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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

11 Comments

  1. BerserkRL
    March 20, 2014 @ 7:35 am

    Among premature celebrations of Thatcher's death we might include Lady Cynthia Fitzmilton in the original version of Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide. She's an obvious Thatcher clone who makes her debut at 9:02 in the first episode, here, where she is presiding over the destruction via eminent domain of the protagonist's house to build a bypass — something the real Thatcher did a fair bit of. (How this wanton seizer and destroyer of private property got a reputation of being a free-marketer is a mystery, but that's another story.)

    Adams introduces her with the comment: "Many of those listening to her speech would probably have experienced great satisfaction to know that in four minutes time she would evaporate into a whiff of hydrogen, ozone, and carbon monoxide."

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  2. Wm Keith
    March 20, 2014 @ 8:02 am

    No. She's not anything like Thatcher, nor meant to be. She's county aristocracy, a well-born nonentity spouting platitudes.

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  3. Nyq Only
    March 20, 2014 @ 8:18 am

    I concur – a variation of upper class twit. Thatcher was many things and many pejorative terms can be fairly applied to her but 'twit' wasn't one of them. Thatcher was far more populist also.
    I suppose it could have been inspired by the pre-79 election Thatcher – but that doesn't count 🙂

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  4. BerserkRL
    March 20, 2014 @ 8:27 am

    Yes, she's aristocracy, but her attitudes are urban, not rural — the attitudes of a visitor from the imperial capital ("what a great honour and a great privilege I think it must be, for you, the people of Cottington, to have this gleaming new motorway going through your cruddy little village" — note "your," not "our") and not uncontroversial enough to be platitudes; she has Thatcher's faux-utopian technocratic boosterism, expressed in Thatcher's intonation. Plus the 1970s were a period in which Thatcher's party was supporting an aggressive program of roadbuilding via eminent domain over local protests. (Of course it got much worse once she was actually in power; she would soon be bragging without apparent irony about bringing Britain the greatest roadbuilding program since the Romans.)

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  5. BerserkRL
    March 20, 2014 @ 8:32 am

    a variation of upper class twit

    The character seems more arrogant and contemptuous than merely twittish to me.

    I suppose it could have been inspired by the pre-79 election Thatcher

    Well, the show premiered in 1978, so pre-election Thatcher is the only Thatcher available for satire. I reckon the satire would have been more pointed and direct if the show had aired a year or two later.

    but that doesn't count

    I am the Count, I love to count.

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  6. Wm Keith
    March 20, 2014 @ 12:53 pm

    I feel very proud to have been a part of this very special and worthwhile comment thread. It has been an honour and a privilege.

    Reply

  7. Whittso
    March 21, 2014 @ 3:28 am

    Is it me, or is Alan Moore a big Police fan?

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  8. BerserkRL
    March 21, 2014 @ 2:41 pm

    I am proud and humbled. 'Cause those mean the same thing nowadays.

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  9. BerserkRL
    March 21, 2014 @ 2:41 pm

    Anarchists love them some cops.

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  10. Whittso
    March 21, 2014 @ 2:51 pm

    I suspect people know this, but for avoidance of doubt, I meant the Police as in Sting as in Gordon Sumner. Not the law enforcing arm of state.

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  11. Alex
    March 23, 2014 @ 4:07 am

    But as the text itself states, Madness is preferable to the Police…

    Reply

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