Posted by Robert Dilley on April 15, 2004 at 18:41:53 from 65.39.13.79 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: Moving Missee Lee - In support of accepted chronology. posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on April 15, 2004 at 14:32:44:
A case can be made (after all, I'm making it) that the omission of the Ds was a deliberate act by AR for plot purposes. He wanted the juxtaposition of a classically-educated female pirate with the practical-minded Swallows and the learning-resistant Amazons. The Ds would have spoiled this contrast. Although Dick is "The Scientist" with a contempt for literature-as-literature (witness his impatience with the flowery bits in his astronomy book) the logical structure of Latin would probably have appealed to him. I don't know if girls were taught Latin in Dorothea's day but her addiction to books would probably have made her enthusiastic to get to grips with the Aeneid. All the humour of the general struggle with Missee Lee's teaching, and the unexpected emergence of Roger as teacher's pet, would have been lost.
As always, we don't know what went on in AR's creative mind -- but isn't it fun to speculate?