The importance of historical research

[ffutures]

Does anyone else see something slightly wrong with the premise for a story that begins:

When xxx and his neighbor yyy discover an old radio, he is enamored by a weekly science broadcast from an unknown little girl with fire for a heart. Cities away, zzz sits in her father’s attic, and - with the help of a museum curator named aaa - creates her own radio show. The story follows both of them from the lonely years of their childhood, to the very last night of London Blitz, where their lives finally converge for the first time.

Hint: http://www.mkars.org.uk/uploads/files/library/hamsatwar.pdf

This seems to be an honest mistake by a fanfic author who appears not to know much about life in Britain during WW2, and I'm not going to link to it because she's going to try to write around it. But it just shows how important it is to do your research!

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I can imagine myself falling into the same trap as, although I like to think I know a fair amount about life during the Blitz, I hadn't known that fact till I followed your link.

From the summary, I'm left wondering which cities xxx and zzz are supposed to be living in. If it was London in either case (and possible some other cities thought at risk of air attack), it's a little surprising that he/she wasn't evacuated, as it sounds as though they are quite young.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

This was also my first thought.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Good point. I'll mention it, but I'm not sure that the author is entirely happy about my help.

[nwhyte]

It's awfully sweet in a way - the author thinks that radio in the olden days was just like podcasting now!!!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Pretty much.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

Happens to the best.

I remember many, many years ago watching the film The Glenn Miller Story with my father. There's a scene set in London during the war where the band is playing outdoors and a V1 goes overhead. Several scenes later, D-Day is announced.

"They got that wrong," said my father. "The first V1s landed in London after D-Day," and he brought out a reference book that confirmed this.

It was only many years later I discovered that one of the first V1s to land on London landed on the house next to his.

(I put an entry about this on the goofs page on the IMDb.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me - Hollywood has always played fast and loose with history.

[eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com]

I suppose the sad thing is that it is not as if information about life during the London Blitz is in short supply! I mean if the writer needed info on some obscure village in 1600 then they might struggle, or have only one dry academic paper to rely on, but London in the 20th century is quite another matter.

Though, on the other hand, one of my work colleagues had to explain to her TV producer that the reason there were no HD quality shots of the Earth taken from the Moon was that no-one had been there since the 70s! So it is not just fanfic writers who don't have a clue! :-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure this is a fairly young American so there's some excuse.