Posted by Duncan on May 17, 2003 at 12:44:54 from 64.12.96.103 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Re: Regular topics posted by alan truelove on May 16, 2003 at 16:52:19:
Yes, I think the class question is fascinating. AR was very interested in class so I doubt that there was much 'subconscious' in the depictions/representations of class in the books (although I could be wrong about that, it's easy to exercise one's innate understanding of things without stepping outside oneself and being critical, and was probably easier still then - before questions of political correctness made us more self-aware on such matters). Many of AR's characters are probably rather more 'posh' than his own 'circle' to be honest. Although he was public school educated, his was a professional middle-class family (and urban middle class at that). Although the Collingwoods had Lanehead - which is a lovely house in after the fashion of Beckfoot, even if they were not intended to be the same building - I think I'm write in saying they owed that to the patronage of Ruskin rather than to any great personal wealth or private income. I suspect the choice of 'class' for the Swallows was based on a need to have characters placed in the situation they were - and with the means they had to have - but in a realistic and general setting. ie. if characters had relatives who were in their place in life because they worked closely with a revered art critic, or whose family were off doing 'stuff' in Syria, the bizarreness of their situations and origins would have detracted attention from the story. However, as Captain Flint is initially intended to be mysterious, having his true occupation veiled somewhat (so it could, really, have been piracy) is absolutely fine.
In so far as class relations are explored in the Lakes books, we see a harmonious society where class is everywhere but is not imbued with prejudice. Silas is almost like one of the family with the Dixons who, in turn, have an equitable relationship with the Blacketts, etc. We've discussed Cook, before, so I shan't go into it again. The charcoal burners, the woodmen, Mary Swainson, Colonel Jolys, Sammy the Policeman: though some may give themselves airs there is always something to bring them down to earth: they each have a respected place in a rural society that works. That is why, elsewhere I have suggested that AR's lakeland society bears some of the hallmarks of a 'golden age utopia', like Tolkein's Shire and William Morris' Nowhere, despite the realism that underpins all the adventures.
I think a small degree of class struggle emerges in The Big Six - although one shouldn't overstate it. It was Tom who set the Margoletta adrift, and yet it is the Death and Glories who are suspected of setting the other boats adrift, and there is a moment where they resent it. It is interesting that it is the working-class characters who are accused of an injustice, and the others help them expose the reality. Owdon and Strakey are wealthy boys (Owdon - in Coot Club - is described as selling eggs for money, despite getting more pocket money than any of the Coots).
On a related issue, when Jemmerling had offered John money for information about the location of the divers' nest Captain Flint thinks him 'mad'. But when that sum of money becomes considerably larger and Captain Flint sees that there must be a genuine material interest for a private collector in discovering the site, he becomes 'bad'. I know that's skirting away from class again, a little, but the wishes of this clearly well-off collector (and the way in which he makes his money is clearly of importance to his demonisation as well) compared with another golden-age utopian scene where Gaelic-speaking shepherds and chieftains wish to protect rare species (although admittedly largely because the loch is on the laird's land)is another illustration of how AR can at the same time make comments about class, and depict an almost classless idyll. The Hullabaloos is yet another example: they are wealthy, society, jazz-fiends (I said I'd get jazz in here somewhere!) - their class is important, but not because of their material wealth - no doubt Dr. Dudgeon and Mr. Farland are doing quite nicely for themselves, thankyou - but because of the way in which they fail to slot into the society which they visit, placing themselves above the rules, pursuits and concerns of another golden-age utopia.
I've wibbled long enough. I'm not saying that AR's Norfolk and AR's Lakes are not realistic - although I suspect that some of the harmony between different 'orders' of people is a touch idealistic - but rather that those locations appealed to AR because they really were closer to that idyll than other parts of the country.
You could paint that idyll as either conservative (who can forget John Major's old maids on bicycles/cricket matches speech?) or as radical - borrowing from an imagined past to inform the creation of a longed-for future. I would tend to lean towards the latter because of AR's political and literary background (particularly his devotion to William Morris, etc.) but clearly you could make the argument either way.
I think AR has a lot to say about imperialism as well, but I suspect that's for another day!
Duncan