Historical Fiction?

[Hypoxia]

Exactly one book written by EA Poe was reprinted in his lifetime, a field guide to sea shells. Work that into your Poe accounts.

I've a few LIT pieces set in The Past (before my birth during the Truman years). Mostly I plop made-up but plausible folks onto period stages, no research needed. But in The Botanists I followed real-life actual people, scientific celebs in their day, whose professional lives are well documented but personal lives were not. I invented the tale of their romance. That was fun and rewarding. I may cook some rowdy sequels eventually.

I've also been cooking a tale of an artist and humorist, nominated for the first Oscars. Much Hollywood fun and decadence whilst designing Ben-Hur, Mark Of The Vampire, Scarface, Viva Villa! and odd structures like his Witch House. Real stars and wannabes will wander through the fuck-o-rama. Maybe vamps and witches too. Take some real history and twist it nicely.

Historical fiction is great to write because we already know the plot and need merely flesh is out and pop it up. If reality doesn't suffice, try alt.history.

 

[Sara2000Z]

The ballet (based on Dumas' retelling) takes a lot of the nightmare aspects out of Hoffman's story. The original story is dark and loveless and intentionally nightmarish. It's mostly a horror story.

Hoffmann wrote some pretty macabre stuff alright - didn't he also write The Sandman - chucking sand into children's eyes to make them go to sleep?? I think one of his stories was the basis for Ingmar Bergmnan's 'Fanny and Alexander' too. Anyway he (Hoffmann) died of syphilis, so that could account for some of the more fantastical and dark elements of his storytelling?!

 

[oggbashan]

Godiva

Perhaps it was William, and not the horse, that she mounted in the buff.

I doubt that unless Godiva was a cougar. William was much younger than her.

This saddens me. Lady Godiva is the Patron Saint of Engineering students, at least in Canada. She is immortalized in a solemn hymn, sung to"The Battle Hymn of the Republic", usually with much beer.

Godiva was a Lady who through Coventry did ride,
To show to all the villagers her lovely bare white hide.
The most observant villager, an Engineer of course
Was the only one to notice that Godiva rode a horse.

If memory serves there are nineteen more verses, involving Ceasar, Arts Majors, the Scientific Method and "the Boundary Condition and Electromotive Force". Stirring stuff.

Who needs reality? There are some places where reality has no place. Shame on you Ogg.

Odd though. The Canadian (mining) engineers I knew never ripped off so much as a verse of that. Not enough beer, methinks.

The myth and legend of Godiva will survive even debunking by historical facts. The City of Coventry celebrate her with a statue and a parade. There is even a beer named after her.

http://www.cwn.org.uk/tourism/coventry-and-warks-promotions/images/godiva-horse-w400.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godiva_Procession

http://www.warwickshirebeer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/godiva.jpg

 

[RetroFan]

I write most of my stories set in the past, and some have been about historical events.

My story 'Take Cover From Tracy' is about the destruction of the Australian city of Darwin by Cyclone Tracy at Christmas 1974, 'Switchboard Girls, Soldiers & Sirens' takes place in England during The Blitz of World War 2 and 'The Coal Miner & The Conservative' is set during the 1984 UK Miners' Strike.

I've currently got a half completed romance story set on the Titanic in 1912, but it obviously needs some work before it gets posted.

 

[NotWise]

The myth and legend of Godiva will survive even debunking by historical facts. The City of Coventry celebrate her with a statue and a parade. There is even a beer named after her.

Here we have Godiva chocolate.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've currently got a half completed romance story set on the Titanic in 1912, but it obviously needs some work before it gets posted.

Building more lifeboats?

 

[SolarRay]

I've often visited the Poe houses in NYC, Philly, and Whitman's house in Providence (private residence) because they're frequently within my Zones of Wandering. Those have been creatively inspiring. You can also take Poe's lonely walks over High Bridge and along the Aqueduct trail here, which are lovely.

I'd be interested in seeing what develops if you go forward with this. My Lit story "The Girl From The Deep" was partly Poe-inspired, but stylistically, not as a historical fiction. I feel like historical fiction would be underappreciated here, but then again the response to this thread is inspiring!

 

[NotWise]

I feel like historical fiction would be underappreciated here, but then again the response to this thread is inspiring!

You might be surprised. A Valentine's Day Mess part 3 has two fairly long historical tales embedded in it. One is from about 1800 and the other from about 1545. It was at the top of the I/T 12-month toplist for several months last fall. It was eventually and unmercifully 4-bombed, but the score is still respectable.

Underappreciation may not be a problem.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

I've often visited the Poe houses in NYC, Philly, and Whitman's house in Providence (private residence) because they're frequently within my Zones of Wandering. Those have been creatively inspiring. You can also take Poe's lonely walks over High Bridge and along the Aqueduct trail here, which are lovely.

I'd be interested in seeing what develops if you go forward with this. My Lit story "The Girl From The Deep" was partly Poe-inspired, but stylistically, not as a historical fiction. I feel like historical fiction would be underappreciated here, but then again the response to this thread is inspiring!

I've been to the Poe Museum in Richmond, VA and Thomas Wolfe's house and memorial in Asheville, NC, but that's as far as my literary wanderings have taken me.
I'm always pleasantly surprised at what Lit readers can appreciate. I often use erudite language which could make me seem overly intellectual (which I'm trying desperately to change) as well as slang and pop references that could make me seem immature, and have as much going on between the character's ears as I do between their legs. But I've gotten an overwhelmingly positive response since I've started posting, which makes me think that more people are willing to stretch their minds than some authors give them credit for. And those are the people I chose to write for.

 

[KeithD]

I've been to the Poe Museum in Richmond, VA and Thomas Wolfe's house and memorial in Asheville, NC, but that's as far as my literary wanderings have taken me.

Combining your mention of Thomas Wolfe and your OP question on including historical context to Literotica stories, I have a serialized novel posted here under the sr71plt account, "Homeward Bound" (https://www.literotica.com/s/homeward-bound-ch-01-1) that parallels the early life from that Asheville rooming house of a Thomas Wolfe-modeled character in a "if he were gay" storyline. Until late into the book, it parallels the chronology of Wolfe's life. Wolfe never married, but he was known to have had an affair with a married woman, so it's just a "what if" treatment and Wolfe isn't a character in the story by name.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Combining your mention of Thomas Wolfe and your OP question on including historical context to Literotica stories, I have a serialized novel posted here under the sr71plt account, "Homeward Bound" (https://www.literotica.com/s/homeward-bound-ch-01-1) that parallels the early life from that Asheville rooming house of a Thomas Wolfe-modeled character in a "if he were gay" storyline. Until late into the book, it parallels the chronology of Wolfe's life. Wolfe never married, but he was known to have had an affair with a married woman, so it's just a "what if" treatment and Wolfe isn't a character in the story by name.

Cool- I'll definitely have to read your stories then because it sounds like the blend of history and fantasy I'm looking for. And I'll imagine Wolfe as looking like Jude Law in Genius.
When Poe was on his death bed, he repeatedly said the name Reynolds, so I've debated with myself whether that would be a man or woman, and more importantly whether that man or woman tried to turn Poe into a vampire/immortal. I wonder if Poe was actually buried in one of those Safety coffins with a bell alarm.

 

[Handley_Page]

I write most of my stories set in the past, and some have been about historical events.

I've currently got a half completed romance story set on the Titanic in 1912, but it obviously needs some work before it gets posted.

Better filling of those lifeboats ?

Building more lifeboats?

Amen

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Better filling of those lifeboats ?

If only they could have made the Titanic entirely out of lifeboats, then it might not have been one giant deathboat.
The show that's my guilty pleasure, Supernatural, did an episode in which an angel goes back in time and stops the Titanic from sinking, but in turn messes up the cosmic balance. In the new reality, of course, no one's ever heard of the Titanic, which I thought was a cool way of approaching alt history.

 

[RetroFan]

If only they could have made the Titanic entirely out of lifeboats, then it might not have been one giant deathboat.
The show that's my guilty pleasure, Supernatural, did an episode in which an angel goes back in time and stops the Titanic from sinking, but in turn messes up the cosmic balance. In the new reality, of course, no one's ever heard of the Titanic, which I thought was a cool way of approaching alt history.

That's an interesting concept about how averting a disaster changes the course of history.

It certainly throws up some dilemmas. For example, say you went to bed one night and when you woke up the next morning it wasn't the next day, but rather Monday, September 10 2001. You are the same age and in the same situation you were in 2001, but you have all your memories of the 17 years since then. What do you do?

 

[Hypoxia]

That's an interesting concept about how averting a disaster changes the course of history.

It certainly throws up some dilemmas. For example, say you went to bed one night and when you woke up the next morning it wasn't the next day, but rather Monday, September 10 2001. You are the same age and in the same situation you were in 2001, but you have all your memories of the 17 years since then. What do you do?

Hal Ellison's classic Star Trek tale City At The Edge Of Forever saw Kirk and Spock return a woman to 1930 Earth to die so time would not change. It's the "shoot your own grandma" dilemma. Can a change to the past change the future? If you shoot grandma, do you vanish? Must your shot miss?

Does the universe allow or resist temporal change? Might any changes you try be swamped-out by ensuing events? Does a law of temporal conservation exist? If you venture into the past and try to change it, do you vanish?

I read that travel to the past is theoretically possible... for individual particles, with massive expenditures of energy, maybe rending the fabric of the universe. So it seems like all tales of travel to the past are fantasies. Hey, this is LIT! It's what we're here for! Go back and fuck gram or gramps!

 

[Bramblethorn]

I wonder if Poe was actually buried in one of those Safety coffins with a bell alarm.

Wiki says: "Poe was buried in a cheap coffin that lacked handles, a nameplate, cloth lining, or a cushion for his head." No fancy safety coffin, no.

 

[SimonDoom]

That's an interesting concept about how averting a disaster changes the course of history.

It certainly throws up some dilemmas. For example, say you went to bed one night and when you woke up the next morning it wasn't the next day, but rather Monday, September 10 2001. You are the same age and in the same situation you were in 2001, but you have all your memories of the 17 years since then. What do you do?

Suppose you contact the government with information, and they use it to avoid the terrorist attacks of 9/11. You've saved thousands of lives.

The problem is that your actions will have significant ripple effects, ultimately changing the behavior of everyone on the planet. Those behavioral changes will completely change the conception of future generations. It's probably not an exaggeration to say that none of the people born after, say, Jan. 1, 2003 in the old timeline will be born in this one. So by saving a few thousand lives you become the greatest mass murderer in history.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Wiki says: "Poe was buried in a cheap coffin that lacked handles, a nameplate, cloth lining, or a cushion for his head." No fancy safety coffin, no.

Thanks! He was terrified of being buried alive, as were, I suppose, others of the day.

And as far as banging your own grandparents in the past, that's exactly what Fry does in an episode of Futurama. I think if you altered something in the past, you'd create an alternate timeline that branched out to a new future. Whether you could travel "back" to that new future timeline is another matter.
Interestingly enough, some physicists have done experiments that support Retrocausal Quantum Theory- that the future outcome of an event directly affects the choices made leading up to that event in the past, and you could potentially send messages back in time in the form of light, given the right technology.
But that's not nearly as sexy as a good GILF fuckarama.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I've been inspired by several true stories, but just "inspired by." Not remotely trying to be historically accurate.

 

[Hypoxia]

An old plot bunny is of a long-lived 20th-century-born cyborg (he's applied numerous technological improvements to himself over a couple millennia) who is inexplicably cast back in time to our past. No alternate timelines. He finds that he can MAKE his and our past but not CHANGE it. He can be the unknown assassin but he can't assassinate anyone who wasn't historically assassinated. He can be the mysterious lover but only if a mysterious lover was there, historically. Temporal conservation holds sway.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

An old plot bunny is of a long-lived 20th-century-born cyborg (he's applied numerous technological improvements to himself over a couple millennia) who is inexplicably cast back in time to our past. No alternate timelines. He finds that he can MAKE his and our past but not CHANGE it. He can be the unknown assassin but he can't assassinate anyone who wasn't historically assassinated. He can be the mysterious lover but only if a mysterious lover was there, historically. Temporal conservation holds sway.

Like in Terminator, when John Connor can send his own father back in time so he can be conceived, but a cyborg made specifically to kill can't terminate one waitress? Or more like this:

“Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home…” *cue Quantum Leap theme song

 

[Hypoxia]

I think it was a Ray Bradbury story where a time traveler from a contemporary liberal society steps on a butterfly in the Jurassic and returns to a fascist world. Moral: Don't fuck with the past.

Of course Heinlein's classic All You Zombies protagonist is his own father AND mother AND recruiter to be a time repairman sent to fix temporal errors before they alter downstream history. "Paradoxes can be paradoctored."

That leads to: Our MC travels back in time to do stuff, but the time cops await. Or they are followed by time cops who undo their deeds. Their paradoxes are paradoctored. I recall another SF tale where the MC travels back to kill Hitler but finds that the many other would-be saviors landed in a holding pen. For LIT, they're all naked and horny.
_____

ObTopic: Historical fiction can include spiced myths. The empress DID screw battalions, and the Hollywood starlet DID pull a train with the USC football team, including a guy later known as John Wayne. Paganini DID deal with Satan and received many juicy music-hypnotized fucks before he went to Hell (along with all interesting people). Abe Lincoln DID hunt vampires and rescue succulent, grateful maidens. And so forth.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Tesla DID look like David Bowie and built a machine that duplicated people.
Unfortunately, the real Tesla was never wealthy like in The Prestige, but he did hang out with people like Dvořák, Kipling, and Twain- whom Tesla pranked once (on his birthday) by making him nearly crap himself using an oscillator.

So Poe could have been turned into a vampire (or werewolf or some such) and never actually died. In fact, he could have been toasting his own grave...

 

[Bramblethorn]

Suppose you contact the government with information, and they use it to avoid the terrorist attacks of 9/11. You've saved thousands of lives.

(at minimum, up to millions depending on one's take on ripple effects...)

The problem is that your actions will have significant ripple effects, ultimately changing the behavior of everyone on the planet. Those behavioral changes will completely change the conception of future generations. It's probably not an exaggeration to say that none of the people born after, say, Jan. 1, 2003 in the old timeline will be born in this one. So by saving a few thousand lives you become the greatest mass murderer in history.

Hmm. If we accept the idea that preventing potential future people from being born is the same as killing people who are already alive, then every couple who uses any kind of contraception is committing murder. Not sure I can agree with that one.

Thanks! He was terrified of being buried alive, as were, I suppose, others of the day.

Yeah, it was quite a common phobia. If I recall correctly, a lot of people requested embalming or exsanguination as a way of ensuring they wouldn't wake up in a coffin.

 

[KindofHere]

...............