Marlow Family Values

[tosomja.livejournal.com]

I'm just re-reading Falconer's Lure, and have been thinking more about the values or unspoken rules of the Marlow family and how they permeate all the books - and also how they are sometimes pretty harsh! I was struck by this bit in FL (p 213 in the GGBP edition)
Peter has just won the sailing race.
"'Jolly, jolly good' crowed Nicola, pink with pleasure.
'Nick, you mustn't'
'Oh rubbish, of course I can.  Anyone can see he was jolly good'
'Hush yo' mouth' said Rowan lazily."  etc etc.

It seems to me that Nicola has broken one of the Marlows' dearly held rules/values which could be something like

"When things are done very well, the person shouldn't be praised much (if at all), and pleasure in the acheivement shouldn't be expressed to others"

What do you think, and what do you think are the other Marlow family rules?

Comments

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Not just a Marlow rule - it was very very very bad form to crow publicly over a family success when I was young
For example, a proud mother might say that X or Y had passed an important exam in music, and then allow it to be winkled out of her that it was the LRAM

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Yes, boasting was most Bad Form.

The Marlows seem to follow the Swallows+Amazons family motto of "better drowned than duffers, and if you're not duffers you won't drown" - somewhat literally.