Swallows and Amazons revisited...
Mar. 30th, 2006 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leafI've been re-reading the 'Swallows and Amazons' books - had forgotten quite how good they are (as is so often the way, the first book is the weakest, though still very good). Ransome is an excellent writer, in a subtle, unflashy way: he is very evocative, but his psychology is good. And Roger, the youngest Swallow, is funny in a very believably small boyish way (I particularly treasured him drawing the battle of Salamis with funnnels on the triremes, because obviously what the navies needed to make things interesting was an engine or too). The real themes of the books, apart from paying tribute to the beauty of (mostly) the Lake District and the joys of boating, are really to do with the interaction between the imagination and reality, and the individual's perception of identity over and above what society as a whole (here the adults) think it ought to be. Interesting for anyone in fandom, actually. The most telling situations in the book are where the two meet: where a mining expedition is interrupted by a catastrophic fell fire, when the Swallows - four brothers and sisters - who spend their holidays playing at going to sea and exploring on the relatively safe contained world of the lake, really are swept out to sea in a serious storm. They master the situation in the end, of course, but not without some frightening events and, in the case of the older brother and sister, guilt at having got into such dificulties in the first place. It's not consequence free wish-fulfilment.
It did throw up some ideas about writing that I hadn't before considered. The first ought to be considered by Mary-Sueish writers of OC fanfic: it's not necessarily a good idea to focalise your story around your most charismatic character. In Ransome the most charismatic figure is of course Nancy Blackett, self-styled Amazon Pirate and Terror of the Seas (christened Ruth, but dropped that name when told that 'pirates were ruthless'), and who only once did the washing up (because the frying pan was needed for panning gold, which was obviously much more exciting than cooking). But we very rarely see things through her eyes: instead, we see mostly from the perspective of the younger Swallow girl, Titty, who is a likeable, imaginative and observant character (the other characters used most for this purpose are John, the oldest Swallow, and Dorothea Callum, the aspirant blood-and-thunder novelist, whose books never seem to get out of the first chapter). The consequence of this is that Nancy is, paradoxically, a more vivid character. If we saw things from her perspective, we could hardly sense how compelling and what a natural leader she is. Now it seems to be very tempting to write from the perspective of your most dramatic character: but unless you do it very subtly indeed, it is difficult to both show why they are cool and keep them likable (after all, normal people don't wander around reflecting on their own brilliance, even in an 'But OMG I'm really vulnerable and likeable underneath' way); the normal result is that your beloved character comes over as a monster of egotism - a bit like Oswald Bastable in the Treasure Seekers, except E Nesbit did that for comic effect. This is why I would be wary of writing MWPP-fic from Sirius' or James' POV - Remus or Peter (though he brings his own problems) would be much less intimidating - which is not to say it should never be attempted, quite the reverse. It is possibly significant that when Ransome does show things from Nancy's POV, it's when she is ill or otherwise has lost control of the situation (quite a rare event for her!)
The other point is more specific, a pro pos of the dowsing scene in Pigeon Post, where Titty discovers that she can dowse, and is freaked (she is not usually given to angst or fear). This would be an excellent model for any writer who wants to have a character angsting about a new special power which other people might think quite cool - Ransome, without ever overdoing it or telling istead of showing, makes us see precisely why Titty is frightened at the world suddenly not behaving as it should:
'At that moment Titty almost stumbled... It couldn't be the stick itself pressing against the soft flesh at the base of her thumbs. She pulled herself together. Silly to be startled like that. And anyhow nothing could have happened...
Titty's eyes were swimming. She saw the ground of the yard at her feet through a mist. Something queer was happening that she could neither hinder nor help. The stick was more than a bit of wood in her hands. It was coming alive. If only she could drop it, be free of it. But there was Nancy's voice, talking, close to her and yet far away [...] there could be doubt no longer. The ends of the stick were lifting. She fought against them, trying as hard as she could to hold them still. But the fork of the stick was dipping, dipping, Nothing could stop it. Her hands turned in spite of her… They were all talking to her at once. The next moment the stick had twisted out of her hands. It lay on the ground, just a forked hazel twig with the green showing through the bark where Nancy had trimmed it. Titty, the dowser, startled more than she could bear, and shaking with sobs, had bolted up into the wood.
[…] She stood still and caught hold of a branch, hardly seeing it. Suddenly she saw it was a hazel branch. She let go of it as if it had burnt her.’
(I've also decided that I ship, in an innocent pre-war sort of way, John/ Nancy; he isn't quite up to her - who is? - but she got the best out of him; there's also quite a lot to suggest that he at least is attracted to her, though he doesn't rationalise it in those terms and it's still on a pre-erotic level. Definitely pre- rather than non, though. At any rate, there's a lot more 'subtext' than Remus/Sirius...) I have difficulty imagining Nancy tying herself down in marriage, though - she might get married, but certainly not in a conventional housewifey relationship.
It did throw up some ideas about writing that I hadn't before considered. The first ought to be considered by Mary-Sueish writers of OC fanfic: it's not necessarily a good idea to focalise your story around your most charismatic character. In Ransome the most charismatic figure is of course Nancy Blackett, self-styled Amazon Pirate and Terror of the Seas (christened Ruth, but dropped that name when told that 'pirates were ruthless'), and who only once did the washing up (because the frying pan was needed for panning gold, which was obviously much more exciting than cooking). But we very rarely see things through her eyes: instead, we see mostly from the perspective of the younger Swallow girl, Titty, who is a likeable, imaginative and observant character (the other characters used most for this purpose are John, the oldest Swallow, and Dorothea Callum, the aspirant blood-and-thunder novelist, whose books never seem to get out of the first chapter). The consequence of this is that Nancy is, paradoxically, a more vivid character. If we saw things from her perspective, we could hardly sense how compelling and what a natural leader she is. Now it seems to be very tempting to write from the perspective of your most dramatic character: but unless you do it very subtly indeed, it is difficult to both show why they are cool and keep them likable (after all, normal people don't wander around reflecting on their own brilliance, even in an 'But OMG I'm really vulnerable and likeable underneath' way); the normal result is that your beloved character comes over as a monster of egotism - a bit like Oswald Bastable in the Treasure Seekers, except E Nesbit did that for comic effect. This is why I would be wary of writing MWPP-fic from Sirius' or James' POV - Remus or Peter (though he brings his own problems) would be much less intimidating - which is not to say it should never be attempted, quite the reverse. It is possibly significant that when Ransome does show things from Nancy's POV, it's when she is ill or otherwise has lost control of the situation (quite a rare event for her!)
The other point is more specific, a pro pos of the dowsing scene in Pigeon Post, where Titty discovers that she can dowse, and is freaked (she is not usually given to angst or fear). This would be an excellent model for any writer who wants to have a character angsting about a new special power which other people might think quite cool - Ransome, without ever overdoing it or telling istead of showing, makes us see precisely why Titty is frightened at the world suddenly not behaving as it should:
'At that moment Titty almost stumbled... It couldn't be the stick itself pressing against the soft flesh at the base of her thumbs. She pulled herself together. Silly to be startled like that. And anyhow nothing could have happened...
Titty's eyes were swimming. She saw the ground of the yard at her feet through a mist. Something queer was happening that she could neither hinder nor help. The stick was more than a bit of wood in her hands. It was coming alive. If only she could drop it, be free of it. But there was Nancy's voice, talking, close to her and yet far away [...] there could be doubt no longer. The ends of the stick were lifting. She fought against them, trying as hard as she could to hold them still. But the fork of the stick was dipping, dipping, Nothing could stop it. Her hands turned in spite of her… They were all talking to her at once. The next moment the stick had twisted out of her hands. It lay on the ground, just a forked hazel twig with the green showing through the bark where Nancy had trimmed it. Titty, the dowser, startled more than she could bear, and shaking with sobs, had bolted up into the wood.
[…] She stood still and caught hold of a branch, hardly seeing it. Suddenly she saw it was a hazel branch. She let go of it as if it had burnt her.’
(I've also decided that I ship, in an innocent pre-war sort of way, John/ Nancy; he isn't quite up to her - who is? - but she got the best out of him; there's also quite a lot to suggest that he at least is attracted to her, though he doesn't rationalise it in those terms and it's still on a pre-erotic level. Definitely pre- rather than non, though. At any rate, there's a lot more 'subtext' than Remus/Sirius...) I have difficulty imagining Nancy tying herself down in marriage, though - she might get married, but certainly not in a conventional housewifey relationship.
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Date: 2006-04-16 08:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-17 10:08 am (UTC)Glad you found the post of interest, anyway!
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Date: 2006-04-17 12:30 pm (UTC)