I don't remember the Bronte bits being that long, but I only read PR first a few years ago, when my only knowledge of the family was an ad for the London Review of Books with the acerbic quote "It can't have been easy being the brother of those Bronte sisters, but Branwell does seem to have made more of a hash of it than strictly necessary." So the Bronte content made the book into a quasi-historical novel.
I'd always considered the book to be part of the anti-roleplaying fearmongering that was a response to D&D and roleplaying becoming popular at universities and among disaffected youth, in the early 70s, but having just checked, PR was first published in 1961, and I'm not sure whether roleplaying had been heard of then - my impression from the book was that Patrick was familiar with the idea and the others weren't, which fits with Patrick being a geeky boy at boarding school. On the other hand, they're all at boarding school with no TV and only improving books - inventing characters as entertainment wouldn't be as odd as for similar kids doing the same now.
I see them sitting in a circle each speaking their own roles, with lots of gestures and "so I go over here and I'm hiding behind this snowdrift" etc. Like roleplayers now without anyone wanting to get into endless dice-throwing and point-totting...
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Gondal
Date: 2007-03-28 03:23 pm (UTC)I'd always considered the book to be part of the anti-roleplaying fearmongering that was a response to D&D and roleplaying becoming popular at universities and among disaffected youth, in the early 70s, but having just checked, PR was first published in 1961, and I'm not sure whether roleplaying had been heard of then - my impression from the book was that Patrick was familiar with the idea and the others weren't, which fits with Patrick being a geeky boy at boarding school. On the other hand, they're all at boarding school with no TV and only improving books - inventing characters as entertainment wouldn't be as odd as for similar kids doing the same now.
I see them sitting in a circle each speaking their own roles, with lots of gestures and "so I go over here and I'm hiding behind this snowdrift" etc. Like roleplayers now without anyone wanting to get into endless dice-throwing and point-totting...