27. Darwin changed not just how we think about the past but also the future. If past was very different, future will also be very different
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Replying to @HeerJeet
28. Out of Darwin we get far-future science fiction of H.G. Wells & Stapledon imagining the post-human future.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
29. It's no accident H.G. Wells wrote both Time Machine and The Outline of History (one of the most popular history books ever).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
30. It's no accident that science fiction writers are also often historical novelists: Kim Stanley Robinson, Nicola Griffith, etc.
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31. In writing about Middle Ages in "Hild" Nicola Griffith uses same skill set she applies to her SF, imagining radically different world.
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32. Let's go back to Hitler. One impact of Hitler was that he forced a revival of thinking on "Great Man" theory of History.
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33. In the wake of Hitler, 1940s/1950s saw a) academic revival of biographies (Donald Creighton) & narrative history (Mattingly's Armada)
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34. Also saw b) philosophers like Sidney Hook look at the idea of Great Man and c) SF dealing with problem or idea of Great Man.
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35. Asimov's Foundation novels don't mention Hitler (as I recall) but problem of the Mule is the Hitler problem imagined into the future.
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@RonRosenbaum1 Yeah, very relevant to what I'm talking about, but have to keep these twitter essays reasonable length. Will return to it.
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