that purpose). A sleeping car in French is "Wagonlit" (bed car).

Since train carriages are modern things, any 'Greek' word is a neologism.

 

[Finn]

I always find these scientific interludes fascinating (as well as the cultural interludes). It really illustrates the idea that talking to someone from an ATL about something as simple as high-school level science could easily require a translator as if they're speaking a foreign language.

 

[Admiral Matt]

Robert Mumby had many children, but tragically, most of them had died, in a similar pattern to his father, also named Robert who had fathered many sons and daughter but had also buried a lot of them.

*snip*

Ah – my apologies for that – I understand one of the new men you sent us, a Sergeant Mumby, has been researching his own family’s history in this timeline...you see the pile had ‘hereditary’ written on it so I got it mixed up with my own notes on the science of hereditary...never mind.

So it's come to the point where you're pretty much just trolling us, eh?

lol

 

[Thande]

Oops. "Greek word for train carriage"??? Clearly a borrowing from the German Wagon (or even the French, same word for that purpose). A sleeping car in French is "Wagonlit" (bed car).

Since train carriages are modern things, any 'Greek' word is a neologism.

It's probably not the best choice of word, but I couldn't think of anything else. Maybe beads on a necklace or something?

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

*Though, admittedly, too much of this attitude leads you to Dale Cozort's WW2 timelines, where Hitler is assassinated in every one because 'he escaped so many attempts through a chain of unlikely coincidences in OTL that in any given timeline random chance will make him unlucky once'. It makes sense, but it feels intellectually unsatisfying to me.

God, those made me irrationally angry.

(Then I went and wrote one where he merely had a series of strokes and became a vegetable).

 

[Makemakean]

It's probably not the best choice of word, but I couldn't think of anything else. Maybe beads on a necklace or something?

Beads on a necklace is excellent, if you ask me.

 

[Thande]

Beads on a necklace is excellent, if you ask me.

OK I have changed it to that.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

At this point I'm going to need a phrasebook for reference.

Still, good update. Its fascinating to see the alternate development of sciences.

 

[Thande]

At this point I'm going to need a phrasebook for reference.

Still, good update. Its fascinating to see the alternate development of sciences.

Thanks. As for a phrasebook, I need to update it and it doesn't just cover LTTW, but: http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/alternate_history/alternate_terminology

 

[B_Munro]

*Though, admittedly, too much of this attitude leads you to Dale Cozort's WW2 timelines, where Hitler is assassinated in every one because 'he escaped so many attempts through a chain of unlikely coincidences in OTL that in any given timeline random chance will make him unlucky once'. It makes sense, but it feels intellectually unsatisfying to me.

Every TL should have some improbable stuff in it, since if enough things happen, improbable things will happen too.

 

[OwenM]

Every TL should have some improbable stuff in it, since if enough things happen, improbable things will happen too.

But shouldn't they logically be different improbable things?
Btw, Thande, I noticed you have used 12 Inventions That Changed The World for 10 inventions across the TL. Granted, the 18th and 19th centuries were probably the most inventive we've had, but I think you're basically at the limit, given surely at least one was pre-1727, and at least one was 20th century (especially given it's supposedly only from 1990).

 

[Thande]

But shouldn't they logically be different improbable things?
Btw, Thande, I noticed you have used 12 Inventions That Changed The World for 10 inventions across the TL. Granted, the 18th and 19th centuries were probably the most inventive we've had, but I think you're basically at the limit, given surely at least one was pre-1727, and at least one was 20th century (especially given it's supposedly only from 1990).

I was wondering if anyone was keeping track, I know I haven't been

They're not meant to be the objective 12 most influential, just the ones those writers wanted to write about. I'm debating whether to keep using that book for the last two examples or not (I'm certainly not at the moment as it would be a bit of a coincidence for Batten-Hale to own a copy).

 

[OwenM]

I was wondering if anyone was keeping track, I know I haven't been

They're not meant to be the objective 12 most influential, just the ones those writers wanted to write about. I'm debating whether to keep using that book for the last two examples or not (I'm certainly not at the moment as it would be a bit of a coincidence for Batten-Hale to own a copy).

I wasn't keeping track, I just went to have another look at the asimcony post, wondered (vaguely remembering you bringing it up before) and searched the authors' names in your posts (actually I tried the title first, but the engine broke).
I don't think it'd be that much of a coincidence, really.

 

[Makemakean]

They're not meant to be the objective 12 most influential, just the ones those writers wanted to write about. I'm debating whether to keep using that book for the last two examples or not (I'm certainly not at the moment as it would be a bit of a coincidence for Batten-Hale to own a copy).

I do love that you actually keep track of all these books that you quote from. I believe that people who construct fictional Universes should always keep a "reserve" of knowledge dreamed up for that world that you don't actively ever plan to use but that is useful to consult so that you can write stuff in such a way that it really appears that there is a fully fleshed out fictional world there.

Of course, as George R. R. Martin has noted, the only worldbuilder to ever have managed to actually create a full and complete fictional universe he could consult throughout his writings was Tolkien. Everyone else just do the magician's trick of making it look like that's the case and that the readers are just seeing the tip of the iceburg.

Still, maintaining that illusion is important.

I don't think it'd be that much of a coincidence, really.

Maybe it's like Malcolm Gladwell. That kind of book that everyone ends up owning, not because they're necessarily going to read it, nor because it necessarily contains useful information, but because owning that book makes you feel smart?

 

[Thande]

I do love that you actually keep track of all these books that you quote from. I believe that people who construct fictional Universes should always keep a "reserve" of knowledge dreamed up for that world that you don't actively ever plan to use but that is useful to consult so that you can write stuff in such a way that it really appears that there is a fully fleshed out fictional world there.

Of course, as George R. R. Martin has noted, the only worldbuilder to ever have managed to actually create a full and complete fictional universe he could consult throughout his writings was Tolkien. Everyone else just do the magician's trick of making it look like that's the case and that the readers are just seeing the tip of the iceburg.

Still, maintaining that illusion is important.

Even Tolkien did occasionally make things up, but he then spent 45 pages afterwards justifying it (like one of Gandalf's name being Incánus - obviously just Latin for 'grey' - got a massive essay about how it was a Gondorisation of a Haradrim name with lots of Khs and Zs in it, because nothing else in LOTR uses Latin).

Maybe it's like Malcolm Gladwell. That kind of book that everyone ends up owning, not because they're necessarily going to read it, nor because it necessarily contains useful information, but because owning that book makes you feel smart?

I dunno, I still think it'd be too much of a coincidence. A Brief History of Time is a good OTL example of the kind of book you mean, but I wonder what proportion of randomly selected MPs' (or indeed scientists') offices or homes would contain a copy.

 

[Makemakean]

Even Tolkien did occasionally make things up, but he then spent 45 pages afterwards justifying it (like one of Gandalf's name being Incánus - obviously just Latin for 'grey' - got a massive essay about how it was a Gondorisation of a Haradrim name with lots of Khs and Zs in it, because nothing else in LOTR uses Latin).

I wonder what Tolkien would say about A Song of Ice and Fire...

Probably something along the lines of "HE JUST TOOK ORDINARY MODERN ENGLISH NAMES AND FIDDLED A LITTLE WITH THE SPELLING?!!?!? I'LL KILL THE MOTHERF****R!! I'LL F***ING KILL HIM!!"

I dunno, I still think it'd be too much of a coincidence. A Brief History of Time is a good OTL example of the kind of book you mean, but I wonder what proportion of randomly selected MPs' (or indeed scientists') offices or homes would contain a copy.

Well, as I've pointed out before, MPs' bookshelves is a minor science of its own...

 

[Thande]

I wonder what Tolkien would say about A Song of Ice and Fire...

Probably something along the lines of "HE JUST TOOK ORDINARY MODERN ENGLISH NAMES AND FIDDLED A LITTLE WITH THE SPELLING?!!?!? I'LL KILL THE MOTHERF****R!! I'LL F***ING KILL HIM!!"

I'd think he'd be most annoyed by the blatant ripping off of the Tom Bombadil chapters in the first confrontation with the, ahem 'wights', which nobody seems to have noticed because Peter Jackson cut that bit out of the film.

Well, as I've pointed out before, MPs' bookshelves is a minor science of its own...

That is indeed what I was thinking of, of course we don't know how typical Miliband's is/was.

(Let's take further discussion on this to PM rather than derail this thread).

 

[1SaBy]

So you just forced me to read about a relatively difficult subject, using a different terminology then the one I should/could know from OTL and in a foreign language (English that is). I hate you, Thande.

 

[Alex Richards]

I dunno, I still think it'd be too much of a coincidence. A Brief History of Time is a good OTL example of the kind of book you mean, but I wonder what proportion of randomly selected MPs' (or indeed scientists') offices or homes would contain a copy.

Doesn't Batten-Hale have a family? It certainly seems like the sort of book you'd have in the house as a starting point for young-ish children/teenagers.

 

[Thande]

So you just forced me to read about a relatively difficult subject, using a different terminology then the one I should/could know from OTL and in a foreign language (English that is). I hate you, Thande.

That's three layers, wow. It was tricky enough for me to keep track of the terminology and at least I know the subject...