RB> You might compare Michael Moorcock's "Jerry Cornelius" books,
RB> where he starts with exactly the same characters, and sees how
RB> they react in different situations, without any refernce
RB> whatsoever to their previous adventures.

 I have! Moorsock is one of those authors I have to take in small
doses. He's brilliant, but more than a little mad.

RB> Alan Garner's "young adult" book RED SHIFT (which I never
RB> finished, but maybe should look at again) had something like
RB> the same characters going through the same motions in the same
RB> part of Cheshire in Roman, Civil War and modern times, as if
RB> some spirit was doomed to reenact the same problems until some
RB> distant time when a resolution might arise.

 It's a good way to show that people don't really change. I like it.

BL> Stephenson is the only American author I know who successfully
BL> writes about England and gets it right... and to cap it off he
BL> writes

RB> Americans tend to complain that British authors aren't too good
RB> on America, and the few who do it well have generally lived
RB> there for a while, like Paul McAuley and Michael Marshall
RB> Smith.

 IMO, Lee Child is the best, Even his name sounds American!

RB> He might have decided to protect the innocent, of course, or
RB> maybe the street names just weren't worth bothering with. 

 Further than that, he's invented an entire country name QWLGHM (or
something like that), placed about where the Hebrides are. He writes
it so surely that I had to check it out. What gave him away was when
he gave the King (George VI) his full title to include, "Inner and
Outer Qwlghm," and faked it. I was actualy disappointed he left out,
"and the Colonies and Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the
Faith." The "beyond the Seas" bit has always appealed to me.

RB> There's an author called Michael Z. Lewin; he's American and
RB> writes whodunnits set in his native Indianapolis, not the most
RB> fashionable part of the U.S. They are mostly set in a suburb
RB> called Selwood. There's no Selwood in the real Indianapolis -
RB> but there is one in the small town of Frome here in the UK,
RB> where he lives.

 Aha! Writer's tricks. The trick for American telephone numbers is a
"555" prefix because there isn't one. When I set a story in a real
place, I always change the streets around.

BL> That's the trouble with authors, they are really good liars.

RB> Well... more kindly, they are adept at stimulating willin
RB> suspension of disbelief...

 I prefer "liars." They not only suspend disbelief, they have to
remember the lies they told earlier in the book.

Regards,
Bob


    

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