points of view

[emylno.livejournal.com]

Hello there! I'm still working my way through the marlow books, but one thing that I really like so far are the bits when the narrative switches from Nicola's point of view to one of the others in the family.

I find it fascinating to see the family ins-and-outs from the different perspectives, it seems to become so much more three-dimensional, and I only wish Antonia Forest did it more. I like Nick a lot, but I sometimes find her limiting, and often wish I knew the true dynamics and what was really going on at the 'top' of the family, between the boys, and between the 'middles' like Ginty and Ann.

Obviously I still have some reading to do, but I think so far (in the first 4 books) I've come across the p.o.v's of nicola (obviously) and Lawrie, Peter, Ginty, and a bit of Patrick and a Teensy bit of Karen, but still no Giles, Rowan, or Ann. So I'm just curious as to whether we ever get to see through their eyes too?
(I don't mind spoilers a bit, so no worries about that!)

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

There's a few snippets of Ann's POV - there's one at the beginning of End Of Term when she is conscious that she's fussed rather by keeping everyone on the station platform rather than letting them run off into Colebridge, and another one in Attic Term where she thinks - quite perspicaciously, I think - that whilst Ginty and Lawrie both mind things more than other people, Lawrie tends to loudly despond and then get over it whereas Gin burns up inside.

Till you mentioned it, I hadn't thought of the lack of Rowan POV - I wonder whether she comes over as so omnicompetent partly because we can't see inside her head?

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

There's a fair bit of Giles in "Run Away Home" - which is the only other book, apart from Autumn Term, that he actually appears in. You hear plenty about him, but he isn't actually there, in the other books.

[emylno.livejournal.com]

"""Till you mentioned it, I hadn't thought of the lack of Rowan POV - I wonder whether she comes over as so omnicompetent partly because we can't see inside her head?"""

That's a good point. It seems to me that as far as what you see on the outside goes, Rowan and Nick are pretty similar. Both seem proud, driven, embarrassed by excessive emotion, and they never get into a flap like the others do. They were also the only two who initially minded the move to Trennels. Perhaps that's why we get the 'inner' view of Nicola and the 'outer' view of Rowan, because they share the same insecurities, and it wouldn't do to go over the same ground twice?

I often think Rowan, along with Ann, pulled the short straw in the family being neither the youngest or eldest single boy or girl, or one of twins.
Being at the older end of my family though, I'm naturally interested in the older ones and want to hear more about them, rebelling a bit against Forest's choice of main characters!!

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

A bit off-topic, sorry, but I think having two of her most sympathetic characters mind the move to Trennels is one of the things that shows AF for the nuanced writer she is - in a lesser writer's hands, it could so easily have been 'child's moral shortcomings are pointed up by her not liking the wholesome country, but she comes to change her mind / bravely takes on the farm and becomes a better person'.

It's an example of how AF never - or very seldom - lectures or lets her characters just become mouthpieces for her own views. Though I do think she was probably behind Patrick all the way on the Vatican II changes.

Again, sorry to hijack your thread!

I agree about Nicola's and Rowan's similarities. I wonder whether there are parallels between Nicola growing up with the less competent Lawrie and Rowan growing up with the less competent Karen?

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of Nicola/Lawrie's relationship as pretty much the same as Rowan/Karen's only with the twinnishness which seems to give Nicola more of a sense of having to accept Lawrie relatively uncritically. I can't quite imagine Nick reacting like Rowan did with Karen when she announced her engagement. Or at least she'd make a bit more effort to make up. Or be her bridesmaid. Or something.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

they never get into a flap like the others do.

Which is why when Rowan actually does lose it (in RAH) it's such a shocking and emotional scene.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I've come across the p.o.v's of nicola (obviously) and Lawrie, Peter, Ginty, and a bit of Patrick and a Teensy bit of Karen, but still no Giles, Rowan, or Ann. So I'm just curious as to whether we ever get to see through their eyes too?

I've just reread the preface to the GGB edition of FL and was fascinated to find that AF created a large family with the idea that she might write a series that based each book on a different POV.

[emylno.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting idea, I wonder why she changed her mind?

[richenda.livejournal.com]

She says that the theme for Traitor arose out of reading about Nuremburg, and she thought that she might as well use the younger Marlows.
Ditto for F L. She wanted to write a pony book, publishers said "another animal". She thought about the Marlows and falconry on the Heath, decided that wouldnt do, and moved them to Trennels.
Peter's Room came from getting intersted in the Brontes and then seeing an outbuilding that a boy had taken over.
So the pov idea dropped early.
Oh and I was fascinated that the Thuggery language isnt meant to be any particular dated slang but a specifically made up language. I suppose that eggery peggery must have been invented in the same way.

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

Anthony Buckeridge did much the same with Jennings. He tried to make it up, to avoid dating it to a particular time. (It doesn't work for me, "Fossilised Fishhooks" sounds totally 1950's even if it shouldn't do. And The Thuggery always come across to me as early 1970's, which is odd since the book was published in 1965, but maybe it's because I was too young to take much notice in the 60's.)

[richenda.livejournal.com]

"Fossilised Fishhooks" sounds totally 1950's even if it shouldn't do. And The Thuggery always come across to me as early 1970's, which is odd since the book was published in 1965, but maybe it's because I was too young to take much notice in the 60's.)

It seems late 50s and early 60s to me - just about the time that the cinema stopped being family entertainment because television was taking over.
As for invented languages - havent the ypung always done that? i was just interested that she wasn't trying to reproduce anything but making it up.