I think this idea works best if you choose settings (in time and place) that are similar. For instance, the key 'thing' about the Ingalls family and their story is that they were pioneers, on the frontier of a new world, and constantly moving on when the wave of development caught up with them. In a comfortable midwestern suburb in ’17, they just wouldn’t generate the same. But supposing they were settling australia in the early 19th C instead? or a new planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system, many many thousands of years in the future? or the same areas of america as in the book, but after an apocalyptic event that has destroyed most infrastructure and greatly reduced population? those would let the characters and the story retain their essential shapes, while still being different (although australia would be bloody grim re: aboriginal people being wiped out). I often think about AU version of my favourite stories or my own creations (though I do have a bad weakness for just shoving everyone into pokémon land...)



WorldbuildingFiction and Setting DisplacementMar 07 at 4:07 PM