Chapter One
Posted by:
Jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: October 29, 2002 10:19PM
<HTML>Jon’s British Reference Notes
A Non-Brit’s Guide to the Thursday Next series
Introduction
This work-in-progress-which-is-unlikely-to-be-finished is intended as a brief guide to references in Mr. Fforde’s works that might elude the non-British reader. There are several people on the Fforum from the USA, Australia and elsewhere who have expressed an interest in getting all the references and in-jokes, so here goes. I have assumed that all of you are sufficiently intelligent and literate (of course you are, you’re Fforde Ffans, after all) not to need all the many literary references annotating, nor such universal cultural icons as the Beatles, so I have confined myself to the insular and the deeply obscure.
Page references are to the UK paperback first editions, ‘cos them’s the ones I’ve got. Annotations are taken in page order as the item first appears. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.
The Eyre Affair
Chapter One
p.2 Maida Vale; inner suburb of (north-west) London, which in our world is quite pricey; either Thursday earns more than we thought, or the Nextian Maida Vale is a bit more downmarket. The poet Robert Browning also used to live there.
p.3 Trams; streetcars, to Americans. In our world trams in London and most other British cities disappeared in the 1950’s (though they are slowly being re-introduced). A symbol of the ‘retro’ feel of Nextian England.
p.4 Wellington; in our world it was of course only Nelson who was shot by a French sniper (at Trafalgar). Wellington survived to become Prime Minister. Yes, I know you know all this, but somebody asked.
p.7 the Crimea; OK, listen up. This is a biggie. The Crimean War in our world was fought between Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia (don’t ask) on one side and Russia on the other, 1854-1856. The basic cause was that the Brits and the French didn’t want the Russians taking over Turkey and threatening their Mediterranean possessions. For some reason the allies decided the best way to show the Russians where they got off was to invade the Crimean peninsula. (A bit like occupying Seattle and then expecting the USA to give in). Everybody fought very badly and the end result was a no-score draw. However, for some strange reason the conflict had a huge cultural impact on the British; possibly as a result of the (relatively) large number of casualties, or perhaps because it was the only major war Britain fought in nearly a hundred years. Whatever, the war itself became a symbol of the futility of war (until displaced by the even more futile World War One) and gave us, among other things a woolly sweater called a cardigan (after General Lord Cardigan) a woolly hat called a balaclava (after the battle of the same name) and another piece of knitwear called a raglan (after General Lord Raglan). As you can see, cold was a problem for British troops. The war saw the start of modern nursing profession as organised in a military hospital by Florence Nightingale, and combatants were the first to be awarded our highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, originally made from melted-down Russian guns. The most famous action of the war was the Charge of the Light Brigade, when the aforesaid Cardigan (who was a twit) led the Light Cavalry Brigade up the wrong valley and got nearly all of them slaughtered by Russian artillery. Cardigan survived and was later officially exonerated from blame, which instead was landed on one Lt. Nolan, who was conveniently dead. Sound familiar, Fforde ffans? The then poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson later wrote his most famous poem (imaginatively titled The Charge of the Light Brigade) to commemorate the event. Presumably somebody else did the honours for the action in which Anton De Laste Next was killed.
p.7 jingoism; Nextian echo from our world here; in the 1880’s the Crimean war almost had a re-run, and in the wake of popular anti-Russian feeling a music-hall song asserted that ‘we don’t want to fight, but, by jingo, if we do….’ Hence, jingoism, jingoistic, to be very gung-ho and patriotic.
p.8 Isle of Wight; island off the south coast of England, notable as a holiday resort, which in our world the French have never got their hands on.
p.8 pelota; why pelota is popular in Nextian England I do not know; in our world its appeal is confined almost exclusively to Hispanic countries.
p.8 Czar Romanov Alexei IV; surely that should be Alexei Romanov? One for the upgrade?
p.9 picketing cheese shops; when TEA was published there was a widespread protest by British truckers and farmers against the high rate of tax on petrol (gasoline).
p.9 Socialist Republic of Wales; Wales is a major source of humour and alternative history in the TN series. I gather that the nature and status of Wales, and English attitudes thereto, are not well known abroad, so I will attempt to explain. Wales is a country of approx. 3 million people, in our world part of the United Kingdom but very definitely NOT part of England; it’s that sticky-out bit on the left hand side of Britain. About a third of the Welsh people still speak the Welsh language, a Celtic tongue not related or similar to English. The south of the country (where most of the Welsh live) was until recent years notable for coal mines, and this naturally bred a people with a marked Socialist bent. Labour party candidates in Welsh elections didn’t bother counting their votes; they just weighed them. Wales has been politically and culturally subordinate to England for nigh on a thousand years, and there are those among the Welsh on whom this rankles. The English meanwhile, have very often adopted a patronising, condescending and even contemptuous attitude to the Welsh and their language (until the early 20th century use of Welsh was all but officially banned). Why the English (who by and large know very little of the Welsh) continue to condone and practice anti-Welsh prejudice, I do not know. Metropolitan trendies who would recoil in horror from a joke about black people see nothing wrong in making racist remarks about the Welsh (a well-known TV presenter did just that on national TV not long ago – she later apologised, but not very sincerely). It’s as if the English don’t believe the Welsh really exist, but are just a bunch of Englishmen with funny accents who insist on pretending to be foreign, just so as they can wind up the English. Apparently sane English people seriously believe that any conversation they hear in Welsh is about them and also that Welsh people only talk Welsh when there are English people to hear, and once all the tourists have gone home speak English to one another. Jasper’s joke is that were Wales an independent republic in conflict with England, the English would treat them with a lot more respect than they actually do. Note, I am not Welsh, and speak only a few words of the language, but Jasper lives in Wales and has a Welsh partner. Anybody thinking of making anti-Welsh jokes on the Fforum might like to remember that. (The name of the Fforum is itself a sly Welsh in-joke – ff in Welsh is pronounced as English f in fire, but f is pronounced as a V). Incidentally, Jasper always refers to the country in which Thursday lives as England/English. What became of Scotland and Ireland in Nextian history? (I ask as one of Irish descent).
p.9 Hay; Hay-on-Wye, home of a major literary festival and a thousand-and-one second-hand bookshops.
p.9 Owain Glyndwr VII; the original Owain Glyndwr (pronounced approx. as oh-wane glinn-dooor) was a 15th century leader of Welsh resistance to the English, the last such leader Wales had. He was defeated but never captured, vanishing mysteriously….
p.9 Dungeness; despite having trams and airships and other retro fittings, Nextian England 1985 apparently has nuclear fusion power stations, which is more than we’ve got. A nuclear fission power station does in fact exist at Dungeness (Kent) in our world.</HTML>