Well, then, what about Peter?

[intrepid--fox.livejournal.com]

Oursin's thoughts about Ann's Marlovian qualities made me think about Peter's. I mean, just how Marlovian is he, when you really think about him? He's scared of heights (can't imagine his naval ancestors gibbering in the rigging, somehow) and this fear, coupled with his pointblank refusal to admit to it, gets him into major strife, like freezing on the cliffs, and feeling pressured into breaking back into the Foley house, all just in case people might suspect something most of them already know anyway.

He's got appalling taste in friends, starting with horrid Hugh and kleptomaniac Dickie as described in Traitor, and extending all the way up to Foley. He and Patrick seem to be friends more through force of circumstance than genuine liking. And you can't help suspecting that his mate Selby at Dartmouth is as dull as ditchwater, can you? Of course, you could argue that poor taste in friends is a trait he shares with Ginty, Karen and possibly Lawrie (Ann doesn't have any friends that we ever see).

Possibly because of all the strongminded siblings he's surrounded by, he's underconfident and has a tendency to be dominated by others (Patrick, Rowan, Giles). And in his turn, he tends to bully other people when he feels he can get away with it, shading into the sadistic when he's acting the part of the chief brigand in Peter's Room.

Although he's good at sailing, there's no particular reason to suspect that he's got anything else which will enable him to make a successful career as a naval officer: he's got no head for navigation, panics under pressure and makes seriously stupid decisions about the best way of handling crises (hmm, we have a large gang of drug-dealing thugs. Tell you what, I'll get a bunch of them to chase me round the countryside brandishing bicycle chains and razors, while you break into their house and my (presumably) virginal and inexperienced young sister is left on her own with a horny and experienced gang-member. What's that? Let the police handle it? Naah.)

Thoughts, anyone?

Comments

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder what Giles was like as a boy - as the eldest (and favourite?) child, he would probably have been rather different from poor Peter, stuck at the tail end with the twins, but perhaps Giles is what happens when Peter comes out the other side of adolescence.

One very Marlovian quality is his refusal to let the fear of heights get in the way of what he thinks he ought to do. He can forget it at times - on the lighthouse tower with Foley, for example, and later in FL in the divin competition. He also, I think, copes rather well in Run Away Home with Giles conked out.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting.

Although popular opinion states that AF was quite conservative and therefore unlikely to be a feminist, I do wonder whether she was making a subtle feminist statement with Peter and Nicola - Nicola being, to all intents and purposes, far better suited to a career in the Navy than Peter, who is nevertheless shunted that way purely because he's a boy. I don't think Nicola ever expresses any feelings of unfairness about this (though I haven't read all the 'holiday' books, so she might), but then she's quite stoic about the whole 'sorry love, we're yanking you out of school cause your twin's too much of a drama queen to cope with the trauma' unfairness in Cricket Term, so she could be suppressing it all...

Not sure I'd agree with Lawrie and Ginty having bad taste in friends, I must say - Ginty has a definite preference for the redoubtable Monica, and only gravitates towards drips when Monica's not around; and I don't think Lawrie's friendship with Tim is a bad choice. But then I suppose you could argue that neither Ginty nor Lawrie are the driving force behind those particular friendships...Can't remember enough about Karen's friendships to comment.

[coughingbear]

He's good at socialising with strangers.
He's good at getting other people to do all the work.

Otherwise, I tend to agree that Nicola (absent seasickness) is clearly more Captain material than Peter (and Rowan, inspiring as she does thoughts of the long line of Marlows with their happy happy ships). Though I don't really blame him for Thuggery Affair & not calling in the police soon enough; isn't something set up to make that difficult? (and the story requires it). Not sure if Nick would have called in the police either; she isn't always that likely to confide in the authorities.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

my (presumably) virginal and inexperienced young sister is left on her own with a horny and experienced gang-member.

I think he's assuming that the Thuggery don't look on Lawrie as female (see the passage early on in which Jukie non-verbally dismisses from consideration, from her pov): he's not to know that she's got herself up like a swinging chick, or that the Thuggery member designated to keep an eye on her is Mr Lech.

I can see that he might be happier not feeling that he had to go into the Navy - when prestonuk did her ODNB entry for Nicola as First Sea Lady, I wanted to have a coda mentioning Peter as a celebrated wildlife photographer. And Selby always sounds to me like one of those quietly quirky types.