British Library Sci-Fi Exhibition

Out of this World: Science Fiction but not as you know it.

I wish I could visit this. I used to walk past the British Library every day when I worked at Euston Station – I would get the train to King’s Cross Thameslink and walk (or get the bus if it was raining).

The exhibitions are always good, because they always manage to put a twist on things. For example, an exhibition on maps wasn’t just some old maps (which would have been fascinating in itself), but about how maps have been used and abused through the ages. There were several maps showing where the Garden of Eden definitely was/is. There was an English map of the south coast of England, annotated in red in German, with notes like “Bomb here”, “Well-defended shipyard” and so on. Another amusing map of some remote territory in Africa had the surveyed hills named with anagrams which spelled out something like “My boss is a prick” or similar, implying the soldier doing the surveying didn’t enjoy that particular job.

I bet this exhibition will be just as good.