h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are you sure the mothers want to know 'what the children in the story are doing or saying, what toys they left in the living room'? Don't you think they might be sick and tired of picking up said toys?

They might prefer to read about the brave heroine who parachuted beyond enemy lines, or the beautiful woman who became a famous ballerina.

There's a case for escapism - though, if you write it, you stilll need to do your research.

Oh, sure, escape all you want.

But as you said - do the research. An awful lot of really bad fiction is escapism written by people who know nothing about the topic.

If you're going to write about ballerinas, don't forget to learn the difference between a plie and a pirhouette.

The probleh 'escapism', I think, is that too often, t he research stops there. The mentality of the story remains mired in the bourgeois.

'The mentality of the story remains mired in the bourgeois.'

That's interesting and true. When I think of the stories written by people in my creative writing class, a lot of them are, indeed 'mired in the bourgeois'- including mine. Stories about middle class, largely English people whose lives are blighted by failed love affairs, broken families, children who've gone missing.

But if you did enough research to write convincingly about, say, a Tibetan monk who sets out to walk to the sea, would your middle class readers want to read it? There needs to be a point where the mind of the reader meets the mind of the character.

I think you've hit it. If you want to take people somwhere, you have to start where they are, at least a little bit.

For example, when we're teaching history, we start with a hook. We give the students an analogy from their own experience.

I don't know if you've read Robert Harris' novel 'Ghost', but it does that well. The main character is a ghostwriter. Before the story launches on its wild ride through history and politics, it talks about mundane things - business arrangements, travel, and the ordinariness of the settings. Then it gets stranger...

Another to read.

Have you read James Michener's Hawaii? The film does not count.

In the opening he writes about an island trying to be born in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He makes you root for its success and shocks you when it fails for a time. He then goes into detail about the Polynesians who have never had contact with Europeans. When his story about the contact with the Missionaries begins it is almost an anti-climax - we really want to know more about these people.

At least I enjoyed this part of the story, the rest is also interesting. I first watched the film and thought it was a great story, after reading the novel I am always disappointed by how much they left out.

Maybe that is a part of why Science Fiction is so popular, how much further can you escape than to be in a new, exotic world - with its own mysteries and rules?

F S

It's been so long since I read 'Hawaii', I couldn't remember that. But I had the same reaction to a lovely book called 'Aztec'. Can't recall the author off-hand. An exotic, different world with its own rules.

Good point, there.

Just been helping my daughter with her homework, a person of outstanding character, she's picked Douglas Bader, turns out her great grandmother (she of Christmas past) was posted to the same airfield as Sir Douglas and apparently he was a bit of a rebel, stories of flaunting the rules to achieve an outcome always in trouble and a bit of a flirt but mention the Battle of Britain.....

That's a blast from the past - amazing that you have a connection to that story.

As a kid, I was fascinated by stories about pilots from the two world wars - particularly the British stories - and POW stories.I read all I could get my hands on.

Bader's biography, which I think was called 'Reach for the Sky', was absolutely fascinating.

As I recall, there was this great story about how he met his future wife. It started out with him and two other friends,all in long-term care, escaping from hospital in a borrowed car to go to a local club.

I think there was Bader, who had no legs at all, one with a broken arm, and one who was blind. Somehow, among them, they'd managed to drive the car...

And then, of course, t here were Bader's proposals fro escaping from Colditz...he was unbelievable...

Reach for the skies....had a window cleaner when I was growing up, Johnny Morris, lost his left leg but still went on to fly Spitfires, used to say Bader couldn't reach for his own bottom without the government telling him which hand to use! Different sides of the same coin I suppose?

That's interesting. I'll bet there's always a difference between the 'official' story and what youcould collect from talking to people.

Mmm thinks writing right challenge....

Cool idea!

Hi Dmitri

It has been a long time since I last read 'Hawaii', although I have read it several times before my paperback fell apart from use several decades ago.

Working strictly from memory the first section of about 150 pages covered only the the formation of the islands. The second section told us about the Polynesians leaving an island near Tahiti and settling the Hawaiian Islands.

I watched the film shortly after its release in 1966, So I was probably just starting high school (we are about the same age). A few weeks later I found the novel in a store and decided to read it. Even then I knew the book was almost always better than the movie.

I still remember, all these years later, wanting to get to the story I knew, and being so enthralled by what I was reading that I could not just skip ahead. In later readings I usually just skimmed over this part Once I knew how the story would unfold it lost its intrigue - but the first time it was

I am not endorsing all the author's works, some of them have taken years for me to get through, more of a matter of challenge than enjoyment, but this particular opening was brilliant in my humble opinion - it was given almost 3 minutes of screen-time

Just one more thought for introducing a story, of course we all try to do it in our own way

F S

That's a great description, FS. And a good thought about introducing such a vast story.

Of course, for such a large topic, you can afford to take your time.The reader's going to persist, I think.