RE: [DL] Re: London

["Daniel Gwyn" <dgwyn@colba.net>]

Hi,
	A small correction regarding the previous post to be followed by
some general observations. First, the author of the Flashman papers is
*George* MacDonald Fraser, not James. 
	Secondly, one thing to be remembered about late Victorian
Britain is the general sense of pride. The British Empire covers a
quarter of the Globe. No mean feat for a small island. This includes
Canada complete with a transcontinental railroad, Australia, India, etc.
British Engineering is second to none (possibly bar some American ghost
rock contraptions. The Royal Navy rules the waves: the rule of thumb was
that the Royal Navy had to be larger than the navies of the next two
powers put together. London was the financial capital of the world. I
could go on but all of these were great sources of pride for even the
average Briton. There should be a tremendous sense of "We are British.
We are the best."

    Daniel Gwyn
 
"Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The
days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.  How did
it come to this?"
 
Théoden from Peter Jackson's The Two Towers

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-deadlands@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-deadlands@gamerz.net]
On
> Behalf Of Michael Robert Blair
> Sent: January 23, 2004 5:25 AM
> To: deadlands@gamerz.net
> Subject: [DL] Re: London
> 
> I can't really recall having read anything
> specifically about London in any Deadlands book so
> this is largely a generic steampunk view with a
> Deadlands 'wash' applied.
> 
> Lets see, Britain is rich and powerful, the industrial
> revolution would have 'Made in England' stamped on the
> bottom (though that is as always a more complicated
> story - that I would argue started with the Black
> Death in the Middle Ages'). Yet it is dependant on
> foreign raw materials and food - American cotton for
> the Lancashire mills, refrigerated meat from Australia
> (now there is a scenario - things reanimating on a
> reefer) and most importantly American grain. Its
> position is already starting to slip, cheap clocks
> will almost all be American, but it is still the main
> producer of heavy machinery.
> 
> The engineers will be crazy over ghostrock but though
> their inventions may not be as wacky or as useful to
> adventures as the products of Yankee tinkereers they
> will be potential more harmful in the long run - whole
> areas tainted by the 'fall out' from ghost rock
> powered mills - in the Black Country things might rise
> from ancient graveyards... Mind you there are crazy
> British inventors as well - look at the life of
> Charles Babbage for a start.
> 
> London is a city of contrasts, the poor are still
> living in crowded slums, even though the old rookeries
> have been cleared while the middle classes are moving
> into the suburbs made possible by cheap public
> transport.
> 
> Strange new and/or foreign religions and beliefs are
> gaining popularity - spiritualism is a case in point
> though we might are a bit too early for Theosophy.
> 
> I have been working on a 'League of Extraordinary
> Gentlemen' knockoff setting for a while now but beyond
> adding some weird science I didn't think of making any
> great changes, I did toy with having the
> Franco-Prussian war a French victory and keeping the
> French in Mexico though, the latter almost mandating a
> Confederate survival as well though I discovered doing
> an essay on slavery that I was a rabid abolitionist
> which I had not been aware of which has shifted my
> stance to a more pro-union bias rather than
> pro-Confederacy. A bit of a pity as apart form Lincoln
> himself (my second favourite American president after
> Teddy) the Union seemed to have fewer sympathetic
> characters and a lot of nasties led by the hideous
> 'Spoons' Butler and that bloody fool Autie Custer.
> 
> Back to London. Read anything by James McDonald Frazer
> but especially his Flashman books and probably
> especially ?Mr. American? though I have not read it. A
> lot of his stuff is not particularly relavant but all
> is good. Even the McAuslan stories though set just
> after WW II give a very good insight to the British
> regimental system.
> 
> The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics.
> 
> 
> Michael
> Now eagerly awaiting 'Cold Mountain' and hoping it is
> as good as the book.
> 
> 
>
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