Posted by Ed Kiser on February 19, 2005 at 16:14:44 from 205.188.116.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Pull devil, pull baker posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 19, 2005 at 15:02:13:
Andrew -
Thanks! In my offering that tidbit of info, I did not want to claim authorship of it, so, not remembering who originally gave that data to me, the best I could do was say that somebody on the forum provided that answer, but regrettably, I did not record the author. Thanks for clearing up that little mystery. I wanted to give credit where such was due, but not being able, thanks for claiming that credit for yourself as is how it should be.
When we were having that original forum discussion on this topic, some months ago, I could not help but wonder about the skinning of the rabbit in PM, that it seemed to be a situation that could have been described in the "devil/baker" terms, however, the D's were not a part of the culture of the Broads, which apparently is the origin of the questioned expression, so would be "out of character" for them to have used such in their rabbit struggle.
Such distinctions reflect the integrity of the characters, and especially that of the author, who only "knew" his characters that well. Of course, his writing of such expressions meant that it was somewhere in his own personal history, but more importantly, he had to determine if such was in the personal history of his fictional characters.
Such shows the mastery of his craft. It is all a part of the appreciation of All Things Ransome.
Ed Kiser, South Florida