I quite agree about having uncomfortable sensations of 'Marie-ness' as a reader. There are moments when one can positively feel limp strands of hair parting on one's bony forehead.
I suppose one of the things I'm trying to think about is how the School Failure in any school series points up the basic tenets of schoolgirl good behaviour, and the underlying not-quite-ethics of the author - Blyton's Gwen gets nastily punished for not being Darrell Rivers (or Solid Little Sally), hence for not living up to Miss Grayling's idea of 'sound women the world can lean on' etc. Ditto the Chalet's Joan Baker for daring to voice the opinion that dancing is more fun with boys, thereby contravening the code that sex is taboo. So much so that over and over again, people politely fail to notice Joey is pregnant with multiple offspring.
But at Kingscote we don't have to take on the Weltanschauung of any gimlet-eyed, cello-voiced headmistress, as Me Auntie isn't any kind of moral standard, more a sort of arbitrary authority useful for the occasional plot point, but it's assumed (or is it?) that Nicola's moral code is the most valid, certainly most attractive one. But is there any kind of consensus on What Matters?
![[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
no subject
Date: 2005-10-17 07:46 pm (UTC)I suppose one of the things I'm trying to think about is how the School Failure in any school series points up the basic tenets of schoolgirl good behaviour, and the underlying not-quite-ethics of the author - Blyton's Gwen gets nastily punished for not being Darrell Rivers (or Solid Little Sally), hence for not living up to Miss Grayling's idea of 'sound women the world can lean on' etc. Ditto the Chalet's Joan Baker for daring to voice the opinion that dancing is more fun with boys, thereby contravening the code that sex is taboo. So much so that over and over again, people politely fail to notice Joey is pregnant with multiple offspring.
But at Kingscote we don't have to take on the Weltanschauung of any gimlet-eyed, cello-voiced headmistress, as Me Auntie isn't any kind of moral standard, more a sort of arbitrary authority useful for the occasional plot point, but it's assumed (or is it?) that Nicola's moral code is the most valid, certainly most attractive one. But is there any kind of consensus on What Matters?