Lawrie's beliefs
Aug. 1st, 2007 01:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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In ‘End of Term’, we are shown that Lawrie assumes that nobody today could actually believe in the Bible any more than Greek mythology. On the other hand she makes bargains with her own imaginary controller of fate. Surely the sort of person who not only doesn’t believe, but can’t actually believe anyone else could either would be totally rational in all other respects and immune to superstition or supernatural belief of any kind. I picture an infant Richard Dawkins. Has anyone ever come across someone who combines Lawrie’s instinctive disbelief in the religion she’s been brought up in with her own equally irrational view of the universe?
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:26 pm (UTC)Other than that, AF's believing Anglicans do seem to be the very minor characters - the Jean Bakers and Jess Geddesses - and Jess may well be Church of Scotland or some other variety of Presbyterian, in any case.
As far as Lawrie goes, I think her not finding it credible that anyone else can have faith is all of a piece with her not believing that anyone else has feelings, which is also mentioned in End Of Term. It's not a matter of rational or irrational, so much as the only division Lawrie really respects being the one between Lawrence S. Marlow and the vague shambling shapes that make up the rest of the universe, who only really come into focus when defined by being fair or unfair to Lawrie.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:28 pm (UTC)Lawrie's superstition I find entirely believable - who has never, ever thought "If I do this, the universe owes me that". It's the entire basis behind Father Christmas bringing presents to "good" children!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:34 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if anyone else has read Katherine L. Oldmeadow's Princess Charming, but one of the younger girls in that, colluded with by the old family servant (yes, it is that kind of book) has a somewhat similar belief in Them, who I think are supposed to be the faeries - though in her case it's more propitiatory than 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. I always vaguely imagined as a child that Lawrie had read it too and picked it up from there, giving it her own self-centred slant in the process.
Princess Charming
Date: 2007-08-01 07:56 pm (UTC)Re: Princess Charming
Date: 2007-08-01 08:04 pm (UTC)It's quite easy to get the Childrens Press edition, but I've never seen so much as a sniff of an earlier printing - which is sad, as I strongly suspect the Childrens Press one was abridged.
Re: Princess Charming
Date: 2007-08-02 11:09 am (UTC)Re: Princess Charming
Date: 2007-08-02 11:13 am (UTC)Re: Princess Charming
Date: 2007-08-03 06:26 am (UTC)Re: Princess Charming
Date: 2007-08-12 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:17 pm (UTC)I am a certified atheist, but I routinely pray to TPTB to, e.g., send me a prompt subway train when I'm running late, or similar trivial things of that kind. Everyone bargains with the universe in some form or another, I think.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 11:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 01:40 am (UTC)So, yes, on the whole Lawrie's attitude toward religion and superstition make perfect sense to me.