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Jan. 12th, 2012 02:00 pmI have been percolating on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and I have further thoughts. Mostly questions, actually. Mainly about real estate. If there’s one thing I know about civil servants it’s that they are adequately recompensed but not particularly generously recompensed (at least by private sector standards). And if there’s one thing I know about London, it’s that the costs of either renting or owning there are ruinously expensive. But Smiley has a nice little house in Islington, of all places, and from what little we see of Guillam and Prideaux’s flats they look roomy enough. How are they affording this on civil service salaries? A few possibilities spring to mind:
1. London may have been a *significantly* cheaper place to live back in the early 1970’s.
2. Islington may have been either pre-or mid-gentrification, and thus there weren’t movie stars on every corner driving up the prices. We don’t know where Guillam and Prideaux live, of course, so that only goes for the Smileys. And if so, would suggest that George and Ann have have a bit of a counterculture vibe to them, having bought in a gentrifying area instead of going out to East Sheen or wherever the really respectable people were living.*
3. Smiley, Prideaux and Guillam all give the impression of belonging to a certain social class. Thus, they might have supplemented their civil service income with inherited money.
I realize this is all *highly* irrelevant to the actual plot of the movie, but nonetheless I wonder.
Cutting for big TTSS spoilers:( Read more... )
Edited to Add:
According to Shezan, who's read the books, Ann Smiley didn't have a countercultural bone in her body, and the Smileys really lived in Chelsea. So I'll put that down to a continuity error.
I should also point out that it's entirely possibly my great-aunt was priced out of Kensington, instead of deciding that Kensington had suddenly become declasse. She told me Kensington going downhill was why she decamped to Surrey, but that could've been a little white lie.
1. London may have been a *significantly* cheaper place to live back in the early 1970’s.
2. Islington may have been either pre-or mid-gentrification, and thus there weren’t movie stars on every corner driving up the prices. We don’t know where Guillam and Prideaux live, of course, so that only goes for the Smileys. And if so, would suggest that George and Ann have have a bit of a counterculture vibe to them, having bought in a gentrifying area instead of going out to East Sheen or wherever the really respectable people were living.*
3. Smiley, Prideaux and Guillam all give the impression of belonging to a certain social class. Thus, they might have supplemented their civil service income with inherited money.
I realize this is all *highly* irrelevant to the actual plot of the movie, but nonetheless I wonder.
Cutting for big TTSS spoilers:( Read more... )
Edited to Add:
According to Shezan, who's read the books, Ann Smiley didn't have a countercultural bone in her body, and the Smileys really lived in Chelsea. So I'll put that down to a continuity error.
I should also point out that it's entirely possibly my great-aunt was priced out of Kensington, instead of deciding that Kensington had suddenly become declasse. She told me Kensington going downhill was why she decamped to Surrey, but that could've been a little white lie.
