Turtledove
Harry Turtledove: Index > Restructuring Atlantis articles


ML4E has suggested that we consider moving Penzance to an article for all known states of Atlantis. I suggest we consider going one step further and conflating all articles about Atlantean geography (including topography) onto the Atlantis page for several reasons. First, we don't know the exact borders of any of the states. Second, HT made the rather PIA decision to name his states after the major cities that formed the foundations of those states. Third, while there has been some broad hints that certain of the Atlantean cities might be analogs of OTL USA cities, HT and Steven Silver have remained mum. Fourth, there are several states that are mentioned, but otherwise have very little to "do" within the series, so several articles are quite short, such as Penzance, Atlantis.

Perhaps. If we did do that, I would want to maintain the small handful of articles on states that do have a good deal of info available, with links in the list. If we're talking about merging those articles with the Atlantis page, I don't think that's a good idea at all; we'd end up with a very long section full of lengthy diversions. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:09, March 1, 2015 (UTC)
I was thinking of an article similar to Provinces of the NAU with a general outline of each state's location and neighbors. Any that had a significant role in the novels or stories would continue to have separate articles with links in the "States of the US of Atlantis" article. ML4E (talk) 19:26, March 4, 2015 (UTC)
Yeah, that probably works. Since HT never created an official map, we can't really relate his states to US states or Canadian provinces, but we can describe broadly where the state is located on the continent. TR (talk) 22:11, March 4, 2015 (UTC)
I agree that would be a good model to follow. As for each state's location, I do seem to recall some useful info gleaned together from the book (and some--by no means all--of the state capitals can just be made out on the LA cover). We can cross that bridge when we come to it. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:12, March 5, 2015 (UTC)

While I'm making suggestions, I also think we should move the articles pertaining to the individual short works in Opening Atlantis back to the OA page and leave behind appropriate redirects. TR (talk) 17:22, March 1, 2015 (UTC)

Why would we want to do that? The novellas were published together, but each is a standalone piece; "Nouveu Redon" is much more closely related to USA than it is to the rest of OA. There's not too much of a thematic resonance, either; it's more like "Let's pour through the backstory in as brief a manner as possible while still doing a credible and satisfying job of world-building, then move on to the feature presentations of the AWfI and ACW analogs as quickly as possible." Putting the states on the Atlantis page is one thing, but I really see no up side to the second proposal. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:09, March 1, 2015 (UTC)
As they were published together in the first place, presumably, most users look for info about them on the OA page. While they are certainly stand-alone pieces in many respects, nonetheless, they were published together in what is billed as a "novel". That makes the completely unique among HT short works. TR (talk) 22:11, March 4, 2015 (UTC)
Not quite completely unique; Earthgrip was like that, I believe. We have very little info on that one, of course.
Seems to me that an OA article with links to each novella, and perhaps brief summaries, would be the best solution. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:12, March 5, 2015 (UTC)
Good point on the Earthgrip article. If you click on it, you will see that it has links to each of the three stories. The only difference is that Earthgrip is a so called "fix-up" novel made from two short stories and a novella that had been previously published as separate stories in Analog. ML4E (talk) 18:20, March 5, 2015 (UTC)
That does make it different from OA, to an extent. I still feel it's a good model to follow. Turtle Fan (talk) 04:45, March 7, 2015 (UTC)