I like young Robert as genial enough to get along with local lads and Lewis (didn't like the thought of him being lonely in term time) - thank you! Foleys putting pressure and/or funding for Robert's education initially appealed as an idea, but then I thought of them described as so isolated and wondered whether they would bother.
The bit about being at the same school got me too as I re-read ahead - I was relying on you to sort it! I suppose it could relate to very early schooling. Or perhaps the meaning of Grammar School was looser: some County Councils paid fees for public schools too, didn't they ?. Might it have worked that way and so they were educated together? [Though they would have been educated pre-1944 Education Act, there were Grammar schools before then, but I have no idea whether boys would have been sent to public schools if there was no Grammar school within day travel distance perhaps? Just as well I don't read AF for accurate C20 social history!] Sadly, I suspect "Forest nodding" was about it. I doubt she or Faber anticipated the degree of textual analysis we give her. But isn't that a gloriously Tim-mish thing to do? Let Nicola know she was about do to something wicked and watch her squirm as Nicola tried to decide what to do about it?
Suppressed homo-erotic love I can go with - after all neither of them marry in a world with many "spare" women. I am still thinking about "compulsive friendships". Do you think Monica and Ginty comes under this heading (from Monica's point of view, if not Ginty's?). I would like to argue that intense same sex friendships do not necessarily have an erotic dimension; however a cursory glance at my own life ruins that position. Though from the same subjective standpoint I would say it may not only never be expressed physically, but not even recognised at the time either!
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Friendships
Date: 2014-06-28 02:01 pm (UTC)The bit about being at the same school got me too as I re-read ahead - I was relying on you to sort it! I suppose it could relate to very early schooling. Or perhaps the meaning of Grammar School was looser: some County Councils paid fees for public schools too, didn't they ?. Might it have worked that way and so they were educated together? [Though they would have been educated pre-1944 Education Act, there were Grammar schools before then, but I have no idea whether boys would have been sent to public schools if there was no Grammar school within day travel distance perhaps? Just as well I don't read AF for accurate C20 social history!] Sadly, I suspect "Forest nodding" was about it. I doubt she or Faber anticipated the degree of textual analysis we give her. But isn't that a gloriously Tim-mish thing to do? Let Nicola know she was about do to something wicked and watch her squirm as Nicola tried to decide what to do about it?
Suppressed homo-erotic love I can go with - after all neither of them marry in a world with many "spare" women. I am still thinking about "compulsive friendships". Do you think Monica and Ginty comes under this heading (from Monica's point of view, if not Ginty's?). I would like to argue that intense same sex friendships do not necessarily have an erotic dimension; however a cursory glance at my own life ruins that position. Though from the same subjective standpoint I would say it may not only never be expressed physically, but not even recognised at the time either!