"Images of 1984" - Stories from Oceania
- Thread starter Will Ritson
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No probs. I intend to do the maps in an "histroical atlas style" with narrative and illustrations on the events, probably posting on here as a graphic or a link to a downloadable pdf. A picture paints a thousand words, so they say, and a map can arguably paint a thousand more.Sorry mate.
You end up getting really into this and you want to know whats happening to your country.
Marius: I'll try to update as soon as I can on the situation and reaction in the rest of the world, particularly the Commonwealth/Empire.
"Great Rising"? Does this mean there was a Romania-type spontaneous popular overthrow of the Ingsoc regime? I hope so ...
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I would see the TL for the United Republic of England will go like this
60s continued guerrilla activity the Ingsoc regime starts to gain control
70s resistance to Ingsoc begins to fade
80s Ingsoc at height of power
90s with the end of the cold war and collapse of the USSR which Oceania will have had a Yugoslavian relationship with the regime begins to crumble student uprisings etc UN sends in peace keepers and forms a democratic government
60s continued guerrilla activity the Ingsoc regime starts to gain control
70s resistance to Ingsoc begins to fade
80s Ingsoc at height of power
90s with the end of the cold war and collapse of the USSR which Oceania will have had a Yugoslavian relationship with the regime begins to crumble student uprisings etc UN sends in peace keepers and forms a democratic government
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Saturday 15th August 2009
It was a fairly mild day in London, and the tour bus pulled up promptly outside the Covent Garden Hilton. The Canadian politics students had flown into Heathrow on Wednesday as part of their week long field trip to "Airstrip One".
Yesterday had been fairly relaxing, and the students largely had the day to themselves.
Twenty year old Mark Bouchet and his friends had gone for an explore around Westminster. First they walked from Covent Garden to Victory Square, now recognised once more by it's original name of Trafalgar Square. The fourth plinth was vacant again after the statue of Comrade Ogilvy, erected in 1985, had been removed, mainly due to the fact that he never existed. Many of London's poorer inhabitants still referred to Nelson as "Big Brother", even though that particular myth had been shattered after the Rising.
They had a brief visit to the National Portrait Gallery, but it was boring and the pictures were fairly generic and so they emerged. In front of them, to the south, was the Square, and behind it, towering above was the infamous pyramid of the Ministry of Truth building, with one corner of the Ministry of Love visible behind.
Mark shivered.
That evening they went for a few beers in Soho, finding a great little jazz bar, then it was back to their hotel.
Today was different though. Visiting the sites of two of the four atomic weapons to ever be used in anger was always going to be a surreal experience.
The coach left London to the north, heading firstly through Tottenham, and then out towards Epping Forest. The coach passed a memorial - the site of a mass grave from the Civil War, Mark thought - and then headed out into Essex.
-----
The morning was slightly disturbing to say the least. The bus took a journey through the Essex countryside, passing abandoned farms, and bleak villages and market towns until driving through the site of the "reclaimation centre" at Rivenhall Airfield.
The next stop was Coggeshall, a village just 2.5 miles from the Marks Tey A-bomb. The village was derelict and abandoned; the church had a broken tower and a belfry where the guide mentioned that "occasionally, it was rumoured, outer-party Londoners would venture here to indulge in a little bit of sex-crime."
Marks Tey was nothing. A cleared street with piles of rubble on either side. In the centre of the village was a huge portrait of a male face about 20 metres across, painted on a hastily contructed breeze block wall, and bearing one of the worlds most infmaous slogans.
"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU"
-----
Colchester was strange. Cheap 1960s housing and apartments scattered in a grid pattern that looked strangely out of place, even in the English Commonwealth. The town, of course, had been redeveloped as a model community for outer-party workers after the Civil War, although the odd bombed-out patch or derelict ruin still remained, even after fifty-odd years.
The students walked to the remains of East Street Bridge, which had been left as a reminder of the punishment that would meet resistance. It was apparently going to be restored next year.
Local people went about their business, head down, shuffling with a reserved embarressment or, perhaps, feeling of guilt. Some of the older people still wore the blue overalls of a party worker, mainly because they were easy to get hold of for just a couple of dollars. The young people though were leaving the town in numbers. They wanted to put the past behind them, and many sought a new life elsewhere.
Despite it's history, Colchester remained as one of the few areas where loyalty to the old guard was still noticable. The resettlement by the brainwashed outer-party in the sixties had given a community where many denied the horror stories that had emerged through the truth and reconcilliation commissions over the past few months.
The Indian troops that were stationed in the town often met with racism and the occasional attack, although few locals had any appetite for anything more serious than the odd stone throwing, despite seeing the international peacekeepers as an occupation force.
The small and pokey "Centre for National Remembrance" was a place where people could come to pause with their thoughts, and also to find out more about what happened in Colchester in 1957. The pictures of the dead and injured filled the wall space of the museum section. Images of the shells of buildings, film footage shot by the Red Cross a few days after the bombs, a scorched shoe, a burnt childs toy; macabre memorabilia was all on show. The Australians and the Provisonal Commonwealth Government had insisted on it being that way to shock the locals.
The return to the bus passed the new memorial. 14 metres high, it was a simple silver spire erected below the site of the detonation of the Colchester town-centre bomb. At it's base was a deep red - the wreaths of poppies left over from the anniversary of A-Day in May.
-----
The final stop on the way back to London was the village of Kelvedon Hatch, just north of capital. The village was the site of what had been intended to be the HQ for south east England in the event of an atomic war with the Soviet Union, but during the Civil War the bunker was a key capture on A-Day.
The bunker was decked out as it may have been on that faithful day in 1957. The Ordnance Survey maps on the table marked troop positions and the waxwork dummies wearing Cambridge affiliation uniform were supposedly there to give added realism.
The tour visited the residential area of the bunker, and the cramped accomodation was still there.
The tour finally moved on to what had been Mosley's office, and the students took photographs of where the resistance leader had been killed by Chilterns forces on A-day, supposedly after taking out 6 soldiers singlehandedly with his pistol.
"And here" sighed the guide "began the biggest lie of all."
It was a fairly mild day in London, and the tour bus pulled up promptly outside the Covent Garden Hilton. The Canadian politics students had flown into Heathrow on Wednesday as part of their week long field trip to "Airstrip One".
Yesterday had been fairly relaxing, and the students largely had the day to themselves.
Twenty year old Mark Bouchet and his friends had gone for an explore around Westminster. First they walked from Covent Garden to Victory Square, now recognised once more by it's original name of Trafalgar Square. The fourth plinth was vacant again after the statue of Comrade Ogilvy, erected in 1985, had been removed, mainly due to the fact that he never existed. Many of London's poorer inhabitants still referred to Nelson as "Big Brother", even though that particular myth had been shattered after the Rising.
They had a brief visit to the National Portrait Gallery, but it was boring and the pictures were fairly generic and so they emerged. In front of them, to the south, was the Square, and behind it, towering above was the infamous pyramid of the Ministry of Truth building, with one corner of the Ministry of Love visible behind.
Mark shivered.
That evening they went for a few beers in Soho, finding a great little jazz bar, then it was back to their hotel.
Today was different though. Visiting the sites of two of the four atomic weapons to ever be used in anger was always going to be a surreal experience.
The coach left London to the north, heading firstly through Tottenham, and then out towards Epping Forest. The coach passed a memorial - the site of a mass grave from the Civil War, Mark thought - and then headed out into Essex.
-----
The morning was slightly disturbing to say the least. The bus took a journey through the Essex countryside, passing abandoned farms, and bleak villages and market towns until driving through the site of the "reclaimation centre" at Rivenhall Airfield.
The next stop was Coggeshall, a village just 2.5 miles from the Marks Tey A-bomb. The village was derelict and abandoned; the church had a broken tower and a belfry where the guide mentioned that "occasionally, it was rumoured, outer-party Londoners would venture here to indulge in a little bit of sex-crime."
Marks Tey was nothing. A cleared street with piles of rubble on either side. In the centre of the village was a huge portrait of a male face about 20 metres across, painted on a hastily contructed breeze block wall, and bearing one of the worlds most infmaous slogans.
"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU"
-----
Colchester was strange. Cheap 1960s housing and apartments scattered in a grid pattern that looked strangely out of place, even in the English Commonwealth. The town, of course, had been redeveloped as a model community for outer-party workers after the Civil War, although the odd bombed-out patch or derelict ruin still remained, even after fifty-odd years.
The students walked to the remains of East Street Bridge, which had been left as a reminder of the punishment that would meet resistance. It was apparently going to be restored next year.
Local people went about their business, head down, shuffling with a reserved embarressment or, perhaps, feeling of guilt. Some of the older people still wore the blue overalls of a party worker, mainly because they were easy to get hold of for just a couple of dollars. The young people though were leaving the town in numbers. They wanted to put the past behind them, and many sought a new life elsewhere.
Despite it's history, Colchester remained as one of the few areas where loyalty to the old guard was still noticable. The resettlement by the brainwashed outer-party in the sixties had given a community where many denied the horror stories that had emerged through the truth and reconcilliation commissions over the past few months.
The Indian troops that were stationed in the town often met with racism and the occasional attack, although few locals had any appetite for anything more serious than the odd stone throwing, despite seeing the international peacekeepers as an occupation force.
The small and pokey "Centre for National Remembrance" was a place where people could come to pause with their thoughts, and also to find out more about what happened in Colchester in 1957. The pictures of the dead and injured filled the wall space of the museum section. Images of the shells of buildings, film footage shot by the Red Cross a few days after the bombs, a scorched shoe, a burnt childs toy; macabre memorabilia was all on show. The Australians and the Provisonal Commonwealth Government had insisted on it being that way to shock the locals.
The return to the bus passed the new memorial. 14 metres high, it was a simple silver spire erected below the site of the detonation of the Colchester town-centre bomb. At it's base was a deep red - the wreaths of poppies left over from the anniversary of A-Day in May.
-----
The final stop on the way back to London was the village of Kelvedon Hatch, just north of capital. The village was the site of what had been intended to be the HQ for south east England in the event of an atomic war with the Soviet Union, but during the Civil War the bunker was a key capture on A-Day.
The bunker was decked out as it may have been on that faithful day in 1957. The Ordnance Survey maps on the table marked troop positions and the waxwork dummies wearing Cambridge affiliation uniform were supposedly there to give added realism.
The tour visited the residential area of the bunker, and the cramped accomodation was still there.
The tour finally moved on to what had been Mosley's office, and the students took photographs of where the resistance leader had been killed by Chilterns forces on A-day, supposedly after taking out 6 soldiers singlehandedly with his pistol.
"And here" sighed the guide "began the biggest lie of all."
Coming soon...
Campaign maps
and the second part of the story of the Liverpool Soviet...
Campaign maps
and the second part of the story of the Liverpool Soviet...
You could say that. Wait until Rupert hears what has happened...
Dr. Strangelove
Banned
Impressive update, Will. Sadly, it seems that my hypothesis of Mosley as a new Richard III, manipulating everybody to become absolute ruler, was wrong.
By the way, it appears that only commonwealth troops are occupying Britain now. Is there any military presence by european countries such as France, Belgium, Germany? I bet that the presence of such an insane regime only a few miles from Calais for half a century prompted the french to design a lot of invasion plans or contingence plans to intervene in the event of another revolution, and it seems strange that they would not intervene, or just pull out and leave in the aftermath.
Assuming Continental Europe is alive and well and not a nuclear wasteland, of course.
By the way, it appears that only commonwealth troops are occupying Britain now. Is there any military presence by european countries such as France, Belgium, Germany? I bet that the presence of such an insane regime only a few miles from Calais for half a century prompted the french to design a lot of invasion plans or contingence plans to intervene in the event of another revolution, and it seems strange that they would not intervene, or just pull out and leave in the aftermath.
Assuming Continental Europe is alive and well and not a nuclear wasteland, of course.
Not necessarily...
Largely Commonwealth troops, although the US has a large presence, particularly on the east coast.
Continental Europe is an interesting one. There certainly isn't a Channel Tunnel in this version of 2009. Expect a cautious France, due to the proven ability of "Airstrip One" to use atomic weapons. There will be an event that gives the "stalemate" between "Oceania" and the rest of the world though, and why other countries are reluctant to intervene.
I think he means the other two were used on Hiroshima and Nagaski as in OTL, not all 4 being used in the UK.
Dr. Strangelove
Banned
Actually, after re-reading the beginning of the timeline, it appears that a single nuke was detonated in WWII; over Hamburg. This means, that there is yet another detonation... Paris would be my best bet.
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