I think its best to leave the external link for Dashiell Hammet in the story only. ML4E (talk) 20:04, May 10, 2016 (UTC)
Secret History[]
How? Its a parody What If. ML4E (talk) 22:05, November 14, 2016 (UTC)
The angle of the bizarre elephant species is secret zoological history, as the existence of this species does not affect the world's course.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 22:08, November 14, 2016 (UTC)
- The point of secret history is revealing some "truth" about important events of history, saying in effect "everything you know is wrong." The best example we have is "Under St. Peter's", which says Jesus is a vampire and is being held by the Catholic Church.
- A living member of a fictional/extinct species of elephant doesn't get at the "truth" of any event or events, anymore than the coelacanth's rediscovery did. TR (talk) 22:37, November 14, 2016 (UTC)
But it is alternate history![]
The POD is the survival of Elephas falconeri, a dwarf elephant that existed in Malta (and Sicily) in prehistorical times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeoloxodon_falconeri Eljuma (talk) 02:43, September 25, 2018 (UTC)
- I've never cared for treating differences in the physical world as alternate history. To my mind it's not a POD till humans start behaving differently. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:55, September 25, 2018 (UTC)
- It's no more AH than Forrest Gump is. FG is just a series of anecdotes sticking Gump into various moments of history, and TME is just sticking the elephant into various moments of history.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 07:42, September 26, 2018 (UTC)
- Well said. Turtle Fan (talk) 03:12, September 27, 2018 (UTC)
Pastiches[]
We have Category:Pastiches so I don't see any purpose behind "See Also" then a list of the same. The category takes care of that. ML4E (talk) 16:51, October 21, 2020 (UTC)
- By me too. Turtle Fan (talk) 00:47, October 22, 2020 (UTC)