{"id":28793,"date":"2023-03-24T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/?p=28793"},"modified":"2023-03-24T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T14:00:00","slug":"a-1948-rolls-royce-silver-wraith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/a-1948-rolls-royce-silver-wraith\/","title":{"rendered":"A 1948 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Right. So:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the Bond movies, Bond and The Girl (in this case, Madeleine Swann, played by Lea Seydoux) are standing at a rail-stop in the desert when a car approaches, shimmering out of the dust. Swann says, \u2018What\u2019s that?\u2019, which is not a dumb question, because the vehicle is barely visible. Bond lets the car get a little closer, then says, with a kind of satisfaction, \u2018That<\/em> is a 1948 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And look: this is a movie, not a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And look: a Bond movie is more of a fantasy movie, than it is a realist one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And look Bond is Bond. We appraise Bond movies according to a general scale of Bondishness. Ordinary critical tools are not strictly relevant here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Bond is a useful way to explain the temptation. Bond\u2019s comment there tells the reader that he loves vintage cars and is at least somewhat expert in them. In other movies, Bond shows a similar expertise in wines, in Russian military secrets, and much else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie makers (and Ian Fleming, the author) are at pains to characterise via expertise. Bond knows about the good things in life (wines, cars, watches). He knows about the violent things in life (guns, weapons, and the rest.) The viewer or reader understands something of Bond\u2019s character from the knowledge he chooses to display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u2013 Bond is a fantasy, given licence by its fame. Your novel does not have that licence. Let\u2019s say an author creates a character who is (why not?) a professional escort with ambitions to become a spy. She\u2019s with a client and comments \u2018He wears an Alexander McQueen double-cuffed shirt, with custom-made silver links. A Patek Philippe Nautilus gleams from beneath the cuff \u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your thoughts as a reader?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author, I think, wants you to have two things in mind. First, this character lives in a world of exciting luxury and, second, that she has a kind of enviable expertise to share. The knowledge she has lends her a kind of class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure that either of these things is achieved. As a writer, you want to get the reader feeling present<\/em> in this world of luxury. For me, and for most readers, that will not be achieved by a list of brand-names. I can\u2019t picture a Patek Philippe Nautilus. I\u2019ve no idea how an Alexander McQueen shirt looks different from any other kind of shirt. As a reader, we don\u2019t think, \u2018Yes, I feel present here \u2026\u2019. We think, \u2018Oh, the author wants me to know that this is all very luxurious.\u2019 That second thought is a hopelessly poor substitute for the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once upon a time \u2013 when Ian Fleming was writing, for example \u2013 technical knowledge did, I suppose, bring some cachet. \u201cOh, Ian Fleming must know plenty about wines if he says that the Petrus \u201954 was markedly better than the \u201957<\/em>.\u201d But today? Phooey. We all have Wikipedia at our fingertips. We can all know as much of anything as we want. (Even my nine-year-old has achieved a strange degree of expertise in her chosen discipline: \u201cWhich horse has more stamina, a Morgan or a Connemara \u2026?\u201d \u201cHow many hands is a Welsh cob?\u201d \u201cIs a Friesian horse good for beginners \u2026?\u201d<\/em> My wife and I have promised to buy her a horse, once she has saved up enough to buy a field to put it in.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The really severe problem, however, is that in most cases the rush to brand-namery ends up emptying the character. So, honestly, how many people can tell from a brief glance at a watch peeping from beneath a cuff, what make and model it is? I\u2019d say almost none. Even the Patek Philippe-wearing crowd wouldn\u2019t be able to do that. Presumably a seller of posh watches could tell one from another. Ditto anyone deeply involved in the industry itself. But who else? Virtually no one. So either our escort has a side-hustle as a saleswoman. Or she\u2019s just peculiarly interested in watches. Or (in practice) the author is simply steam-rolling the character in order to get a brand-name in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t do that. Your character is the<\/em> most important element of your whole book. The most delicate. If you crush her \u2013 however temporarily \u2013 for the sake of a brand reference, you have diminished your reader\u2019s attachment to the person whose job is to get the reader through the book<\/em>. That\u2019s never a choice worth making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to show that your escort character is comfortable with this kind of environments, you need to do so in a way that reflects who she is. This kind of thing, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe spends a lot of time adjusting his jacket, his shirt cuffs, the gleam of his watch. Before the end of the evening, he\u2019ll have to mention what kind of watch it is. The less classy types \u2013 that is, most of them \u2013 tell me how much it cost. The lowest figure I\u2019ve been given is eight thousand pounds. The highest is nearly hundred grand. To begin with, I assume they were bullshitting me, that these numbers were all part of the brag. Now, I think the numbers are pinpoint accurate. Money is the only metric for these people, the one thing they never lie about.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That passage still shows expertise of a sort: an expertise in sleazy rich guys. It also displays a useful sliver of ignorance. She doesn\u2019t really know about the prices of these things. Her judgements are to do with people, not watches. The result is that the passage enhances her credibility as a character. We\u2019re further into a fictional world, not pushed out of it. We feel the world that the author wants us to see, but we encounter it in a way that places character first. That\u2019s the way to do it, always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t write about high-luxury environments myself, but I have included in the PSes a chunk of one of my Fiona Griffiths books, in which my character (operating undercover as a low-paid, semi-homeless cleaner) enters an upmarket winebar. The bar is not remotely at the Patek Philippe level of luxury, but the step from Fiona\u2019s current life-level to the bar is a big one. I don\u2019t mention a single brandname in the chunk below, and don\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll need to read the passage to see if it works, but if it does, it achieves its effect by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n