Introduction to Uchronias

Hi, everyone! After the small success of my blog Ucronía Lallena, I considered that, maybe, I could make an English version so that more people could read about one of the things I like the most, uchronias.

Those of you that know Greek, have read certain books or have been around certain web forums or sites, will already know what an uchronia is, but for everyone, whether you know or not, there goes an explanation that I am sure will interest you.

In 1516, Thomas More wrote a book called Utopia (complete title in the original Latin: De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia), in which he described a fictitious idyllic society that lived in the island of Utopia. The word Utopia is a latinization, and play on the Greek words eu (ευ), ou (οὐ), "not", and topos (τόπος), "place", adding the -ia suffix (-ία) common to place names. The combination would be Outopia (Οὐτοπία), which can mean both "good place-land" and "no-place land", particularly considering that the pronunciation (in English) for Utopia (stressing the second syllable) is identical to that of the word Eutopia.

We can then build the neologism Uchronia, replacing topos (place) with chronos (time), so we could say that uchronia would mean "no-time land" or, better expressed, "non-existant time". This word is not mine, of course (I wish it was, though): it was coined by French writer Charles Renouvier for his novel Uchronie (L'Utopie dans l'histoire), esquisse historique apocryphe du développement de la civilisation européenne qu'il aurait pu être. For those that don't understand it, Uchronia (The Utopia in history), an apocryphal sketch of the development of European civilization not as it was, but as it could have been.

If we are very, very picky, this concept may only be applied to hypothetical or fictitious time periods in our world (that is, which would supposedly be in our past, but they would actually be only myths). The best examples for this idea are the Middle Earth (Arda) created by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, in which his famous novels The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (along with other less known, but not of lesser quality, works) take place; and the Hyborian Age in which The Adventures of Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard take place. However, the most used definition nowadays is as a synonym to what is also known as alternative history.

The uchronia, or alternative history, spreads from the idea that things could have happened differently to how they did in reality (at least, the reality we live in). For example, Alexander the Great could have not suffered the illness that ended up killing him, the Roman Empire could have survived, the Reconquista could have ended in failure o maybe Napoleon could have won in his fight against Great Britain. And these are but a minimal part of the millions of possibilities where history could have changed.

With this blog, I hope to show you the great world (or worlds) that exist out there, and entertain you, both for your pleasure and mine own.

This blog's entries will form part of three potential groups of ideas:
a) Existing alternative history works. They may be books, films or TV series, among other general culture fields.
b) The important concepts that exist in the world of alternative history, those that mark the difference (well put) between other "histories" and ours.
c) Small moments in history that could have had great consequences.

I'll try to regularly update at least twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I hope you will enjoy and comment on them.

See you later!

Miguel Lallena