I got back from my annual hols last week, and discovered I'd spent a fortnight in Bookworld territory. Not only that, but it was a book I was force fed at the tender age of 10 years. I swear blind that, when I booked my camping trip at sea barn Farm (watch out for the brood mares, they're lethal) I didn't realise the significance ...

The farm is near East fleet, a Dorset village that was all but washed out to sea, in a storm over 180 years ago. Thing is, the village was recreated for Meade Faulkner's "aarrgh, Jim Lad" type novel, Moonfleet, in 1898.

Faulkner used real-life people in his book, turning villagers into baddies and not even changing their names (or at least, changing their names so slightly they look more like typos than attempts to alter fact into fiction)

The farm I stayed on DID get a name change, but the owners didn't - hence, the camping shop had about 500 copies of the Penguin Classic Moonfleet book, at the knock down price of £2.50. wot a bargain.

I went to the ruined church and, sure enough, a bunch of Moonfleet "baddies" were buried in the grounds, minus their "e"s. The top baddie of them all (a wicked magistrate) wasn't nasty at all in the Real World - in fact, he arranged for a new church to be built, 1/4 mile inland. The fact he got the 25 villagers who were left to pay for it, bears no relation to the matter.

Now, the question is - did Meade Faulkner go to Moonfleet, or did Moonfleet come to Meade Faulkner (possibly as part of a "two-for-one" offer in the Sun, during Weymouth Kite week)

'Cos for sure, there has to be some reason why he got away with it, when so many others wouldn't have done.

And why a church 1 1/2 miles inland was mysteriously swamped by a 30 ft tidal wave in the 19th century.

Funny, Faulkner doesn't mention that in his book.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2009 04:13PM by Jazz_Sue.

Interesting story Jazz Sue and very bookworldish.
You wrote:

"And why a church 1 1/2 miles inland was mysteriously swamped by a 30 ft tidal wave in the 19th century."

[www.geograph.org.uk]

adds more detail.

Thing is, I went there. The church is actually quite a long way away from the lagoon - and why wasn't the big house actually on the lagoon (called Moonfleet manor now there's a surprise) not washed away likewise?

Sounds like the whole thing was made up to me ... would it be possible to transport an entire ruined village from Bookworld, then fix it so people suddenly always knew it was there, do you think?

(wanders off warbling:) "Lyonesse is calling, come to me, come to meeeee."

It is possible, of course, that you stumbled into a portal. Did you browse the book at the camp shop and read yourself into it by accident perhaps? I haven't read it but I suspect the following to be likely:

If *Moonfleet* is written in a way that the locations and geography are described inconsistently or, very likely, if there are contradictions between landscape as described and the likelihood of various natural events (such as, for example, floods and washings-away of places unlikely to be so affected), then this could account for it.

In other words, the Bookworld place that you observed necessarily exhibits the same 'physical' inconsistencies that the book describes. This would result in a very unstable geography; suddenly changing according to the point in the story where inconsistencies occur.

You were probably lucky to escape unscathed (I'm guessing that you didn't have access to a footnoterphone to signal for help) and the whole affair should be reported in full, in writing, in triplicate to your nearest librarian. I should imagine that the entire location will be sealed off until a thorough edit is completed.

Gah! I came online to FORGET all the philosphy I just had in class... Damn it! Oh well (dons straitjacket)

That's what's so good about this forum: you can sprout some total gibberish, someone then calls it philosophy, and then THEY put on the straitjacket.

Well, yes. Because they need it. Given who it was. :P

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2009 09:59AM by MartinB.

Yes, well, I see your point Bentley, old chap - in this specific instance only the kitten would have a straitjacket handy in her own size and be able to 'don' it given that it involves securing one's own arms - one learns not to doubt the capabilities and resources of the kitten; but as a general rule what I said is also true.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2009 10:19AM by robert.

BK was the don-er but not necessarily the donee.

Is that anything like a blood donor?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Or an organ donor? Or even a piano donor?

Isn't don-er one of santa's reindeer?

Donut? How did that get in here?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Funny how everything leads back to food!

I think we got there via a doner kebab.

We did. I have the google map to prove it.

[www.hotfrog.ca]