Attic Term: Readthrough, Chapters 1-4

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much to coughingbear for writing the posts on The Cricket Term. I'm back in the saddle for this one, but if anyone is interested in a post on later chapters of this novel, on Run Away Home or the Players novels, please let me know below or by pm. Discussion proceeds here about exactly what order we're going to do things in: if you have feelings please let us know in comments at that post. Suggestions for themed posts are here.

So, forward to The Attic Term!


We pick up the story again at the end of the summer holiday that is beginning at the close of Cricket Term, leaving a swathe of unnarrated summer into which to insert fic. This has been your regularly scheduled fic prompt. Ginty and Patrick's friendship has clearly developed, and they have privately continued their Gondal fantasy. I enjoy the detail that Ginty finds more opportunities for romance with Patrick's Hamlet in reading Horatio than she does in reading Ophelia, because it's so true! There are! Her continued nervousness around Regina is an ominous sign, though, and Patrick does seem as skittish as Catkin when things get a touch amorous. Ginty's disinclination to talk to Patrick about Monica and vice versa continues the series' theme of Home and School and never the twain.

We learn something of Patrick's school life, and its contrasts with Kingscote: it seems more academically pushy, with O-levels taken early, and with far less of a culture of compulsion around extra-curricular activities. There are hints of Patrick's dissatisfaction with reform in the Catholic Church and his school's enthusiastic embrace of that--Ginty presumably knows something of his views there, because she doesn't enquire why the 'trad' Christmas Play was hastily rejected, though we sense that perhaps Patrick doesn't discuss theology with Ginty very much. (Incidentally, I'm wondering what sort of details might make a Nativity Play seem too 'trad' in a post-Vatican II climate?) It is, in any case, a lot more satisfying to have him expound his beliefs to Nicola in the next chapter, because of the resonance with the ride from Wade Abbas in End of Term. The discussion of plays--whether Hamlet or Eugene O'Neill, furthers the theme of pretence. Patrick cannot act, but he can pretend to be someone--a nice and subtle distinction. This month's number of the Journal of Read It Somewhere Studies tells me that Forest's school put on Marco Millions, which must then have been a pretty new play, since it first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1928. Anyone ever seen it?

'Imagine asking. Suppose you got told,' says Ginty of Unity Logan's officious efforts on behalf of June White, demoted from Candle Angel in the Play in End of Term. Here Ginty asks, and very nearly gets told, but in the last sentence of the chapter decides that there are some things she'd better off not knowing. It's a wonderfully light-touch portrait of two young people who like the idea of being in a romance rather more, one senses, than they actually like each other. The moment at which Patrick shies from Ginty's 'tense, insistent' face and diverts the conversation to Claudie (oh, Patrick!) is brilliant. If he was conscious of what he was doing it would be cruel, but Forest switches point of view to show us he isn't, though I'm not sure that makes him any more likeable at that moment. What do others think of Ginty and Patrick's doomed friendship?





Nicola's awkward presence at cubbing uncomfortably reminds us of happier times she's spent with Patrick. Forest--rather cunningly--doesn't give us Patrick's viewpoint in this chapter, so we're left with the sisters as mutually resentful rivals. I'm also amused by her misunderstanding of the age and state of growth of their quarry, and her perking up when she realises they're not actually sending 'fubsy' cubs to their deaths. Is Ginty's 'resigned sisterly contempt' feigned? It's only just over a year ago in story-time that she was a fervent anti-bloodsports type, after all.

The breakfast-table conversation is notably malicious on Patrick and Ginty's part--I'm glad that Mr Merrick is there to stand up for Nicola. I rather wish that Patrick had got the telling-off he deserves for his bad behaviour at the hunt in Peter's Room, though. I like the oxymoron of '"Yup," said Nicola, automatically doom-laden, her spirits leaping up.' at the news of Ginty's being summoned away to packing.

Nicola's ease with Regina contrasts with Ginty's continued nerves, as the conversation which follows is surely intended as contrast: eccentric but revealing where Ginty's interactions with Patrick are bound by certain conventions and superficial.

'"Though I suppose she is quite used to strangers nowadays"' (ouch, Patrick!) is flagged by the authorial voice as significant; if it implies that Nicola is a stranger, it also suggests that Ginty is one too. Nicola's cheerful acceptance of the labour of sweeping out (the Merrick Boy displaying his extraordinary tact and charm again) eases the atmosphere between them, and their conversation becomes almost immediately quite profound, with Nicola's revelation of Edwin's researches into the farm log. Patrick's moment of reaffirmation in faith (and Nicola's initial misunderstanding of it) is quite touching, I think, the more so because it only makes emotional sense: his ancestor's courage on the scaffold doesn't render his beliefs (or Patrick's traddiness) any whit more true (as Nicola's later, private conviction that nothing is worth Tyburn acknowledges.)

Nicola and Patrick's shared dislike of being 'talked to' in ways they see as patronising by adults perhaps provides a further contrast with Ginty's horror of rows, and offers a distant fore-echo of Ginty and Nicola's later interviews with Miss Keith. I'm tickled and a bit appalled by Patrick's desire for 'masters to keep their distance and answer to Sir' (just like dogs in trouble, splendid bit of landed gentry arrogance from the Merrick Boy there). But he's clearly unhappy enough at school to want to leave before A-levels--I can't imagine that he struggles academically in the humanities, though I can quite believe his own estimate of his maths. Patrick's account of his school assemblies provides the irony that the trendier end of the Catholic Church is rather more low church (with extempore prayer and 'holy pop') than the Church of England solidities that Nicola is used to. In his reluctance to stand up and be counted we see Patrick's shyness emerging again, but perhaps also an ironic contrast with his illustrious ancestor. Later in the chapter, Patrick reflects sadly that there's no real danger involved in his modern sort of recusancy, only the sort of social embarrassment that a 'madly trad' assembly might bring. (I'd be inclined to regard this a very callow and silly sort of nostalgia were Patrick not the sort of bloke who brings an eighteenth-century throwing-knife to a showdown in a medieval dovecote, sees someone killed with it, hops into a stolen Rolls-Royce for a sexually-charged joyride with a teenage drug-smuggler who dies crashing it and then casually passes an ounce of uncut cocaine to his naval cadet friend as a souvenir of a crowded weekend. He's nothing if not a risk-taker.)

Mention of the Forty (Martyrs of England and Wales) places us presumably in summer 1971, since their canonization took place in October 1970. Anyone more up on matters theological than I care to comment on Patrick's views on the Vatican II reforms? How well do they represent traditional Catholicism in general, and Forest's own in particular?

I simply adore Nicola's persistent analogies of the Catholic Church with the Navy, by the way, and her reflections on Ginty's showing off to Patrick by affecting interest in Dante and medieval Latin are delicious. I first read Dante in Sayers' translation, and retain a fondness for it despite its terza rima being pretty cumbrous. (It's the only translation I know that bothers with a linguistic difference between Dante and Sordello, for example, for which I'll forgive it a lot--Sayers' Sordello speaks (rather kailyard) Scots.) But I also rather like The Constant Nymph, whose themes of rivalry and jealousy are obviously relevant here (also the source for Edwin's surname?) Forest seems associatively to connect The Constant Nymph with Sayers through Hilary's admiration of it as a bestseller with artistic merit in The Nine Tailors.

How do people read Nicola's interest in going to Mass? It's picked up again in Run Away Home, and I'm sure there'll be more discussion there, but what do you think her motivations are?

Though really, I think Nicola deserves better than the Merrick Boy, it is delightful to see them happy and self-forgetfully, adolescently earnest together; and by the time Nicola's recalled to Trennels, she's a good deal happier.





The differing reactions of the family to Nicola's arrival are nicely observed, I think, from Rowan's amusement, through Ann's worried humourlessness ('remindingly' is a good adverb), to Lawrie's immediate relating of the situation to her own concerns (the detail that Lawrie has developed a genuine fondness for the Idiot Boy, though, is charming--even if--typically Lawrie, she only does so when he is actually hers.) And oh dear, Ginty's jealous fury. Her anger at her mother betrays her into positively Lawrie-ish fantastic hyperbole ('suddenly famous and interviewed on TV'). Nicola's 'bubble of happiness' breaking as she realises that the conversation doesn't necessarily mean a renewal of her friendship with Patrick is rather heartbreaking though. But at least she's lucky at the dentist. I rather like the subtle difference drawn between 'smug' and 'cat-with-creamy', too: though 'unusually perceptive' is backhanded: Forest can't quite let Ann have her due.





We begin with a glimpse of Mrs Lambert's officious inefficiency, which will later produce some disastrous results. Causation and responsibility are important themes here--the novel is in fact full of 'coughing bears'--which is in its turn, I suppose, Forest's meta-narratalogical commentary on story-telling, its conventions and structures.

Esther's affection for Daks? Affected, babyish or 'scarey' [sic]? Her response to her mother's pregnancy does rather suggest the last, doesn't it? An echo with Nicola's 'one would always much rather it were one of the family', too, perhaps. Flats where they don't allow babies (as opposed to flats unsuitable for)? I can imagine some restriction of the sort in 1930s service apartments, possibly, but it seems a bit peculiar in the 1970s. But maybe people know of similar rules from their own or others' experience?

Ann gets her step to prefect, and is observed in her element with the Junior Side infants. Nicola's expectation of saccharine gratitude for taking Ann's trunk tray down gets a rebuke that is both enjoyable in itself and for the equanimity with which Nicola receives it. I'm also delighted by Nicola's observation of the carpenter's filling in a gap with spare parquet. I always rather enjoy that sort of thing myself.

Miranda's continued devotion to Jan--aw! Complete with illogical wish for her to have failed but not failed her A-levels. Miranda's holiday in Venice (tempered by the realisation that it would be 'gaudy' to send Jan a gift or card alluding to it) contrasts with Jan's postcard ('written small', oh Miranda) from her Norfolk or Lincolnshire home. A Wool Cross works well for either--I like the detail that while Forest is inconsistent about which side of the Wash Jan's hometown is on she has a clear idea of what sort of country she hails from. In case anyone has missed it, here is fic, by legionseagle, exploring Jan's past, and the slight mystery that seems to surround her mother.

Comments on Wendy Tredgold's anti-semitism? Interestingly, both Wendy's implied remark about Miranda's father, and her articulated one about Miranda not knowing about the existence of Oxfam shops are tacitly supported by Nicola. Forest is characteristic in leaving it to the reader to decide whether Wendy really is anti-Semitic or whether she simply resents Miranda's wealth and (it has to be admitted) slight tendency to snobbery: the comments of hers that we hear are insinuating, but only of Miranda's wealth and privilege, not her Jewishness. There's a similar entwining of issues of class and anti-Semitism in End of Term, with the 'common little soul with the perm and the Jaguar'. Miranda is embarrassed, however, by her remark about the 'dreggy uniform dress', which draws attention to the Marlows' relative poverty. It's a very effective and understated sketch of the ways in which wealth does, and does not, map onto social privilege and status.

We see Miranda's unpleasant side in her dealings with Sandra Grigson, who is harmless if rather prolix--Miranda's putdown is startlingly vicious--if again, as Nicola is forced to admit, accurate. Miranda appears as an edgy and unsettling presence here, I think, with Nicola finding herself in agreement both with Miranda and her antagonists. The moment when Nicola wonders if her hurt at Patrick's rejection of her shows in similar ways to Sandra's by Miranda is actually painful to read. I'm mildly surprised that no-one but Sandra recognises Sara Crewe--if Cousin Jon had sisters (and perhaps even if he didn't, though it's perhaps not one that boys would be as familiar with as girls might be), there must surely be a copy of A Little Princess in the Trennels playroom, and Rose would have no trouble identifying the reference. Perhaps this is the flexible timeline coming into play, but I read A Little Princess in the 1980s, and indeed played the rat in a stage version. Burnett's novel, with its reversals of fortune and status and its emphasis on the power of imagination and storytelling, resonate subtly and slightly uncomfortably with this scene and the previous chapters.

Miranda's family, like Patrick's, has an au pair (in fact, 'one of our idiot au pairs' suggests a multiplicity, or a sequence at least, thereof). I'm not really familiar with au pairing and how it worked in practice in the 1970s--but Miranda seems to regard Elsa as a kind of servant, which I thought was very much not the idea. Anyway, it seems unlikely that Miranda has the sort of frisson with Elsa that Patrick has with Claudie, more's the pity.

The Disaster! The coughing bear! I love, 'Nicola meditated briefly on the disastrousness of being not merely rich, but an only child and never having to wear your sisters' outgrown gear.' And Miranda is notably cavalier about the garment, reflecting that ruining it will be no hardship. This passage is growling with potential coughing bears--from Miranda's anger at Wendy's 'nudging voice' to Avril's fear that chickens may come home to her roost.



I think that's enough from me for now. Over to you!

Comments

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I don't know that Nicola's acceptance of the task of sweeping out isn't a rather strategic sort of submission, though. Patrick knows full well that it's ungracious of him to suggest she does it when he's been ignoring her all summer, so her acceptance of the task puts him at a slight social disadvantage, forcing him to acknowledge that she's being a good sport about his bad behaviour, at least to the point that he's obliged to engage her in friendly conversation (which he ends up enjoying). It restores familiarity between them, which allows her to open the conversation about Edwin and the farm log. Ultimately I agree that it's not really a healthy footing for a friendship, in that it depends on Nicola being perpetually indulgent of Patrick being a little shit, while Patrick is charmingly sheepish back (a mode ime depressingly typical of boys and men of his social class, and I think it's him that wants shaking) but I think it does show some of Nicola's interpersonal savvy.

Ann's acceptance of chores, meanwhile, always seems a sort of self-mortification, which doesn't admit any sort of reciprocity or trade-off, and so just ends up irritating people, because they can't repay the debt. (Which is not to say that Ann doesn't have a hard billet in her family and her Author).

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[sue marsden (from livejournal.com)]

Ann remnds me of my mother...

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with all that. but if girls like Nicola didn't let boys like Patrick get away with the 'charmingly sheepish'-about-being -a-bastard stuff, then they might actually learn some proper manners.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I'm conflicted myself: on the one hand I don't think it's really Nicola's responsibility to educate the Merrick Boy in basic human decency, especially from a position of disadvantage, but on the other hand, if not her, then who? His dad does his best, to be fair. (I'm unapologetically fond of Mr Merrick.)

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[(Anonymous)]

I intend to withdraw from this discussion. What is being said is so far from any reasonable discussion of the actual books that I can see no point in it. Maybe people will be happy, if they simply want to express their personal prejudices, while ignoring what AF actually wrote and believed.
Lizzzar

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

Participation is 100% optional as far as I know.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

I don't read Nicola as submissive here at all -- she's much more comfortable having a job to do rather than standng around awkwardly having a conversation she isn't quite sure how to broach, and this preference for having some sensible occupation rather than just undiluted talking is totally in character for her (cf. not knowing what to do with her hands in CT after they win the Cup final; and countless other conversations in which she's either found an occupation or feigned one), as well as pointing up, again, the contrast between her and Ginty, who
(a) is still scared of Regina and, despite hanging around Patrick all summer, certainly lacks any of the easy competence in dealing with hawks that Nicola shows here;
(b) has been seen in the previous scene DOING basically nothing and focused entirely on LOOKING charming; and
(c) as we learn later (when she is contemplating a stable-girl's career), can barely bring herself to do things like mucking-out (presumably the horsey equivalent of the sweeping Nicola does here) even for her beloved Catkin, much less for anyone else's animals.

And I get the distinct impression from Nicola's skeptical inner "Go hon" when she sees the books Ginty is borrowing from Patrick that Nicola, at least, would never be so submissive as to feign interest in books that are completely not her cup of tea, just to ingratiate herself with the beloved Merrick. In fact, that's the big difference between the Patrick/Nicola relationship and the Patrick/Ginty relationsup -- Patrick and Nicola become close, despite the difference in their ages, because they are interested in many of the same things: history, animals, tradition. They actually have stuff in common. Nicola is genuinely interested in the Art of Falconerie from her own perspective, before it occurs to her to give it to Patrick, the real falconer. Ginty OTOH really couldn't care less about mediaeval Latin lyrics, Dante, pre-Vatican-II Catholicism (which really does interest Nicola, for the same sort of reasons it interests Patrick -- as a connection to a distant and fascinating past way of life), hawks and hawking, etc. -- she "acquires" an interest in each of those things BECAUSE she is into Patrick.

And of course, that's why Ginty is so threatened by every reported or suspected conversation between Nicola and Patrick -- both here (where she repeatedly tries to find out EXACTLY what N and P talked about that morning after she left) and in CT, where she can't let go of the "When did Patrick say that about Alexander the Great?" thing. Deep down, she knows that N and P talk about things that they are both actually interested in (the proof of N's genuine interest being that she brings it up again later, the bit about Alexander -- not because P said it but because she thinks the information itself is intriguing!) and that this is because, unlike herself and Patrick, they objectively have interests in common.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can see and agree with everything you've said there. I suppose I just feel that Patrick treated Nicola pretty shabbily - he effectively dropped her as a friend without any thought for her feelings - and now, without him having to make the slightest effort, he has Nicola's unconditional friendship again.
I'm not being an anti-Patrick-brigade, Lizzar, I think he's quite a realistic teenage boy who will probably be ashamed looking back at his Peter's Room phase later in life. I just feel for Nicola who was hurt. Having a friend go off with someone else is such an intensely painful thing to happen at that age.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[biskybat.livejournal.com]

When Nicola first meets Patrick in FC I think he is at his best, immersed in something he loves doing, no initial interest in Nicola apart from as an obliging helper and then a friendship developing out of their shared interest.

I don't think Nicola is aware she has any deeper feelings for him until Ginty in PR when it all gets painful for her. She is betrayed by him but endlessly forgiving. The submissive part didn't hit me until this time round of reading when I just wanted Nicola to be less accommodating.

Whoever said (sorry can't remember who or the exact words) that Ginty and Patrick are enjoying the romance and acting out of being 'in love' is so right. Whereas Nicola's feelings are wholly sincere and all the more painful for Patrick's unawareness.

How lovely for Patrick to have two of the Marlow girls at his beck and call, one to attend to his romantic needs, the other to help with the chores. There's no indication that he has other friends, even he and Peter have a squally relationship (sensible of Peter not to get too involved) and he seems to stand aloof from the boys at school - wonder what they think of him there, no much, I would imagine.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[coughingbear]

This is the first time this summer that Nicola has done the hawk chores, so presumably Patrick is doing them himself usually!

And while I don't think he treats Nicola well, I'm not sure it is lovely for him to have the two 'at his beck and call' - he is uncomfortable around Nicola, surely, because he knows that he has dropped their friendship abruptly. I think he'd be happier if she had gone off to be friends with someone else (now I am thinking of Nicola and Esther at the end of the book - not a complete parallel, but goodness Forest is excellent at the shifting of friendships and allegiances).

Patrick's school friends

[scarletlobster.livejournal.com]

"BE more fun if your three did it madly trad.." Just a casual plot device I guess, but we are meant to accept that Patrick has two fellow pupils who either like him enough to do something that will get them mocked, at his request, or genuinely agree with him about the madly trad RC services.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I am 100% Team Nicola and I really feel for her in the whole Patrick business. Even though I suspect that -- had I even had the opportunity (i.e. been pretty and liked back by a boy) at 15, I would probably have behaved much more like Ginty. (And I do feel for Ginty as well, in some of the very recognizable teenage tribulations she goes through in this book, much as she also annoys me per AF's intent.)

Of course Patrick behaves badly w/r/t Nicola, but I agree with you that his selfishness/obliviousness is reasonably typical of a teenage boy (esp. one who, unlike Nicola, hasn't had a lifetime of mucking in with siblings to teach him any social lessons). I mean, sheesh, I've been treated much worse that this by immature dudes! My mother used to "comfort" me by saying tht men couldn't seem to manage to behave like grown-ups till at least 40.

But, like Nicola, I find Patrick compelling and would totally gravitate to him in real life.

Treating Nicola shabbily

[sprog-63.livejournal.com]

Hasn't Ginty also treated Nicola "pretty shabbily"?

Re: Treating Nicola shabbily

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

Much more shabbily IMO! Not to mention the rest of the family (I always rather enjoy the fact that the reason she misses out on that morning with Patrick -- the one Nicola gets instead -- is so obviously PRECISELY because she's made herself so scarce on a daily basis -- skipping out on family time and chores -- that she's completely out of the loop on both packing and dentist appointments. And then she expects Ann to pick up the slack for her -- and why should Ann? -- just because Ginty is sooooo special with her Very Important Romantic Life that noone else in the family has, and everyone else should just fall in line and serve Ginty's romantic narrative, which is clearly far more important than anything anyone else could possibly be doing).

Re: Treating Nicola shabbily

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I think she has, but I'm inclined to be a bit more sympathetic, because Ginty hasn't withdrawn or switched her affections, where Patrick has. I think there's a fair bit of unexamined entitlement in Ginty's attitude: she feels that she's the natural object for Patrick's attention because they're closer in age, they shared enthusiasm for the Gondal and she's the Pretty One, and when her conscience troubles her about Nicola she quells it by thinking that a sort of Natural Order has been restored.

Re: Treating Nicola shabbily

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

I imagine Ginty and Nicola will have a cool and uneasy relationship for a long time - probably till long after they've both married someone else entirely.
But Patrick is right back in with Nicola as they used to be, without any acknowledgement or apology on his part, unless you count the embarrassed staring at Regina. In some ways I respect Nicola for not being petty-minded or whingey about it. Just think how Lawrie would behave in the same situation. But in other ways, I want to give Patrick a massive clip round the ear on Nicola's behalf.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[coughingbear]

I do agree with a lot of this, but I want to stand up for Ginty a bit too - she and Patrick are both horsy in a way that Nicola isn't, for example, and she is canonically interested in English lit, and indeed history, so possibly she has read some of the books he has, like the Neale. (I am also totally someone who read Sayers' translations of Dante because they were Sayers rather than because they were Dante, so I can see borrowing those! The Medieval Latin Lyrics I admit to finding more of a stretch.)

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Very true. That reminds me of a KM Peyton novel where the heroine is envious of the hero and his girlfriend who ride together out hunting in a way she never could. I can't remember the title but it's the one where they all go mountaineering in long dresses.
Although my main sympathies are with Nicola, I do think Patrick treats Ginty badly too.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Medieval Latin Lyrics is more fun than it sounds! The translations are a touch stodgy, but it's full of love poems and slightly racy student songs. Though I still love Nicola's "Go hon", I did find myself mildly indignant for Ginty this time round: it is possible to be genuinely interested in Dante and Margaret Kennedy both.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

All true, but about the horsiness -- one could add that Nicola doesn't *pretend* to be horsey so as to fit in better with Patrick, and in fact is quite sanguine about taking a bit of teasing over her unhorsiness, probably from years of experience of family ribbing. Whereas Ginty doesn't take teasing well at all, and seems really invested in being seen as a marvellous horsewoman/athlete/actress/etc. depending on context. (It's also notable that in this book, when she's shorn of both her chameleon-contexts -- Patrick and Monica -- she finds that she isn't really interested in doing much of anything at all! It's almost as if all her hobbies are really about other people....)

What Ginty and Patrick have in common in spades, of course, is the thing about "pretending to be someone else" -- perhaps the surest sign that their relationship is a perfectly teenage one, and perfectly doomed :-)

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

I've always thought part of Nicola being attracted to Patrick was because he's in some respects the living embodiement of something she's only come across in books - the whole living history aspect of Mariot Chase (I bet she's more sorry she missed the priest's hole than anything else about the Thuggery business).

And, yes, agreed that Nicola being competent with a brush is exactly in character - this is the woman who won the Tidyness Picture for Third Remove, after all.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

Hah! Say, maybe Nicola really does have more in common with Ann than she'd like to admit -- certainly the tidiness, unimpeachable honesty, competence as a leader/"captain", tendency to get things done without procrastinating or dwelling on them overmuch, and cooperative spirit. None of which could really be applied to Ginty (who is much more like Lawrie). The only thing missing is the overt religiosity -- which, however, in Nicola is expressed more in her reverence for old things, including the trad Mass. [SPOILERISH] The argument they will have about the latter in RAH does sort of suggest that maybe Ann is afraid of feeling the seductive power that Nicola finds in the Mass....

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[schwarmerei1.livejournal.com]

I also think part of Nicola's bond with Patrick is that when he finds out about her love of Nelson and things naval historical he thinks it's something worthy of interest, whereas Nicola's used to having it treated as a bit of joke. It's like she's into fandom and meets her first fellow sci fi nerd.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

Yes! He gets it because he is all into Richard III and all that.

Re: Being submissive to Patrick.

[schwarmerei1.livejournal.com]

While I agree Ann comes in for rather a lot of scorn via Nick/AF, she does also get her moments: she's good as Mary, her bloodthirsty sibling cull during the Bronte discussion, taking charge as a prefect, showing the strength of her convictions to her form when asking to be dropped in the cricket cup.

She's no drip, and I find her wonderfully complex given how small her "pagetime" is, even if she isn't a personal fave of mine.