[HN Gopher] English cottage where John le Carre wrote Tinker Tai...
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       English cottage where John le Carre wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
       is for sale
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 37 points
       Date   : 2023-09-09 19:34 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lithub.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lithub.com)
        
       | chrisweekly wrote:
       | Random tangent: John Le Carre's son Nick Harkaway is a fantastic
       | writer (whose works I prefer to his father's).
        
       | darkclouds wrote:
       | https://search.savills.com/property-detail/gbtrrstrs210037
        
       | devnullbrain wrote:
       | That's a lot of rugs. Dogs?
        
       | Archelaos wrote:
       | I wonder what it looked like inside when John le Carre wrote
       | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in ca. 1974.
        
       | drewcoo wrote:
       | In England, "cottage" must mean something else . . .
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | gerdesj wrote:
         | It's a word with multiple meanings and one of them is a type of
         | dwelling. Which other meaning do you think is more appropriate
         | given the context?
        
           | pdonis wrote:
           | The word "cottage" originally derives from "cot", which was a
           | small hut or shack in which feudal serfs lived.
        
             | compiler-guy wrote:
             | And the term "computer" originally described a person who
             | made calculations, not a machine. Etymology can be
             | informative and revealing, but is hardly dispositive.
        
               | gerdesj wrote:
               | Well put. You used inward facing quotes and deployed:
               | "dispositive".
               | 
               | Why not try out these two: " ". My English teacher, back
               | in the day, described quotation marks as 66 and 99. Back
               | then we used ink pens because the best effort that IT
               | could manage was sodding expensive and not really a
               | thing. We had Biros and those new fangled fibre tips ...
               | 
               | I used to be able to wield an edged pen and write gothic
               | black letter quite well and my italic was almost as good
               | as my granddad's.
               | 
               | Whoops, mind wanders off piste ...
        
           | ethomson wrote:
           | There's no confusion about it referring to a dwelling. The
           | confusion is about the _type_ of dwelling.
           | 
           | To quote Wikipedia:
           | 
           | > In American English, "cottage" is one term for such holiday
           | homes, although they may also be called a "cabin", "chalet",
           | or even "camp".
           | 
           | In other words, calling a multi-million pound property a
           | "cottage" would rankle an American ear.
        
             | gerdesj wrote:
             | >> In American English, "cottage" is one term for such
             | holiday homes, although they may also be called a "cabin",
             | "chalet", or even "camp".
             | 
             | > In other words, calling a multi-million pound property a
             | "cottage" would rankle an American ear.
             | 
             | It might rankle an American ear but this isn't America,
             | it's Cornwall (Kernow as one of my 11th great grandmas, off
             | of Padstow, would have called it). Cottage hereabouts does
             | not mean a holiday home - they are called holiday homes.
             | 
             | I'll also note that here in en_GB land, the word camp also
             | has multiple meanings and cottaging (the verb) does too. Be
             | careful what you search for. Also please note that Kernow
             | has its own language, which predates English, which is
             | seeing a resurgence. It's one of the old Brythonic
             | languages and Cornwall was once known as West Wales, but I
             | digress.
             | 
             | I spend a great deal of time trying to keep up with the
             | various en_* vagaries. The split of en_US from en_GB (very
             | simplistic depiction) is still quite young and you probably
             | speak a closer variety and with a more "authentic" accent
             | of English than I do, when compared to say that which was
             | spoken in C18 when it started to brachiolate.
        
             | Thorrez wrote:
             | 5000 square ft... That's a mansion.
        
             | FridayNightTV wrote:
             | > In other words, calling a multi-million pound property a
             | "cottage" would rankle an American ear
             | 
             | To this British ear.....
             | 
             | Plenty cottages sell for multi-millions (including many in
             | my village, unfortunately). Please take your semantics
             | elsewhere.
        
               | majormajor wrote:
               | I don't know why "American ear" was brought into this,
               | even the OED has definitions that agree a cottage is
               | _small_ and this is... very not small.
        
             | chongli wrote:
             | _In other words, calling a multi-million pound property a
             | "cottage" would rankle an American ear._
             | 
             | I don't think so. There's tons of multi-million-dollar
             | lakefront properties all over North America. People
             | generally refer to these as cottages since they're:
             | 
             | 1. seasonal
             | 
             | 2. not the primary residence
             | 
             | 3. often located near a body of water and/or away from big
             | cities
             | 
             | 4. intended for vacations with families and friends (or
             | short-term rental for the same purpose)
        
         | Lio wrote:
         | Haha, I thought the same thing. That's a rich man's idea of
         | what a cottage is.
         | 
         | From the look of it was once a terrace of individual cottages
         | that have been knocked through into one dwelling.
         | 
         | I love le Carre's work, so I'd say he deserved it.
        
       | nixass wrote:
       | Is this really a selling point?
        
       | ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
       | That's a beautiful house. I wonder if the space you inhabit
       | changes what you create. If that is the case offices need to be
       | better thought about.
        
         | tonyedgecombe wrote:
         | I'd never get any work done there, I'd spend all my time taking
         | in the views.
        
         | Obscurity4340 wrote:
         | Its a sad thought that so many of us can never realistically
         | hope to occupy such a space and be able to truly have that kind
         | of setting to breathe and heal oneself
        
           | TacticalCoder wrote:
           | > Its a sad thought that so many of us can never
           | realistically hope to occupy such a space and be able to
           | truly have that kind of setting to breathe and heal oneself
           | 
           | I disagree with that...
           | 
           | For the price of a studio in basically any "big" city (any
           | big american city or any capital city in an european
           | country), you can buy a big house in the middle of nowhere,
           | surrounded by nature.
           | 
           | People _want_ to be surrounded by concrete: they don 't want
           | to live surrounded by nature (because "the arts" or "because
           | social life" or whatever other reason). So for those who want
           | to be surrounded by nature, prices can be extremely cheap.
           | 
           | Heck, for the price of a normal house in many cities, you can
           | have a _castle_ in France (as long as its in the middle of
           | nowhere).
        
             | hutzlibu wrote:
             | "People want to be surrounded by concrete"
             | 
             | People want to be surrounded by people.
        
               | TaylorAlexander wrote:
               | Yeah they were really missing the obvious implication of
               | their comment there.
        
           | andy-eye-candy wrote:
           | Nature is luckily free most of the time
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | ethbr1 wrote:
             | In many countries, by law.
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
        
             | read_if_gay_ wrote:
             | yes but capitalism bad!
        
       | Flatcircle wrote:
       | so so beautiful. Now that's a dream house.
        
       | clort wrote:
       | Yeah but be aware before you move in that the Tater Du Lighthouse
       | is very nearby (IIRC just round the point you see in Side Garden
       | photo)
       | 
       | Tater Du has an automatic fog horn..
        
         | closewith wrote:
         | Decommissioned, (un)fortunately.
        
         | bookofjoe wrote:
         | Not any more:
         | 
         | >Fog signal
         | 
         | The fog signal was originally a series (72 in total) of Tannoy
         | units built into the lighthouse tower; they were powered by an
         | alternator coupled to a 2-cylinder Ruston diesel engine. This
         | was later replaced by a short-range Pharos Marine
         | Omnidirectional electric emitter sounding the same
         | characteristic of two one-second blasts every 30 seconds during
         | fog. The fog signal was decommissioned in 2012.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tater_Du_Lighthouse
        
       | andrewstuart wrote:
       | It's not very highly rated but I loved the 2011 movie of "Tinker
       | Tailor Soldier Spy" starring Gary Oldman and a cast of other well
       | known actors.
       | 
       | https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tinker_tailor_soldier_spy
       | 
       | After I saw it I said to friends that its "the best movie I've
       | seen in which pretty much nothing happens". That's how good the
       | movie was - no action, nothing stated explicitly, lots left for
       | the viewer to figure out, and still awesome. Definitely not for
       | everyone but I loved it. Gary Oldman of course being one of the
       | greatest actors of all time.
        
         | md224 wrote:
         | One of my favorite films! Agreed that it's not for everyone,
         | but if you're on its wavelength it's really something special.
         | Just incredibly well made with terrific performances. That
         | ending sequence with La Mer...
        
         | notpublic wrote:
         | Then you should watch the OG - 1979 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
         | with Alec Guinness and Ian Richardson
        
           | MrVandemar wrote:
           | The first two minutes -- _two_ minutes -- is a _masterclass_
           | in  "show don't tell". All the suspects are introduced, one
           | after the other, their characters clear as day, with not a
           | line of dialogue.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq61jstTApk
           | 
           | Genuinely stunning.
        
         | omnicognate wrote:
         | 84% is pretty high. I remember it being very well received,
         | deservedly so.
         | 
         | If you liked that you should try the 1979 BBC series of it [1],
         | Alec Guiness also being one of the greatest actors of all time.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Tailor_Soldier_Spy_(T...
        
         | jakeinspace wrote:
         | I remember seeing it in theaters with my father, who is a
         | massive le Carre fan. He enjoyed it (though obviously he had
         | many issues in comparison with the novel), and I (15 at the
         | time) remember being very bored. Still, I could appreciate that
         | is had beautiful mood and subtle, well-written dialogue. It
         | felt a much closer approximation of actual espionage than
         | anything else I've seen.
        
       | rr808 wrote:
       | $3.7 million though? Does it include a farm? I thought house
       | prices in California were crazy.
        
         | chrisweekly wrote:
         | Huh? It's 5,000 extremely well-designed and appointed sq ft on
         | 3+ gorgeous acres. Maybe not a bargain, but far from outrageous
         | IMHO. Hell, Redfin says my house is worth 1.7 and it's not in
         | the same league.
        
         | zdragnar wrote:
         | It's a 5,000 square foot house on 3 acres overlooking the
         | ocean. You're not going to ever find that for cheap, especially
         | with its beautifully maintained condition.
        
       | jay_kyburz wrote:
       | Might be a good idea for a website. Collect real estate photos of
       | house where famous people worked. Perhaps side by side with any
       | photos of them actually working there!
        
       | markus_zhang wrote:
       | I wonder how much the maintenance cost is.
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-09 23:01 UTC)