The difference between LJ and Skyehawke

[blamebrampton]

In one of my stories, I have a scene in which the bad guys attempt to take control of the Thames Barrier to hold it open while an artificial storm surge races up the river to flood much of London. It's told in fast snatches, but there are a number of very clear bits of information given to show what's happening, including:

The rest of Draco's Unspeakables arrive. He speaks quickly: "Thames Barrier, we think there's a team using dark magic to hold it open. Storm surge is coming, a big one."

A few people responded to its posting on LJ with "I had no idea what the Barrier was, so I looked it up, it's cool/was on Doctor Who!"

Last night I posted that chapter on Skyhawke. Today I received a comment similar to "Look, I liked it, but you'd have made the ending so much more gripping if you'd explained what the Barrier was." *

I was THIS CLOSE to answering with "Thanks very much for letting me know you liked it, but if you need more Barrier info, you can find it easily! In my day we did not have Google and you had to shag computer scientists to get internet access, so just count yourself lucky, young whippersnapper and use the tools Tim Berners-Lee gave you!"

I held back, but only because I knew I'd receive a reply saying "Berners-Lee? Who?!"

Ah LJ folk, Let me never take you for granted ...

* I should emphasise that I genuinely think this person meant to be helpful here. They were not being intentionally annoying, I am just the least patient closet librarian in the vicinity.

Comments

[banbury.livejournal.com]

You are so-o-o right! Many people are so ignorant that days (we've even had some problems with our TV programm when our higher-ups'd told us about some theme "we know nothing about it and we're not interested, so nobody will be interesed") and I don't like modern journalism in the main, cause many journalists (especially from younger generation) don't bother to check information or to find the right one, so... it's just like this comment on your wonderful story (i haven't heard of the barrier before and I checked it out too :-))

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! And because we post in the internet, I think there's a tacit assumption that people will do that, because it can be done so easily. Goodness knows I look things up all the time!

I had a journalist who wrote about the problems of the Middle East and focussed her whole story on Afghanistan. I pointed out that Afghanistan was in Asia, and was told that I was clearly an idiot. Happily there was a map to hand.

You know, I've watched some very smart TV lately, and the shows that I have loved have all been surprise hits. I suspect people actually like the odd smart thing. More of it would be good!