The updating is slightly odd, as the Marlow's traditional values do work better before the cultural revolutions of the sixties. AF does appear to want to explore social change, though, as she first updates in The Thuggery Affair which has a contemporary setting eg mid-sixties, and I think she wrote a short preface saying how much everything has changed since the forties - men on the moon etc. Once she did it I suppose she thought she had to keep to the updated idea but some things do seem pretty strange - eg Patrick's opinions for a teenage boy in the seventies. Possibly she stopped writing after Run Away Home because she believed she was too much of a reactionary old fogey or just too old to keep up with changes in teenage culture in the 80s (she obviously tried before) - I don't know, but I always wished that there were more books.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-28 02:16 am (UTC)