moon_custafer: neon cat mask (Default)
moon_custafer ([personal profile] moon_custafer) wrote2006-05-18 12:23 pm

Steam Engine Time

Hanne Blank explains the *why* part of history:
Steam Engine Time

This is good, because for some reason this morning I was remembering the Conrad Stargard books, and this is a neat way to explain them: Stargard is a 20th century engineer accidently transported to medieval Poland, and trying to figure out who to help the people there with his knowledge when he is most emphatically not in Manufactured Parts Time (ie, a lot of, "this would be a useful thing, but how do we build it out of wood and iron?").

[identity profile] moon-custafer.livejournal.com 2006-05-19 12:15 pm (UTC)(link)
The one I read as a teen struck me as not so much misogynistic as naively optimisic about medieval life, and even then Conrad is aware he's landed in a best-case-scenario fiefdom, where the lord is pretty decent to his subjects. I think Conrad's a little less aware that the women hit on him because *he's* a best-case-scenario.