My Alternate-History Novel (meat is illegal)

[Randy Pearson]

My idea is set in an alternate history version of the year 1998 in which prostitution and all narcotics are legal and there is almost no gun control (however, the purchase of ammunition is kept at a very high price). For the most part the people, especially the middle and upper classes (from which our protagonist comes), are quite content with this world.

There is only one major thing that the government prohibits - the consumption of meat and the domestication of animals. Somewhere in the eighties, animals in the United States became elevated to positions above citizenship. It is illegal to murder an animal for any reason, while animals can not be charged with killing humans. Animals can not be kept as pets, and the only thing preventing them from crawling the ever dirtier streets of the working and lower classes are the inefficient EAHU (Ethical Animal Handlers Union). As a result, the main source of underground crime is not narcotics dealing or human trafficking, but illegal meat consumption. For the right price, someone can have domesticated cattle imported from an obscure third world nation to be made into hamburgers ($25 an ounce). Frequent shoot outs occur in the streets between the CHS (Commission of Human Safety) and animal traffickers.

At the same time, terrorist groups made up of Christian fundamentalists (angered at the governments inability to illegalize abortion and sodomy) frequently attack government offices, hospitals, and take homosexuals hostage. These fundamentalist use the underground animal trafficking to achieve the funds necessary to purchase weapons and the supplies to make bombs. If that weren't enough, former farmers and slaughter-house workers, put out of work by the 'Snoopy Laws' have taken to being droves of anarchist bandits, attacking towns in the mid-west, stealing supplies, rapping women, and murdering the upper class.

Our protagonist is Elliott of the CHS. Steadily growing more nihilistic about the world that is becoming more violent and chaotic every day, he seeks the consolation of Moe Barbly, a former Greek Orthodox Priest now in prison for refusing to perform several gay unions. Elliott is in love with Rebecca who works in the EAHU. When Rebecca accidentally becomes pregnant with another man's baby, she plans to get an abortion. Elliott, however, wants her to keep the baby, admitting that he doesn't know why.

This isn't really a book about the animal traffickers or Middies (farmer anarchists) or the terrorists. It's really about Elliott and Rebecca amidst this alternate history.

[joliet_jane]

It reminds me a teeny bit of the country described in The Handmaid's Tale, but your world sounds like a lot more fun.

[Randy Pearson]

It reminds me a teeny bit of the country described in The Handmaid's Tale, but your world sounds like a lot more fun.

Never read it. I should pick it up. Is it good?

[ORLY]

Sounds interesting. I love alternate history, it's probably one of my favorite concepts in literature.

[Randy Pearson]

Sounds interesting. I love alternate history, it's probably one of my favorite concepts in literature.

Yeah. The ass part of it though is that I'm going to have to do a lot of fucking research.

[ORLY]

Yeah. The ass part of it though is that I'm going to have to do a lot of fucking research.

True, but if it's stuff that interests you then it isn't as bad. I'm actually in the process of writing an alternate history novel myself, and I'm in the research stages.

[Silly Putty Clock]

Plausible near-future is also pretty interesting.

[Randy Pearson]

Plausible near-future is also pretty interesting.

You mean something like A Scanner Darkly?

[Silly Putty Clock]

You mean something like A Scanner Darkly?

I haven't actually read or seen that, so I wouldn't know.

[Randy Pearson]

I haven't actually read or seen that, so I wouldn't know.

Well, it was written around the seventies, I believe, and it is hinted that it actually does take place in the late seventies. But thinking about plausible near future and whatever possible definition of it could be, I retract my suggestion.

[Silly Putty Clock]

By the way, the story that I'm writing that nobody has bothered to read is set in a plausible near-future setting. It's kind of trippy, though. It starts out in a completely implausible distant future.

[FlossClock]

The story you have worked out so far seems like it has alot of potential. Stick with it and see it through to the end because I'd love to see how this turns out!

Best of luck, my child.

[Il Duce]

I love this because it's actually plausible. I wouldn't sweat the research too much; it's alternate for a reason.

[Randy Pearson]

I love this because it's actually plausible. I wouldn't sweat the research too much; it's alternate for a reason.

I know. But the world I'm trying to create is quite significantly different. Despite what many people would like to believe, the United States is a primarily conservative nation and has been for much of its history. I'd have to drastically change some events to create the sort of liberal dystopianism of the novel.

[joliet_jane]

Never read it. I should pick it up. Is it good?

I had to read it in college, and I did not like it.  I disliked it so much that I enjoyed not liking it.

One of the umpteen reasons why was that it made the fun concept of a weird/dystopian version of modern America totally not fun at all.  

[Randy Pearson]

I had to read it in college, and I did not like it.  I disliked it so much that I enjoyed not liking it.

Kind of sounds like how I felt about The Alchemist and The Secret Life of Bees.

[Silly Putty Clock]

WILL NOBODY LOOK AT MY STORY THREAD? I NEED MOTIVATION, PEOPLE!

[Loki Clock]

Make sure to not say the cows are coming from Africa. Africans are mostly lactose-intolerant, because not many groups historically raise cows there.