Re: fraternization


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Posted by RichardG on October 03, 2003 at 16:36:24 from 62.173.81.130 user RichardG.

In Reply to: fraternization posted by Ross Cossar on October 03, 2003 at 14:03:24:

"One thing that is kept from the books is the teen romances".....which is probably why AR kept his stories in a three-year timeframe where it remained possible to keep the protagonists young enough not to engage in such matters. Besides, weren't teenagers an invention of the 1950s ?

Somehow I don't think AR ever felt himself the sort of writer to handle romance novels, even of the tame sort that would have been the norm in his era. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong on this, but did he ever write anything that involved a romance ? I recall an attachment in "The River Comes First", but one between pre-pubescent children that hardly qualifies.

It is entertaining for his readers to wonder what happened to his characters as they grew older, but I have my doubts as to whether AR ever wanted to think of them as anything other than children.

An interesting example of how to turn child characters into young adults is found in the 20 "Lone Pine" books by Malcolm Saville - in the early books in the series the relationship between the boy and girl characters is fairly similar to those in AR, and it is probably not entirely coincidental that they were being written in the 1940s, while AR was still writing himself. By the time Saville finished the series in the 1970s, he had managed to create three couples who had grown naturally together with the series. Now, what would AR have done with his characters if he had decided to allow them to grow up ? Alas, we can only speculate......


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