Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Not technically true. I can't think of any classic story that can't be rewritten to be mundane. The Tempest becomes a very coincidental story if you remove Prospero's ability to use magic to trap his enemies on his island of exile and don't replace it with more mundane scheming like an agent on board who sabotages the navigation to run the ship around...but even if you don't so what? But it probably would be a world where magic works just to multiply the different possible variations.

It would lead to their historians seeing themes as incontrovertible facets of physical laws.
Though I imagine child protective service workers would study the heck out of all step-mothers. They have such a strong tendency to sadism and evil.
Imagine being a single father looking for love. Ain't no one going to date you.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Is this a world with magic/psionics/superpowers or such? Because a lot of those stories require something beyond science to work.

And can it include more modern stories? I'm thinking of the Batman story - though Infinity agents would only be side characters, maybe having to take on the guise of a supervillain in order to finish out their part.

Magic and other miracles do show up, if it fits the story.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Not technically true. I can't think of any classic story that can't be rewritten to be mundane. The Tempest becomes a very coincidental story if you remove Prospero's ability to use magic to trap his enemies on his island of exile and don't replace it with more mundane scheming like an agent on board who sabotages the navigation to run the ship around...but even if you don't so what? But it probably would be a world where magic works just to multiply the different possible variations.

True and insightful. Sometimes the Tempest reprises with all the magic, sometimes with just coincidence, and sometimes superscience. It varies from case to case.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It would lead to their historians seeing themes as incontrovertible facets of physical laws.
Though I imagine child protective service workers would study the heck out of all step-mothers. They have such a strong tendency to sadism and evil.
Imagine being a single father looking for love. Ain't no one going to date you.

Read GURPS: Discworld. Fighting against the narrative is examined by Phil.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Not technically true. I can't think of any classic story that can't be rewritten to be mundane. The Tempest becomes a very coincidental story if you remove Prospero's ability to use magic to trap his enemies on his island of exile and don't replace it with more mundane scheming like an agent on board who sabotages the navigation to run the ship around...but even if you don't so what? But it probably would be a world where magic works just to multiply the different possible variations.

The Greek myths have lots of magic in them, gods, people turning into animals, hell, etc.


Would the locals would be aware of the stories happening to them, and know how they play out? And the initial stories would still be known (i.e., Homer's Odyssey was still written on this world)?

Or maybe the stories happen infrequently enough, and enough different stories, that the natives don't realize it. A given person could be the main character in only one story over his/her life, side character in only a few. Might also have some sort of 'cultural/psychic blinders' on about it.

But it would be much more common for out-of-world visitors, basically required.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Or maybe the stories happen infrequently enough, and enough different stories, that the natives don't realize it. A given person could be the main character in only one story over his/her life, side character in only a few. Might also have some sort of 'cultural/psychic blinders' on about it.

The thing about narrative causality is that it neglects to mention the logically necessary characters that didn't make it into the story. For every hero who beats impossible odds, there must be dozens who tried it first and failed horribly - you know the ones whose failures established that the odds *were* impossible and not a trivially easy.

As Tarquin explains, the key takeaway from all the stories about the hero overthrowing the Evil Empire isn't that the Evil Empire always falls, but that it will be invincible before the hero shows up. Yeah the last few days may be unpleasant, but the Evil Emperor gets to live like a god for decades first....

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by PTTG

So it'll be discovered by a grad student.

...who's studying either software engineering or library science or public accounting.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by fchase8

The Greek myths have lots of magic in them, gods, people turning into animals, hell, etc.
.

Yup. And I could fairly easily write a story of a man trying to make his way across the United States and encountering a cannibalistic psycho with one eye, a kinky woman who likes to humiliate men by making them wear pig snouts or bark like a dog, an opiate using cult...

Might be redundant though. There's already been a Coen brothers movie that dipped into that kind of thing.

[Flyndaran]

My mom and I went into that movie not knowing it was The Odyssey. It was fun realizing it and then wondering who/what/how the cyclops was going to be.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by malloyd

The thing about narrative causality is that it neglects to mention the logically necessary characters that didn't make it into the story. For every hero who beats impossible odds, there must be dozens who tried it first and failed horribly - you know the ones whose failures established that the odds *were* impossible and not a trivially easy.

As Tarquin explains, the key takeaway from all the stories about the hero overthrowing the Evil Empire isn't that the Evil Empire always falls, but that it will be invincible before the hero shows up. Yeah the last few days may be unpleasant, but the Evil Emperor gets to live like a god for decades first....

Yeah - Kirk may be an invincible hero, but he sure does lose a lot of redshirts under his captaincy.

This world idea makes me think of the book Redshirts, where the rest of the crew of an Enterprise-like spaceship is aware that they're expendable, but not the main crew.