Wednesday, 6 March 2019

One Breakfast And Three Alternative Histories

SM Stirling, Theater Of Spies, Advance Reading Copy.

German Farmer's Breakfast
Saute onions in melted butter;
in the same skillet, pan-fry diced cooked potato;
pour on mixed beaten egg, milk, salt, black pepper and diced ham;
stir vigorously;
enjoy the mixed smells while stirring.

(I would substitute strong cheese for ham.)

In one of Michael Moorcock's Oswald Bastable alternative history novels, an aged revolutionary called Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (see here) thinks that he missed an opportunity at some stage in his career...

In Poul Anderson's "Details," Lenin gets on the sealed train on schedule.

In Theater Of Spies, something else happens and one of Lenin's own titles is parodied.

6 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

That seems a SUBSTANTIAL breakfast for a German farmer to have in the middle of the Great War, with most forced to subsist on rationed food.

And I only wish the monstrous Lenin HAD missed the opportunity for grabbing power in Russia!

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Maybe a farmer wasn't eating it. Remember I am giving away as little as possible, whetting appetites.
Paul.

S.M. Stirling said...

Paul: Lenin was echoing the title of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's book, WHAT IS TO BE DONE? in his pamphlet of the same name.

S.M. Stirling said...

Sean: and in addition to Paul's point, in Germany in WW1 farmers were among the few people who -did- usually eat fairly well, because they most certainly did not turn over all their produce at the official prices.

Germany had a lot of people who were small farmers who grew nearly all their own food at that time.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

I knew Lenin's title but not that he was echoing someone else's! History is a hall of mirrors.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Paul: I do understand, the desirability of saying very little as ambiguously as possible about Mr. Stirling's new book.

Mr. Stirling: I did wonder if German farmers were holding back some of the food they produced!

Too bad I have to wait almost two months for THEATER OF SPIES! (Smiles)

Sean