Look to the West Volume X: Eclipse of Empires

[1SaBy]

Glad to see this back. I hope we find out who committed the attack, since there are already so many unsolved mysteries in TTL.

the old New York, which once was New Amsterdam

I was hoping for this.

 

[EmmettMcFly55]

It's always great when LTTW returns, both for its interesting and complex storyline and its interesting narrative voice. I was a bit doubtful of the extent to which using theater plays would work, but it looks like you're intersplicing it with plenty of other ways of storytelling too, including just plain texts from history books as this TL has (almost) always featured. And as so often, the first chapter seems to be starting on a topic that is entirely unrelated to the business at hand but is then neatly tied back to the casus belli. Or one of the casus belli. What seems to be one of the casus belli. I think. You can never quite tell in what direction things are going to go.

 

[Mayukh]

Hmm..Catching up with the tl details.
The Laconic tl on the wiki ends in 1891.
It helped me a lot in catching up to Pandoric War.
Could a joint effort be made to update the Wiki tl?
So that other people can catch up with this beautiful tl?

 

[Beatriz]

Hmm..Catching up with the tl details.
The Laconic tl on the wiki ends in 1891.
It helped me a lot in catching up to Pandoric War.
Could a joint effort be made to update the Wiki tl?
So that other people can catch up with this beautiful tl?

There’s no country description for the Combine in the List of Countries yet

 

[Kaiphranos]

There’s no country description for the Combine in the List of Countries yet

Of course, amicus - only one of the nationalistically-blinded would consider it to be a "country."

(Wait, is that outdated now? Am I headed to reeducation for being a crypto-Alfarite?)

 

[Analytical Engine]

Of course, amicus - only one of the nationalistically-blinded would consider it to be a "country."

(Wait, is that outdated now? Am I headed to reeducation for being a crypto-Alfarite?)

If you have to ask, then you must be sent for re-education

 

[Beatriz]

Do Danubia and the Eternal State see themselves as countries? Or just Societist states which happen to occupy pieces of land

 

[Mayukh]

There’s no country description for the Combine in the List of Countries yet

Well that's interesting.
The Wikipage definately needs Cleanup.

 

[Denvek]

Do Danubia and the Eternal State see themselves as countries? Or just Societist states which happen to occupy pieces of land

IIRC they both see themselves as one of the Final Society's Zones, with their rulers being the current Zonal Rej, even if they only currently de facto rule part of that Zone. However, relations between them are complicated by the fact that they both see themselves as Zonal Rejs of the same Zone.

 

[Mayukh]

IIRC they both see themselves as one of the Final Society's Zones, with their rulers being the current Zonal Rej, even if they only currently de facto rule part of that Zone. However, relations between them are complicated by the fact that they both see themselves as Zonal Rejs of the same Zone.

Do we know all of the zones?

 

[Beatriz]

Do we know all of the zones?

No and their numbering is inconsistent

 

[Analytical Engine]

No and their numbering is inconsistent

IIRC, they keep changing them, so as to break up local identities

 

[Beatriz]

IIRC, they keep changing them, so as to break up local identities

A sort of un-administrative division that cannot be mapped?

 

[Analytical Engine]

A sort of un-administrative division that cannot be mapped?

They have always been at war with Eurasia, after all

 

[Beatriz]

I wonder if the Combine’s emphasis om constant motion and change results in WEIRD personalities being hypernormalized with no larger unit than the nuclear family, and an officially defined pecking order on not just a company- but society-wide scale with constant movement encouraged

Authoritarian yes, but also hyperfluid kind of like Shanghai or cyberpunk Japan in the imagination of Nick Land and the like

Warning: evopsych weirdness and generalizations

Henrich discusses the research of Richard Nisbett suggesting that people in WEIRD cultures think reductively with a focus on personal attributes and intentions, while Asians think holistically with a focus on relationships and situations. Non-Westerners will emphasize family connections and allegiances. Henrich also presents a large body of evidence that WEIRD people are more trusting of strangers and more likely to give blood than most humans. Westerners, according to reviewer Judith Shulevitz, "identify more as members of voluntary social groups—dentists, artists, Republicans, Democrats, supporters of a Green Party—than of extended clans

Also, are there other primate cities than Zon1Urb1 ? Maybe Jakarta or São Salvador as a glistening Corbusierist megapolis like Tokyo in the popular 1980s imagination - mega corporations coupled with collectivist mindsets and technological developments

Also where are gay and lesbian people in the Final Society? The Black Guards acted with lethal force, but honestly I could see a case being made for it being a human universal and tied to assisting in the survival of Early Humanity

@Analytical Engine

 

[Fratsup]

I wonder if the Combine’s emphasis om constant motion and change results in WEIRD personalities being hypernormalized with no larger unit than the nuclear family, and an officially defined pecking order on not just a company- but society-wide scale with constant movement encouraged

Reminds me more of the HoI 4 mod Red Flood and their accelerationist France.

 

[Beatriz]

Reminds me more of the HoI 4 mod Red Flood and their accelerationist France.

Like Belle Epoque Paris. True - but what psychetypes would the Combine select for

 

[Fratsup]

Actually have they seen an actual cult or at least a major movement based on SPEED and movement? As in someone moving over 20 times in a year or major moves towards fast cars a d planes.

 

[Beatriz]

Actually have they seen an actual cult or at least a major movement based on SPEED and movement? As in someone moving over 20 times in a year or major moves towards fast cars a d planes.

If they’re wealthy i guess. The wealthy by nature of their wealth have more room for eccentricity even such a conformist society. Also, is there a Combine tangping movement where young folks ‘drop out’ as long as there is UBI?
I wonder if the rat race is worse there since you get assigned a career through tests, and there are probably only 2 or 3 companies per industry, and startups aren’t really a thing

Also military and police subcultures are natural

 

[Thande]

Hmm..Catching up with the tl details.
The Laconic tl on the wiki ends in 1891.
It helped me a lot in catching up to Pandoric War.
Could a joint effort be made to update the Wiki tl?
So that other people can catch up with this beautiful tl?

Thanks for your interest. I don't update it on the wiki anymore because the wiki is not active (I downloaded everything from it a while ago when Ian said he was considering deleting the wiki, IIRC) but I am continuing to update it as I go and it gets released along with the published volumes - albeit not all at once (just the sections relating to the current volume and a bit before and after) because then that would consume a ridiculous amount of the page count. I am thinking of releasing the entire chronology all at once as a separate volume at the end.