Dear Author

[neadods]

(wow, it's been a while since I wrote one of these!)

Dear Author:

I know that you're British. I know that you're trying to set a scene very quickly. I know that America is surprising in how much territory our regional accents cover.

But just for the record, not everyone from New York sounds like they come from Brooklyn. And for that matter, Guys and Dolls is not an accurate record of Brooklynese.

Also - and again, I get it that you're British and this may be something that you either don't think about or don't want to think about, BUT! 1976 was kind of an important year in America. Especially July. Something about an anniversary of something, now what was it, it involved guys in red coats and a Declaration and some fighting, and yes we've made up and all, but you may have heard the odd mention of the event in your history classes?

SERIOUSLY. We as a nation didn't look up on July 4, 1976 and go "wow, it's the Bicentennial!" and then forget about it 24 hours later. Yes, it was particularly intense in early July, but it was kind of a year-long thing, especially for any state that counts as one of the original 13 colonies.

So, no, setting a story in New York on July 16, 1976 and not mentioning a certain little detail even in passing kind of stands out, no matter what the story is really about.

It especially stands out to old coots who *remember* 1976. Not all of your audience is knee high, I'm just sayin'.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

heh, well, I think we're the only ones who count the "number of colonies". To the brits, we were just "the colonies" in a larger context of also Canada and the Caribbean, with the latter being more important than the others combined.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Here's where I show my profound ignorance of non-American history: did Canada ever count as "a colony" as in "x area of land is under the control of Y under the name of z."

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

not as a single entity (but then again, the eventual United States weren't single entities either). Colonies were officially founded for Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia (as a Scottish colony, mostly the north of the modern province), and Newfoundland. Britain acquired part of Acadia (the south part of modern nova scotia) in 1713 and added it to the Nova Scotia colony after some time as an independent being managed from Port Royal.

Britain acquired Quebec ("Canada") and the rest of Acadia (modern New Brunswick) at the end of the 7 years (French & Indian) war (along with the rest of Louisiana for a time - a sore point that became a key cause of the American Revolution as many American colonists thought of their effort as fighting specifically for that land), but it was more managed as a fur trading zone (along with what became Ontario), not having enough English willing to live there to make a difference.

Hence all "Canada" really had were a few farms supporting the water routes and the garrison at Quebec City that Montgomery and Arnold (then still a good guy) failed to take in 1775, thus leaving Canada as an British property at the end of the war.

So yes there were administrative offices running much of coastal Canada as colonies just like the 13 further south.