the double-bind, a short explanation
One of the annoying cliches of what-ifs is a poorly-done double-bind.
A double-bind is when someone in a second timeline wonders about someone in the first timeline.
ie, in our history, the Cromwell, the Lord Protector, and his government did not last very long.
in a neighboring timeline, England was ruled by Lord Protectors for three hundred years.
In a double-bind, a person from the longer Lord Protector timeline, contemplates what English history would have been like, if only the office of Lord Protector had fallen along with Cromwell.
A poorly-done double-bind is easy to make - just take our history & put it in their mouths.
continuing the earlier example, a person from the longer Lord Protector timeline, contemplates what English history would have been like, if only the office of Lord Protector had fallen along with Cromwell....and that person comes up with Queen Victoria, the Irish famines, the US Revolutionary War, and so on.
A good double-bind requires some thought, but it is possible.
ie, In a double-bind, a person from the longer Lord Protector timeline, contemplates what English history would have been like, if only the office of Lord Protector had fallen along with Cromwell...and that person comes up with an Anglo-Irish Union, a world war against a Franco-Italian axis in the 1850s, and King Harold the popemaker.
In fandom, one very good double-bind is this: Other Lives.
try it. you'll like it.
A double-bind is when someone in a second timeline wonders about someone in the first timeline.
ie, in our history, the Cromwell, the Lord Protector, and his government did not last very long.
in a neighboring timeline, England was ruled by Lord Protectors for three hundred years.
In a double-bind, a person from the longer Lord Protector timeline, contemplates what English history would have been like, if only the office of Lord Protector had fallen along with Cromwell.
A poorly-done double-bind is easy to make - just take our history & put it in their mouths.
continuing the earlier example, a person from the longer Lord Protector timeline, contemplates what English history would have been like, if only the office of Lord Protector had fallen along with Cromwell....and that person comes up with Queen Victoria, the Irish famines, the US Revolutionary War, and so on.
A good double-bind requires some thought, but it is possible.
ie, In a double-bind, a person from the longer Lord Protector timeline, contemplates what English history would have been like, if only the office of Lord Protector had fallen along with Cromwell...and that person comes up with an Anglo-Irish Union, a world war against a Franco-Italian axis in the 1850s, and King Harold the popemaker.
In fandom, one very good double-bind is this: Other Lives.
try it. you'll like it.