Let's talk about Tim

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's time to talk about Tim Keith.  Don't think there have been previous threads about her.  

I was recently struck by a bit in the otherwise not especially informative Marlows and their Maker about the creation of Tim.  Apparently AF was writing Autumn Term without her, and her friend (GB Stern) said why shouldn't the twins make use of being the head girls sisters, and how she had always wanted to read a school story with a headmistress's niece who did take full advantage - and hey, presto, the character was born.  AF completely rewrote the book.  And AF commented that she never really felt that Tim was one of "her" characters as a result.

Reading Autumn Term and End of Term, especially as a child, I never liked Tim.  She could be so intensely, bitingly hateful to people (mainly Nicola).   But rereading the early Marlow stories recently as an adult - Falconer's Lure and Marlows and the Traitor - I have been rather off put by the feel of the books, the undiluted establishment-y feel of the naval/gentry Marlows, and I wonder if what I am missing is Tim's presence, which adds that subversive voice?  Without her, Autumn Term would be a very different book, and a lot duller.  Then again, I prefer Cricket Term of the school stories, where Tim has moved somewhat to the sidelines - been tamed, almost.  I'm not sure AF knows quite what to do with her, from that point.  Will she become head girl?  What will happen to her?

Any Tim haters/fans out there?  What do you think?

Comments

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

Not head girl, I'm sure. Certainly not if Miss Keith's still headmistress. Miss Keith goes for steady, reliable, consistent all-round academic types to be head girl. Eg. Val Longstreet & Karen Marlow. Tim doesn't work at subjects she doesn't like, and bumps along towards the bottom of the class and doesn't care. She doesn't have the steadiness, and conscientiousness towards those people she doesn't get on with. And I don't think Miss Keith would appoint her as head unless she was so much the obvious candidate that she couldn't be accused of favouritism.

Miranda will get it. Good public image; father paying for the swimming pool; telling Miss Keith about the Changear drugs suspicion will count perhaps more than it should in Miss Keith's mind; always near the top of the class. Well, Miranda's a political type who will want the job; Tim really would not. Being form prefect to boss around the people she knows is all very well; head girl would involve far too much work.

[(Anonymous)]

>>In what way do you think Lawrie has a less strong personality than Nicola?

For my part, I think that Lawrie in day to day life probably just goes along with what Tim wants to do, because she doesn't much mind. It's only in certain areas, like acting or being scared of things, that she digs her heels in; most of the time, I imagine Tim sets the pace. So if she says "eh, let's skip this and go for a walk," Laurie would probably just go, whereas Nicola would always have some agenda of her own - practising, animals, etc etc.

Promethea