Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/15/sean-williams-is-going-to-anta.html
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As opposed, I guess, to an accurate factual telling of the Martian invasion?
Not sure quite what counterfactual or contrafactual is doing in there.
If there is something specific that it’s pointing to, it would be interesting to hear about that.
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I do believe the word is “fiction” ^^’ .
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And there are mountains to go mad in there, as well…
Interestingly, i read an anthology a few years back (https://www.amazon.com/War-Worlds-Dispatches-Howard-Waldrop/dp/1781161747) that put WOTW in the context of contemporary writers of Wells. No Antarctic tales, but there was one in the style of Jack London’s Alaska stories.
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Translation: Got kicked out of Starbucks.
I was hearing Brian Griffin’s voice the whole time reading this.
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Maybe a science fiction story becomes contrafactual when it is set in the past?
As in, we know the martians didn’t invade a hundred years ago.
Or when a science fiction story ignores facts that are so well-established by science that the average reader is expected to know and maybe even care about them.
As in, we know that there is no higher civilization on Mars.
I included “the average reader” on purpose here, as otherwise all fiction would be “contrafactual”.
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If there is no reference to Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, I’ll be very upset with this book.
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The 1938 alien invasion of Grover’s Mill NJ was definitely not a hoax*
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