hirez: (dissent)
[personal profile] hirez
Hm. I might be mildly beered up, slightly sunburned and cheered by the discovery of sloes in the wilderness at $work.

I also have mixed emotions, as they say, in the direct aftermath of yon motorway programme. About halfway through, some woman who lives in Warrington and drives an Alfa started on concerning writing a story in her head about liking being alone in her car and what might happen if she just kept on driving. At that point I realised that was the other story hiding in the A1 Diner thing. The track through the words that I haven't managed to tell well enough because it's quietly disappearing on successive re-writes.

Ok, I am a hacker and I understand revision control systems, so it's not actually gone. But even so. A bit of a belter, that one.

And yet. I'd rather like to visit the multiple Britains in my head. The one where they fixed the railways rather than following up on the Preston by-pass, and the other one where they built the London Box. Perhaps they're the same place. No goths in Camden because it's three lanes of concrete overpass in each direction so they stayed on their provincial war-memorials to hoover down a cider in the quiet twilight before getting the train that goes to somewhere more interesting for the evening.

Alternate Britains

Date: 2007-08-25 06:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
And now you've got me trying to remember an illustrated book that was published some years ago that chronicles a succesful British Space Race in a very Dan Dare vein.

Re: Alternate Britains

Date: 2007-08-25 09:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hirez.livejournal.com
'How Britain won the space race' by Patrick Moore and someone else? Filled with re-purposed engravings from the Empire Exhibition?

At least, that's the book I have/had. Features the adventures of Sir Humphrey ffried-Fischer and the sage Dreikleinen.

Re: Alternate Britains

Date: 2007-08-25 02:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whotheheckami.livejournal.com
Nope, that's not the one; although I will try and track it down. I'm thinking of Warren Ellis' Ministry of Space. More for the wish list ;@)

Date: 2007-08-25 08:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheepthief.livejournal.com
But if you believe Hari Seldon it wouldn't make that much of a difference.

I've thought about just keeping on driving, but then I've also thought about driving into the next bridge support. I guess I'm happy to stay away from either end of the bell-shaped curve.

Have you read Iain Banks' The Bridge? I was so disappointed that the bridge didn't actually go on forever and that there was land. Bah.

Date: 2007-08-25 05:01 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
An unrestricted M1 that had been finished would be a good start. So too would the highland circle that Beeching killed off completely. Sleepers with observation cars that halt by John O'Groats, naturally aspirated twenty-three litre Bentleys .

Elevating the London Box would be a start. You'd create a fresh new ghetto, and if you jigged your blitz correctly you could start it with brickwork. Hell, let's be honest: if you were to start early enough, you could have zeppelins clear swathes of the sarf for later reconstruction.

Obviously a Beeching Bereft Britannia and the Capital's Concentric Carriageways need a handful of other counterparts. Civil Aviation could have developed very differently if Balfour had stolen another Aerodrome.

Date: 2007-08-28 01:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aoakley.livejournal.com
what might happen if she just kept on driving

I get that at M5 J11a southbound. What if I didn't turn off for work that day, and just kept going for Exeter, and spent the rest of my life hiding out in Devon and Cornwall, or got a ferry to France, or a cargo ship to America? I certainly reckon I could get as far as South Africa before my car and money gave up. I wonder if I could make a living as an open-source PC repair trainer for a charity in Kenya? Assuming I didn't die of being a redhead in the sun.

I presume it's rather like the lemming instinct to wonder what it would be like to partake in tombstoning. So far the need to continue paying the bills to support my family has exceeded my curiosity. Still, I could always see how many "next junctions" I could "proceed" to before I gave in to duty. Haven't even got to 12 yet.

Date: 2007-09-04 10:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hunkymouse.livejournal.com
When you get the urge to breathe fire and talk to "Leaves of Grass" you know you're getting closer...

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