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Melody Ortloff

30 April 1998

Honors English II

Dr. Carol Franko

What If...?

What if you could travel to parallel worlds?
The same year, the same Earth, only different dimensions.
A world where the Russians rule America,
or where your dreams of being a superstar came true,
or where San Francisco was a maximum security prison.
My friends and I have found the gateway.
Now the problem is finding a way back home!

Opening sequence of the TV show Sliders*

Throughout most of literary history, science fiction has been the genre that asks the question, "What if...?" Usually, this question is asked in the form, "What if this were to happen in the future?" This most common form has produced such short stories as "The Ship Who Sang" by Anne McCaffrey and "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. These stories are about different futures which were shaped by varying events in the future. However, there is a type of science fiction that asks, "What if this had happened in the past? How would our world be changed? How would our history be different, or would it be different?" This subgenre is called alternate-history science fiction. It presents different histories than our own, changed slightly or drastically by events that occurred in the past. This is the basis of Sliders, in which a group travels from one parallel earth to the next, where history has occurred slightly or drastically different than ours. In relation to this class, "Them Old Hyannis Blues" by Judith Tarr, "Sur" by Ursula K. Le Guinn, and "The Lucky Strike" by Kim Stanley Robinson are the three alternate-history stories that we have read. Each asks a different form of the "What if..." question, with varying results. But what is the point? Are they merely to entertain, or do they try to make a comment about the world today? Why do we write alternate-histories, and what fascination do they hold for us? In my opinion, alternate-history science fiction fulfills a human need to make things better in our history, or simply to answer the "What if..." question that haunts many people. They also can be used as social comments by the authors.

For example, surely many people since 1947 have wondered what would have happened if the A-bomb had not been dropped on Hiroshima. "The Lucky Strike" answers this in a fascinating manner. Many people would argue that it wouldn't have made a difference. However, Kim Stanley Robinson seems to think that it would. The whole plot is, basically, the moral conflict that the gunner, January, experiences while trying to decide whether to follow orders and drop the bomb on the city, or obey his feelings and miss. Ultimately, he decides to follow his heart. He is court-martialed and executed. However, his actions have a profound effect on history. At the end of the story, it appears that the nuclear arms race and the Cold War have been avoided, not to mention the many lives that were saved when January dropped the bomb outside Hiroshima, instead of directly on it. "Frank January would never know any of that. But in that moment...he felt, just for an instant, the impact on history"(568). Now, this story is a great example of how alternate-history science fiction tries to show how history could have been changed for the better. Most people have their own theories on how the world could have been made better by events in history being changed. I personally know people who are quite vocal in their opinions on this subject. Alternate-history writers simply put their ideas like this into entertaining stories. Of course, all writers do this, to some extent. However, writers like Robinson express the human need to make our history better.

Changing history is not the only point of alternate-history stories, however. Some of these stories are simply to explore what could have happened in our history, sometimes with amusing results. These stories can be social comments. Tarr's "Them Old Hyannis Blues" is an example of this type of alternate-history. It poses the question, "What if some popular rock music icons and political figures had, by an undisclosed sequence of events, switched roles in the 1960's?" For example, in this story, the Kennedy Brothers are a rock band, and Elvis Presley is the president of the USA. Although the story seems at first ridiculous and silly, it is entertaining and thought-provoking. If one studies the story further, one can see that it is a social commentary, or, rather, a social parody. It makes a point about the way politicians and rock stars become popular. I think the point of the whole story is summed up in this quote, "...the campaign trail wasn't that much different from the rock circuit" (288). Think about it. Politicians go on tours in order to get votes. They make speeches in front of cheering crowds. Rock stars go on tours in order to sell their music and get money. They sing songs in front of cheering crowds. It really is amusing to ponder the implications of this story. Could Michael Jackson be the President someday?

"What if a group of South American women, rather than men, had discovered the South Pole?" This is the central question of "Sur," by Le Guinn. At first, this story seems to just be simply historical fiction. However, it is in fact an alternate-history. What distinguishes the two is the fact that, to my knowledge, the events in this story did not happen in any way. In fact, the story states that "Mr Earnest Shackleton had mounted another expedition to the Antarctic in 1907, had tried to obtain the Pole but failed, and had returned to England in June of the current year, 1909" (246). The narrator also says that "In 1912 all the world learned that the brave Norwegian Amundsen had reached the South Pole" (249). However, the events "Sur" never happened in any way. So here we have the distinction: "Sur" tells a tale of a different history than our own. Existing events are not simply fictionalized as in a historical fiction story.

Now that we know that "Sur" is an alternate-history work, what are the implications of the story? As I have stated above, an alternate-history can be a social comment, or it can be trying to make our history better. I believe that "Sur" accomplishes both of these objectives.

First of all, it is an extremely feminist story. It basically makes the point that women can do nearly anything and everything as well as men, or better. Not only do these women brave the fury of the Antarctic, one of them gives birth to a child while they are there. They also do not have to have a chain of command, they simply talk things over and agree on what would be best. I doubt that would happen with a group of men! Also, this expedition seems to be a way for the women to break free of their socially-imposed stereotypes. Society in that time period would certainly look down upon a group of women setting off on any adventure, let alone one whose purpose was to explore an unknown continent! Even while trying to find other women to go on the trip, the narrator says, "It was so very hard to gather our expeditionary force together! So few of those we asked even knew what we were talking about-so many thought we were mad, or wicked, or both!" (240). Yet, despite all the obstacles, these women persevere and fulfill their dream of doing something extraordinary.

Second, this story does try to make our history, or even our present, better. Although the leader of the expedition hides her diary, she does say, "I think it would be nice if a grandchild of mine, or somebody's grandchild, happened to find it [the report] someday" (239). So she does want her story to get out, she just doesn't want to be the one to reveal it. But what if the story was found only a few years later? Perhaps in this timeline, women could become more equal with men because of the accomplishments of the Yelcho Expedition. Although this possibility is not explored in the story, I think it is a valid extrapolation that Le Guinn expects her readers to think about.

As long as people wonder how our history could have been different, there will always be a market for alternate history science fiction. As the show Sliders asks, "What if you could travel to parallel worlds?" It would be interesting to see what other directions our history could have taken. These three stories attempt to explore the possibilities by asking a very provoking "What if..." question. Each aims to show how our history could be better, or to make a social comment, or both. By doing so, they cause us to re-examine our history, and come up with "What if..." questions of our own.

*Sliders is the property of St. Clair Entertainment, Universal Television, and The Sci-Fi Channel. No copyright infringement intended.

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