That time the printing press never caught on in my alt-history debate group

So I show up to our monthly meetup at the library downtown, and the guy running it has declared we're doing a scenario where Gutenberg's invention fails. The twist? He brought a hand-copied scroll of his 50-page manifesto on the implications. I'm sitting there for 45 minutes listening to him read aloud while my coffee gets cold. Finally I just grabbed the scroll, rolled it up, and told him we needed a vote. We ended up spending the whole night arguing about parchment costs vs. modern paper (seriously). Has anyone else dealt with a moderator who takes the 'alternate history' thing way too literally?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkerbrown1mo ago

I mean, the part where he brought a hand-copied scroll of his own manifesto really gets me. Did he seriously write that out by hand for the bit, or did he just print it out on fancy paper and call it a day? Because if he actually sat there copying 50 pages by candlelight to prove a point, I think you have to either laugh or run.

william_harris1mo ago

Used to think alt-history nerds were harmless, but @parkerbrown's comment changed my mind completely.