I know this "whom" of which you speak, but I do not choose to acknowledge him.)įrom Brill & The Hague Academy of International LawĪccording to Magdeburg Law ( Magdeburgisches Weichbild), aĭeceased husband’s wife was to pass on to his male descendants his Imagine the moveable goods of your own household taken out into the yard and neatly sorted as to what belongs to who. Protagonist argues that destruction of the cathedral would be a final blow for British She purpose-builds two Cockney moppets for use in the Blitz subplot. Is clearest about midway through the book in scenes of the air attack on St. Time travelling protagonists see the era's awfulness and bravery To the evacuation at Dunkirk, to Bletchly Park, to the coastal defenses, to London during the Blitz. Time Travel SF that moves from a small town in the English countryside in WWII, You didn’t mess around with bread.īeer didn’t have quite that cachet, but it was still pretty cool.Īs Protagonist.” That is, when setting acts in the story. In church, bread was the body of Christ and a sacrament. The custom I’ve seen of making a cross on a loaf of bread before slicing it would have been widespread a century or two back. He doubtless found this worthwhile.īread was almost sacred. Put another way, the fellow was spending as much on beer as on soap, linen, candles, lamp oil, and fuel combined. They didn’t necessarily know they were getting their protein from bread, because getting protein in the diet does not seem to have been a high priority, as per this handy table above which may be taken as more or less representative.įrom this you will see that your average bloke in 1750 Strasbourg (this was a table easy to find if not totally relevant to 1800 London, but I’m talking Big Picture here) was spending 20% of his income on beer and getting only a teensy bit of his yearly protein. Mostly not - but they make plausible choices.Ĭlick on this for a closer look at costs and calories This kinda precludes writing characters who could realistically have been around for centuries. Readers want to see characters they understand and identify with. The fiction I read is created for amusement and gentle distraction. I don't think this shortfall in characterization is an authorial failing.
I don't say half a century has made me noticeably wise, but I have some perspective. I'm not the same person I was fifty years ago.
There ain't no wisdom on display, no accumulation of knowledge, no self-control, no long view. My problem is, these folks don't seem to have learned anything from their centuries or millennia of life. You can't dip your toe into a paranormal without coming across some character who is an immortal vampire or minor godling. not so much as a personal preference, but the way it's presented in fiction. On this lovely afternoon I've been thinking about immortality.
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