You never heard of PG Wodehouse? I find Monty Python very difficult to watch. I can appreciate the generation before - Hancock - and the one after - Rowan Atkinson - but I really dislike Python. I love Bonzo, but Python I can't hack it. Probably I should concentrate and immerse but it always appears like these rich idiots who PAUSE and say 'I am now being funny officially' they say in the special "funny voice," and I don't like it, especially as Cleese has turned so monstrous in his old age. I love Fawlty Towers. I'm so sorry. @Bobby should get your finger out and write something, have some proper fun and stop waffling...
Oh, PG Wodehouse... yeah, I've heard of him. I thought there was some distinct entity called "Wodehouse: Jeeves et al". I didn't realize it was a description/summary rather than a title. Never read any Wodehouse, though, I don't think.
I kind of like Wodehouse, it’s not negotiable he is top tier. I haven’t succeeded especially. Like Tristan Shandy - supposed to be top 4 books in history. First line brilliant, second line you need to be sitting at a school desk. It’s tough for thickies
PG Wodehouse is one of my gods. He lived and worked stateside for a huge chunk of his career so would be surprised if he wasn't well known - one of those authors I can just pick up any book and read a few paragraphs just to enjoy his use of the language. Monty Python - the flying circus stuff is a bit esoteric, I can easily see why some - probably most - people wouldn't like it, but some of the spin-off/follow up movies are terrific - Life of Brian is amazing and A Fish Called Wanda is a work of genius
Is it? I haven't watched it for years (not since Tom Baker or even Jon Pertwee although I saw a few with that Scottish bloke when my son was of a Dr Who age) I thought the daleks did nazism very well...
Joke's on you, I'm going at my own desired pace! Really, I have no publisher, no deadline, or desire to write for writing's sake. Writing that's not music is an addition to and not a focus of my creativity. Remember when I said I go to Soho, but only for the guitar and the music there and that's why I'm drawn to Soho and all those thespians there are just like 'whatever' to me? - I wasn't making it up; Nothing could get in my way of song writing it seems, not even story ideas of mine. Each to their own; I'm a musician/song writer before anything else. Tea, Crumpets & 28 Days Later.
Oh well, I enjoy doing that. I was trying to encourage. Sometimes I think we think people like something because we are elegant when really they like it because we are goofy. And there's nothing we can do about it. ... @Hammer. Yes, I wish I had done more PG. I have done a little and I'm not dead yet. Dr Who is political - and whether it really is - is almost irrelevant - because it is viewed by a population as BBC left propaganda. An example would be the Xmas special where the William Hartnell Dr is resurrected and he says all this 'a woman's place is behind the gas cooker' kind of stuff and the new Dr grimaces properly, and Hartnell says 'woman is a divine creature' aside the Romanesque statue and the new Dr's sidekick says 'I am experienced, y'know..because I am Dr's lesbian assistant,' and knees jerk across the community. It's a game of rubbish. I've been on Twitter almost a year y'know. Bit of a slur on Hartnell tho,' RIP.
Where I'm from (by chance) seems to be home of the British Invasion/music... I could set a story in Soho about a young fictional rock band who reach to the top and sell in NYC and Hollywood etc. A band of young British urchins who conquer the world with a hit song that's like a tell-all of the artist.
I probably stick to horrors and sci-fi So, I'd re write it about a band of vampires lol. Writing horror or sci-fi /fantasy if not sitcom and comedy, seems to be where my story writing likes to be.
Thanks for expressing interest in me writing my stories like 'UK is an American state and the UK's transition to be rebuilt to American spec' and/or that story of 'My road in South London, being American controlled part of federalized land with a hard border.' I could try and give the world the idea of..... This dream felt by some Brits to be American or whatever; and or The Horrors of Globalisation to those who's nightmare that is; by saying 'in my story'; "Britain, this is what it'll look like making you all American..." "... here's my story.." I guess I should shelve my story of witches and sci-fi (Rose Dower/Jessica) for a story set in the UK, even if it's set in America being in the UK/UK being American. About the UK looking American... 'UK being American'... I think/write like I'm writing for television at least... - I find it hard to stage this final shot in Britain. I'd use some populated part of Canada and call it Surrey or Devon or something and put up American signs/get away with it like the X-Files got away with calling Canada Washington. D.C; I'm thinking Canada somewhere to call Britain when Britain's rebuilt at the end. I'm also thinking I'd have to build a film set and transpose London's landmarks on to them digitally? So I'm thinking budget. Which brings me to this thread... What can I write in London, and sell to the world? (Where it's the UK and not American UK, which, are ideas I'm shelving).
Lesbians. An acquaintance from my indie movie days used to make lesbian vampire movies in and around London and sell them all over the world. Cozy mysteries set in English villages always seem to have a market, and I'm sure you could write them in idyllic parts of London instead, if there are any left these days. Because I grew up in the UK, I've written a few horror novels and stories set there, but the SF I've written has easily outsold them.
Lesbian With A Gun, a band of a straight white boy and a band of ebony Lesbians who all know each other from Soho, and are like a crew - get big, hit the road, money and drugs and love and trust and adulatory come up ... Yes Only, that's me sticking to what I know and writing out the dream of having a hit song on a major record label. I could write about Amersdam, America... home!London, Soho... I'd start penning this if I ever pen anything, THANK YOU @Edward M. Grant Lesbians! - why didn't I think of it? Thank you.
They say; stick to what you know, and somehow, Lesbians and Soho and Music all came together. It's British, it's International... If I sell it, might break barriers. IDK, its 2018, maybe those barriers have already been broken, but if markets want to buy such a story, I can write it.
Lesbian With A Gun - the story of Is probably Toxic for marketing... Hmmmm........... What will get published? What will sell? What do you want to see of Britain? (Where are you from)? - perhaps other markets/countries have different ideas about what's here/where I am from one another.
The way I read your question, you're asking what good or service the UK has that can be sold to the world at large? To be helpful, I need to know WHEN? Are you talking about the 1700s or the 1900s or currently? At the moment, I think the UK's most "sellable" asset is a travel experience. Think of selling tours of castles, wedding experiences, travels through historical locales, and I think there is now a Harry Potter theme park as well? In terms of a physical good that can be manufactured in England and then shipped off to another country to be sold, could your tourism board develop a brand for something like "bangers and mash" so that people would buy the official brand and consider all others cheap by virtue of not being that brand? Think of "Virginia Ham" for example. Ham is just pig. Lots of pigs world wide but "Virginia Ham" can only be bought from Virginia. EDIT - oops....not your question. Sorry. I hope it helps somewhat.
I saw a television program called history erased which took away things that were developed in the UK like criminal investigative tools (fingerprints and DNA), steam engines (no more industrial revolution - factories and trains) and medical advances like vaccines. I found myself fascinated by it. It would be interesting to play around with these concepts. What if the steam engine arrived a 100 years later - or earlier? What if old time towns guardsmen had access to DNA as an investigative tool? I'd love to read that type of stuff. This is one of the things I like about people like Harry Turtledove who write alternative historical fiction. Seeing how they imagine various things turning out if this thing or that thing were different is absolutely fascinating to me. I have always wondered personally how England which was one of the superpowers in the 1800s and early 1900s could have maintained that status. Perhaps if they had licensed advances like the steam engine and collected royalties from people using their invention(s)? What could they have done to de-fang Hilter and a hostile country like Germany? So....hopefully that's more in line with what you were asking.
