Discussion thoughts on Connie Willis's "Fire Watch"
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/firewatch.htm


Bartholomew's initial problem was no time for preparation. Is this an indication that the history department is looking for adaptability and resourcefulness?

Why is seeing a cat significant?

Several comments about "not knowing what I'm supposed to be doing here, if anything." during September. I'd expect a graduate student to have some idea of general practice..

Bartholomew mentions 'chars' several times. Appears to be related to charwoman or chore-lady, as in cleaning.

Sept 26: "I don't have half the information I need even stored: cats and colds and the way St Paul's looks in full sun." What, no general British history by the time he's a graduate student. But look at that comment about St. Paul's in full sun.

Bartholomew comments:: "I know now what the purpose of my practicum is. I must stop Langby from burning down St Paul's". Meanwhile, Langby has decided that Bartholomew is a Nazi operative. "But you know what gave you away first? The cat. Everybody knows cats hate water. Everybody but a dirty Nazi spy."

Oct 4th: An experience in how not to catch a cat.

Oct 15th: Enola gets her name. Stops by to thank him since St Paul's having no canteen helped her get her job.

Nov 2: Comments on the bad patching job of the hole mad by the high explosive bomb.

Nov 20: Pours sand into the hole left by the bad patch of the roof. Almost a give-away of what's to come.

Nov-Dec: Lots of description of bad dreams.

Dec 28: Enola: "I worry someday I'll come up to St Paul's and you won't be here." And, of course, Bartholomew and the reader know that his is inevitable, but it does show an emotional connection between them that at that minute he's in too much of a funk to deal with gracefully.

The answer came to me suddenly in Langby's unyielding voice. "They're rope burns, you fool. Don't they teach you Nazi spies the proper way to come up a rope?" [I might have thought one would get rope burns sliding down a rope]

An unusual evaluation technique at the end. Take a dead tired student, give the person an exam on statistics, and pass the ones that blow-up and say that the questionnaire is a bunch of crap.

Connie Willis also wrote "The Doomsday Book", about Kivrin's journey back to the time of the Black Plague. There's a good reviews at 

https://www.tor.com/2012/06/14/time-travel-and-the-black-death-connie-williss-doomsday-book/

and

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/02/books/science-fiction.html


Wordsmith Jarvinen
20 September 2018