Posted by Ed Kiser on November 17, 2003 at 21:24:25 from 64.12.96.8 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: "I don't believe you..." posted by Prue Eckett on November 17, 2003 at 19:52:23:
Prue -
You speak of Susan - unable to deligate responsibility - yet she does sometimes share the cooking function with Peggy, with no apparent conflict there. That can be a situation that can become a problem with two people, both trying to be be cook, but here, Peggy seems happy to play a secondary role and just do the cooking chores that Susan assigns to her - and that avoids conflict between these two.
Susan is a very necessary person, as she is the excuse that the natives can use to justify letting these people get out of their sight. This is acknowledged even by those adults not of Susan's own family, as in PP, Mrs Blackett felt it would be OK to camp up at the gold prospecting country if certain conditions were met - and an important one of those conditions was, of course, SUSAN herself.
One thing that has become apparent to me as a result of this study on these personalities, and that is, we KNOW these people. This fact is indeed a great praise for the author, for a writer to present the characters as unique personalities can be quite a task, especially when you consider how many major characters these twelve stories have in them. The concept of projecting one's self into the personality of one character is understandable, as naturally, the author quite naturally understands how HE would respond in certain situations, but to take his own personality, and divvy it up among several characters, now that takes quite a talent. Then to come up with personalities that are NOT that of the author, and therefore are his creations - not easy - yet he seemed to manage. Of course in certain situations, he had real life role models in mind that he could use as a basis for certain characters, but still, his writing has to allow for these characteristic differences. When these characters do something, or say something, we feel that this is a natural consequence of who that person is, and because we KNOW each of these dear friends of ours, we know what the reaction would be, and are gratified to see that indeed the reaction is according to our concept of that character.
It makes us comfortable to be around our long time friends of our childhood, friends that are forever young, eager, and unspoiled, and somehow, draw us once again back into their world. These are our friends, and we know them, we feel we almost understand them, and yes, we love them.
"Are they for real?" Oh, yes, to us, they are indeed quite real. They exist. I know them. They were my friends of my childhood adventures, and they take me with them even now today and keep me young.
For this is the magic of All Things Ransome.
Ed Kiser, South Florida