Lawrie Logic

[res23.livejournal.com]

Actually, I understand what she means that she is being rude about Grandmother, not about Mummy's mother!

Are there any other Lawrie-isms that the adults don't understand, but that actually you follow or agree with?  (or at least, understand how a child would?)

Comments

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

When she cries at the hatstand being left all alone in their London house - I used to imagine all sorts of inanimate objects having feelings and being upset at being left on their own.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too! All those toys in the store that nobody bought and how unwanted they must feel and how I should buy them myself or (cough) someone should buy them for me...

[nemosed.livejournal.com]

Me three! And I haven't grown out of it yet...

[biskybat.livejournal.com]

I still have to arrange my bike so it's 'comfortable' at night.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I had a lot of sympathy with Lawrie being treated scornfully by her high-achieving practical family - I remember her saying '"I can't light the gas. It bangs at me." "Oh Lawrie,", said her mother resignedly, as Ann or Nicola or Redmond said in various places, but lit it for her, as her sisters or Redmond did in the other places too.'

I didn't have a problem with gas hobs but the experience of other people being able to do physical stuff that I just couldn't get to work right, and being made to feel more incompetent than I actually am, is very familiar.

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I don't have a problem with bang-y gas either, but am familiar enough with there being things other people seemed (when I was a child) to have been born able to do, but which were difficult or frightening for me, to entirely get Lawrie here. Especially with her fearsomely capable family. I always think in this connection of whichever bit of Cricket Term has Nicola reminiscing about how the elder Marlow siblings used the younger ones for cricket practice - I always imagine fubsy toddlers being made to toddle about after hard balls, and no sympathy for tears...

Though Lawrie is interesting that way - if she's frightened of lighting gas, she still rides well enough to hunt without being particularly scared, even on unfamiliar hired horses, and plays games well, if erratically.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I really can't light gas because it bangs at me. I'm slightly better at it now than I was, but I got through three science GCSEs without ever lighting my own bunsen burner.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Yes it's an interesting example of the way AF avoids stereotypes - Lawrie and Ginty who are the more nervous characters in some respects are the fearless riders whereas Nicola and Peter, who are generally braver and morally courageous, are the nervous riders.

[nemosed.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have this experience too, particularly with respect to things look like they require strength but really need finesse. And if nobody can or bothers to explain to you what to do, it becomes much easier to just stand back and let other people do it. Especially if, as I assume Lawrie does, you can get a lot of mileage out of playing helpless.

[res23.livejournal.com]

And another one (though it's not just Lawrie) is about the 'gremlins' having all sorts of effects on one's life, and how being 'good' in one department might result in something good in some completely unrelated area happening to you.