Surviving as a Writer in the British Empire

cliffhanger(3)

Harbor in New York, Upper New York bay.

A New Yorker, Nelson Wayne, stopped by this place he didn’t normally come to. Then he stood on one side of the pier and, opening and closing the staff in his hand, glanced across the eastern sea.

It was a momentum to jump in if necessary, and if it did, it would be suicide without hesitation.

But neither the police nor the dock workers controlling the port thought to stop him.

Of course, they specifically want Nelson dead. The adventure of jumping in is also not something that Nelson respects as freedom.

It was just that there were too many such ‘Nelsons’ in the port that day.

Nelson Wayne looked around. His comrades were gathering in twos and threes in a similar fashion.

He knew that not a few of them called each other by their last names.

It’s not that the relationship isn’t that close, it’s just that it’s hard to tell by name alone because there are quite a few names that are Nelson or Nell.

Wayne chuckled. A name is a type of personality, and personality is the quality that makes a person unique. Therefore, I hate overlapping very much.

It was the same with Nelson Wayne. Nelson, a strangely common name, I hated.

But as he got older and was educated… he came to understand his father, who gave him the name Nelson. I couldn’t help but understand.

Even for herself, she said ‘Illuril’ to her newborn daughter not too long ago. It’s a unique name that doesn’t even exist in the Bible, but now it’s common.

And just like my father did, I’m standing on this wharf, waiting for the ferry from England… Wait!

“come!! come!!”

someone shouted. Nelson Wayne turned his head as if his neck would break for a moment.

It was real.

On the eastern horizon, a familiar passenger ship slowly appeared.

Let’s stay calm.

Nelson Wayne reassured himself. As a respected physician in New York’s civil society, he must remain calm and dignified…

However, that patience gradually faded along with the bloody eyes as the ferry approached.

Should I just run? It was the moment I thought so.

“Aw!! I can’t stand it!!”

From noble mtl dot com

“Hey, hey!! Nelson!”

“Are there only one or two Nelson here! Move!!”

One of Nelson’s eyes lit up and rushed to the pier. Then, he shouted at the passenger ship slowly berthing.

“there! Did you bring ＜Temple Bar＞!?”

A fire was lit in Nelson’s eyes. You cowardly Nelson! How dare you read the book first, ahead of the other Nelsons!

“That bastard is cowardly!!”

“Unforgivable!!”

“Move!! Me too, I have to save myself!!”

“Eh, I don’t know!!”

Eventually the dam burst. The Nelsons rushed to the ferry and shouted in unison to the disembarking passengers.

“Is Peter dead?!”

***

“Look at this, Samuel. American reason has fallen to the ground.”

Same New York Manhattan, South Fifth Avenue laboratory.

The owner of the lab, Nikola Tesla, looked displeased and handed out a newspaper article to his best friend, Samuel, who had an impressive mustache.

And Samuel, who was lying down on the sofa, looked at the newspaper with interest.

Numerous Nelsons gathered in New York Harbor, and the British novel ＜Peter Perry＞ series that they are passionate about.

All these fads seemed to Tesla fanatical fanaticism.

“Malse, say. Are you a fairy? How can a novel written with such unscientific and irrational material go so far out of fashion?”

“It’s a children’s book, isn’t it? Whatever the material, it doesn’t matter. If so, did I write an unscientific alternative history novel?”

“Ah, that is a fable, a fable! Anything like that doesn’t matter. Whether the animals speak or the gods deceive the woodcutter!”

“Well, that’s right.”

Samuel smiled and looked at his friend.

Samuel himself is also treated by quite a few people as having an anger control disorder, but compared to the passionate genius scientist in front of him, he prided himself on having a good social life.

Of course, it would be forever unknown to either side what other acquaintances who knew both of them would evaluate.

“Anyway, it’s really a disgrace to the country. After all, this isn’t a British novel. This country confidently claims that it has gained independence, but to be honest, I don’t see it at all.”

“Well, that’s right.”

writer and scientist.

Although their positions are different, both of them highly valued the power of culture.

First as a national body, then economically. And in the end, only when it has a culturally independent color can it truly be independent from Britain and claim that the United States of America is a legitimate independent country.

But now it’s not zero.

Even England can be said to be a third-class culture compared to Europe, but it is an American culture that cannot shake off even that third-class culture and become independent…

Didn’t you say it when you see that still many Americans think that no one in the world is higher than the Queen of England?

Tesla grumbled.

“If this is the case, I don’t know why I came all the way here.”

“That’s right, shouldn’t I, being a native, have to say that?”

“Aren’t you forced to become an American? I chose this country myself.”

“Well, not really.”

It is the same that he was fascinated by the liberalism and democracy advocated by Samuel himself, Tesla, and the United States of America. whether it is congenital or acquired.

However, in reality, liberalism was only for the rich, and democracy was only for WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants).

After all, the United States of America is still a hatchling chick. Samuel, an American, felt this more acutely.

‘You can’t give slaves, natives, or women the right to vote, claiming that everyone is descended from Adam? What are all these crazy bastards?’

Of course, this was Samuel’s personal opinion, which was evaluated as ‘extreme’ by those around him.

Nikola Tesla also had an open mind, but he couldn’t agree with his friend’s opinion.

Instead, they agreed that at least Americans needed ‘enlightenment’.

Americans are much more ignorant than they thought, and those who took the lead were the idiots of Christian fundamentalism such as the YMCA.

That’s why Samuel said calmly.

“Take it easy, though. From my point of view, this writer is not an ignorant writer who sincerely believes in such fairies.”

“What do you believe in and say such things?”

“Isn’t this a fact that can be understood just by looking at ＜Peter Perry＞?”

Samuel said with a grin.

Authors who do not know anything teach that this book affirms imperialism and Christianity, and is a good novel to show to children.

Even Anthony Comstock, the zealot pastor of that old-fashioned Christian group, the YMCA, couldn’t resist.

It was so funny when he hesitantly affirmed, saying, ‘This book is obviously popular culture, the creation of Satan, but there is definitely a part that contains the sincere Christian faith’…

I could still vividly remember the moment when the two of them held their navels and laughed while reading a newspaper article featuring his humiliating picture.

But is Hanslo Jin really such an old-fashioned writer that imperialists and religiousists espouse?

Absolutely not.

As a fellow writer, especially of children’s fiction, Samuel could clearly tell.

“Don’t say it. Hanslo Jin is the same as me.”

“Where are you talking about?”

“Four fairies from different cultures and Peter from completely different civilizations affirm each other’s culture and accept each other. And the younger sister, Porter Perry, is also a child who is as active as her older brother.”

Samuel said calmly.

This is to say that it is to actively insist on equality, one of the three banners of human enlightenment.

“It must be. The author, Hanslo Jean, is undoubtedly an abolitionist, an anti-discrimination man, a man who affirms the power of reason and seeks to advance the world.”

“Well, I don’t know if that’s positive.”

Tesla said shyly. Samuel had no intention of digging deep into that part.

Tesla was a genius scientist who was obsessed with the Enlightenment, but he was also a eugenicist.

In his view, ＜Peter Perry＞, in which fairies are treated like humans and even the human protagonist is colored by the fairies, must have seemed an insult to human intellect itself.

However, Samuel does not want to hurt their friendship by biting at that part. Instead, he skillfully diverted the conversation and asked.

“Didn’t you admit it too? There are parts of ＜Peter Perry＞ that can be explained to some extent by science.”

“I didn’t say anything like that. However, among the things said to be fairies, there are definitely things that can be reproduced.”

Tesla said with a subtle face as if he was embarrassed.

For example, I couldn’t help but be deeply impressed by the scene where the nymphs communicate with waves instead of sound in the water.

This was because it was very similar to the radio-based detection and ranging device he had envisioned.

Is that all? Although it was using unscientific magic, it used resonant frequencies to shake the ground, or drastically lower and raise the temperature to break solid enemy weapons.

The source of energy is unscientific, but the effects obtained from it are scientific enough.

The theory of evolution was naturally incorporated in explaining the difference between the drake, a sub-drake that has no wings because it lives underground, and the wyvern, a flying dragon that has large wings because it lives on a steep cliff.

Even when it came to the huge water supply facilities described in the capital of the dwarves, and the electrical devices supplied through alternating current… To be honest, I was thrilled.

This is because the image of a city where the ideal wireless power transmission technology he drew was commercialized was described as it was.

In the end, Nikola Tesla, too, could not help but feel the impression that Hanslo Jin was a person who was very rich in scientific knowledge in many ways and explained it well in an easy-to-understand manner.

So, every time I pretended not to, I subscribed to ＜Temple Bar＞ and loved reading it.

“No, but I don’t know.”

Still, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

Samuel looked at him grinning. It’s not because I really can’t admit my friend’s infidelity, it’s because I noticed that geniuses are often infantile stubbornness about things outside of their field.

“I haven’t met you in person, so how can you be sure?”

“Then, let’s meet.”

“What do you mean, honey?”

Nikola Tesla saw his friend, Samuel, smirk. He took something out of his pocket and spoke confidently.

“Bentley Press made me an offer to publish in England. They want to have ＜The Adventures of Tom Sawyer＞ published in their ＜Weekly Temple＞ magazine. I’m thinking of going to England myself and signing the contract.”

“Have you met Hanslo Jin, a faceless writer who doesn’t reveal his identity?”

“That is the correct answer.”

“You are cowardly, Mark. Very cowardly!”

“From what I’ve heard from you, there’s no more praise than that.”

Samuel, i.e., Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

The pseudonym Mark Twain said with his best smile.