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Blackout re-visited
Jun. 29th, 2011 12:39 pmI read some time ago this discussion on Connie Willis's Blackout http://drplokta.livejournal.com/121426.html
As the book was nominated for the Hugos, I thought I'd give it a go despite my feeling that I'd be going through looking for the mistakes. But I got the paperback edition, and it looks as if they've ironed out some of the mistakes. For instance, pillar box has become phone box and local calls from the phone in the boarding house is sixpence, not 5p. References to anachronistic tube lines have been removed. So it looks as if some of the problems have got back to Willis. They are still using tokens on the underground, and I wonder if the District Line platforms at Notting Hill Gate would have been used as a shelter. I used to live there, and the District Line is not a deep line; the platform there is nearly open to the sky. (And I have a vague feeling that before the sixties, there were two separate stations at Notting Hill, one for the District and one for the Central.)
As the book was nominated for the Hugos, I thought I'd give it a go despite my feeling that I'd be going through looking for the mistakes. But I got the paperback edition, and it looks as if they've ironed out some of the mistakes. For instance, pillar box has become phone box and local calls from the phone in the boarding house is sixpence, not 5p. References to anachronistic tube lines have been removed. So it looks as if some of the problems have got back to Willis. They are still using tokens on the underground, and I wonder if the District Line platforms at Notting Hill Gate would have been used as a shelter. I used to live there, and the District Line is not a deep line; the platform there is nearly open to the sky. (And I have a vague feeling that before the sixties, there were two separate stations at Notting Hill, one for the District and one for the Central.)
