History Literature / TalesFromTheWhiteHart

%%* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: "Charles Willis"

%%* TheRuleOfFirstAdopters: "Patent Pending."

* SpiritualSuccessor: The 2011 collection "Fables from the Fountain" by Creator/NeilGaiman, Creator/StephenBaxter, Creator/CharlesStross and others.

* ScaryStingingSwarm: In "Critical Mass", a truck crashes near a facility where various very dangerous substances are manufactured and stored, and wrecks. The truck driver and some pedestrians both do a DontAskJustRun. The locals in town conclude YouCanPanicNow, and start to evacuate when someone volunteers to go up there and finds out [[spoiler:the truck was carrying beehives, and the driver and pedestrians fled from a swarm of angry bees]].

# "Critical Mass" - A truck crashes near a facility where various very dangerous substances are manufactured and stored, and wrecks. The truck driver and some pedestrians both do a DontAskJustRun. The locals in town conclude YouCanPanicNow, and start to evacuate when someone volunteers to go up there and finds out it's time to [[spoiler: BeeAfraid]].

''Tales from the White Hart'' is a 1957 collection of short stories by Creator/ArthurCClarke. Rather different from his standard [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard science fiction]] fare, ''Tales'' is a collection of stories--{{tall tale}}s, really, in the English tradition of the "pub tale"--told by the [[TheMunchausen bloviating, impossibly well-connected, and utterly enchanting]] Harry Purvis, at The White Hart, a [[MyLocal pub at which London's SF fandom]] hung out in TheForties and TheFifties. It's all told to us by an {{Expy}} of Clarke himself ("Charles Willis", one of his pseudonyms).

* BeeAfraid: In "Critical Mass", a truck crashes near a facility where various very dangerous substances are manufactured and stored, and wrecks. The truck driver and some pedestrians both do a DontAskJustRun. The locals in town conclude YouCanPanicNow, and start to evacuate when someone volunteers to go up there and finds out [[spoiler:the truck was carrying beehives, and the driver and pedestrians fled from a swarm of angry bees]].

* AppealToAudacity: Pretty much everything that comes out of Harry Purvis' mouth.

* "Silence Please" - About a student who invents [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control active noise control]] and uses it to pull a tremendous prank.
* "Big Game Hunt" - Some scientists invent a device which can control animals' movements by reproducing the electrical signals, but there has to be an electrical connection. [[spoiler: They go out in the Atlantic, use the signals to force a giant squid to come to the surface, and film it - but the apparatus suddenly fails, and before they can get it started again, the understandably pissed-off squid sinks the ship.]]
* "Patent Pending" - About a man who invents VCR for the brain.
* "Armaments Race" - The guy in charge of props for a B-grade science fiction show develops a fake death ray that's supposed to create an impressive-looking electrical arc [[spoiler: which actually works and destroys the studio, forcing said individual to make a hasty exit.]]
* "Critical Mass" - A truck crashes near a facility where various very dangerous substances are manufactured and stored, and wrecks. The truck driver and some pedestrians both do a DontAskJustRun. The locals in town conclude YouCanPanicNow, and start to evacuate when someone volunteers to go up there and finds out it's time to [[spoiler: BeeAfraid]].
* "The Ultimate Melody" - About inventing the ultimate EarWorm.
* "The Pacifist" - About the invention of a military computer
* "The Next Tenants" - A scientist on a Pacific atoll is teaching termites how to use tools and human technology.
* "Moving Spirit" - About a novel method of distilling and aging whisky.
* "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea"
* "The Reluctant Orchid" - About a seemingly dangerous carnivorous orchid.
* "Cold War" - A submarine is hired by the California Chamber of Commerce to arrange an iceberg sighting off the coast of Florida. They end up in over their heads.
* "What Goes Up" - About some Australians who invent AntiGravity by accident
* "Sleeping Beauty" - About a man who is given a drug that causes him to not require sleep.
* "The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch" - Wouldn't you like to find out!

!! Tropes

* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: "Charles Willis"

* TheMunchausen: Harry Purvis.

* TheRuleOfFirstAdopters: "Patent Pending."

* SpiritualSuccessor: The 2011 collection "Fables from the Fountain" by Creator/NeilGaiman, Creator/StephenBaxter, Creator/CharlesStross and others.

* DuringTheWar: "Moving Spirit" is set during WorldWarII.

* MyLocal: The White Hart. And it ''is'' local--the pub was chosen for its proximity to [[UsefulNotes/BritishUnis King's College London]] and other research institutions, not to mention the location just off [[BritishNewspapers Fleet Street]] that attracted those of a more literary bent, as well.

* MyLocal: The White Hart. And it ''is'' local--the pub was chosen for its proximity to [[UsefulNotes/BritishUnis Imperial College London]] and other research institutions, not to mention the location just off [[BritishNewspapers Fleet Street]] that attracted those of a more literary bent, as well.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The 2011 collection "Fables from the Fountain" by Creator/NeilGaiman, Creator/StephenBaxter, Creator/CharlesStross and others.

* "Critical Mass" - A truck crashes near a facility where various very dangerous substances are manufactured and stored, and wrecks. The truck driver and some pedestrians both do a DontAskJustRun. The locals in town conclude YouCanPanicNow, and start to evacuate when someone volunteers to go up there and finds out it's just [[spoiler: EverythingsWorseWithBees]].

* TechnologyMarchesOn: As it turns out, active noise reduction will ''not'' cause the machinery to explode with extended use.
* WriteWhoYouKnow: The White Hart is based on The White Horse, where Science Fiction buffs and writers would gather in 1940s and 1950s London. Furthermore, clear parallels of Samuel Youd (as John Christopher), John Wyndham (as John Benyon), and Clarke himself (as Charles Willis) appear in various stories.

* "The Next Tenants" -

* "The Reluctant Orchid"
* "Cold War"

* "Sleeping Beauty"

* "Big Game Hunt"

* "Armaments Race"
* "Critical Mass"

* "The Next Tenants"

* MyLocal: The White Hart. And it ''is'' local--the pub was chosen for its proximity to [[BritishUnis Imperial College London]] and other research institutions, not to mention the location just off [[BritishNewspapers Fleet Street]] that attracted those of a more literary bent, as well.

''Tales from the White Hart'' is a 1957 collection of short stories by Creator/ArthurCClarke. Rather different from his standard [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard science fiction]] fare, ''Tales'' is a collection of stories--{{tall tale}}s, really--told by the [[TheMunchausen bloviating, impossibly well-connected, and utterly enchanting]] Harry Purvis, at The White Hart, a [[MyLocal pub at which London's SF fandom]] hung out in TheForties and TheFifties. It's all told to us by an {{Expy}} of Clarke himself ("Charles Willis", one of his pseudonyms).

* "Moving Spirit" - About a novel method of distillation.

* "What Goes Up"

''Tales from the White Hart'' is a 1957 collection of short stories by Creator/ArthurCClarke. Rather different from his standard [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard science fiction]] fare, ''Tales'' is a collection of stories--tall tales, really--told by the [[TheMunchausen bloviating, impossibly well-connected, and utterly enchanting]] Harry Purvis, at The White Hart, a [[MyLocal pub at which London's SF fandom]] hung out in TheForties and TheFifties. It's all told to us by an {{Expy}} of Clarke himself ("Charles Willis", one of his pseudonyms).

''Tales from the White Hart'' is a 1957 collection of short stories by Creator/ArthurCClarke. Rather different from his standard HardScienceFiction fare, ''Tales'' is a collection of stories--tall tales, really--told by the [[TheMunchausen bloviating, impossibly well-connected, and utterly enchanting]] Harry Purvis, at The White Hart, a [[MyLocal pub at which London's SF fandom]] hung out in TheForties and TheFifties. It's all told to us by an {{Expy}} of Clarke himself ("Charles Willis", one of his pseudonyms).