barbara_hambly ([info]barbara_hambly) wrote,
@ 2008-05-06 10:49:00
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Current location:Fortress of Solitude
Current music:stillness

Tale of Two Cities
 Just read - and watched - Tale, as part of my brushing-up on what people would have been reading during the Civil War. Sure is lucky for our side that Sidney Carton had the same size feet as Charles Darnay.

As a student of the French Revolution I spent most of the book going, "Hunh???" until I read that Dickens got the idea for it in 1857, during the Indian Mutiny -- at which point I realized the book is a whole lot more about the Indian Mutiny than it is about the actual Real-Life French Revolution. Then it made a lot more sense.

And the movie of course was just - er - Selznickian.

A couple of people have mentioned that they've looked up "Fortress of Solitude" on-line and been directed to a store in New Jersey - is there anyone who doesn't know that the Fortress of Solitude, at least in the 1960s, was Superman's ultra-secret hideout at the North Pole?


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[info]melodywilde
2008-05-06 08:01 pm UTC (link)
*waves hand* I know what the Fortress of Solitude is/was! And there was a giant key, which I seem to recall was cleverly disguised as some sort of directional arrow for airplanes (??), that Superman used to unlock the door. Of course, I always wondered...since the key was so big and the keyhole was so big, couldn't he just sort of...y'know...fly through the keyhole? And couldn't all those evil supervillians so the same? And didn't any of those aircraft ever look out the window and say the '60's equivalent of "WTF is that?" and go investigate?

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[info]ross_teneyck
2008-05-06 08:03 pm UTC (link)
Heck, Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude in the arctic back in the thirties.

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[info]briddi
2008-05-06 08:34 pm UTC (link)
Fortress of Solitude
And at times it's being guarded by a dog with a cape!

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Fortress in Jersey
[info]kibihofmann
2008-05-07 06:57 am UTC (link)
It's possible that some of your readers (like me) simply clicked on the link under your post which says Fortress of Solitude and links to that address in Jersey. The link being http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Fortress+of+Solitude
There's probably a way of fixing live journal to give a real Google map to your house....but then again, maybe a reference to the North Pole would be a bit more security conscious.

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[info]saffie
2008-05-07 08:07 am UTC (link)
I don't think Lex Luthor knew, or he would have been all over the place like cheap polyester.

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[info]barbara_hambly
2008-05-07 03:27 pm UTC (link)
What I can't remember is, did Lex have his own Secret Hideout someplace, or did he just rent an apartment in Passaic?

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[info]saffie
2008-05-07 09:05 pm UTC (link)
I see Lex as more the owner-occupier type. But still: "Ha ha! Superman will never find me thanks to my ingenious False Name Next to the Intercom Button device. I'm a genius!"

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[info]barbara_hambly
2008-05-07 09:25 pm UTC (link)
And, I suppose Lex would need to install 220 wiring to power the Doomsday Computer. Still, he impresses me as the sort of man who would steal the toilet-seat when he leaves.

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[info]handworn
2008-05-10 02:55 am UTC (link)
Oh, sure, I know what the Fortress of Solitude is.

One book they read in the Civil War is Les Miserables (pub. 1862). I remember this because the southern officers made a pun of it, calling themselves Lee's Miserables.

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